Why Do We Baby Boomers Possess Common Sense?

Folks, I don’t know about you, but I’m appalled at how dumb our society is today! Hey, it’s not because there aren’t a lot of smart people out there because there are and many are even brilliant–I term “book smart”! However, the Baby Boomer sees in the younger generations a vast majority lack just plain ol’ common sense! This then leads me to ask why do we Baby Boomers possess common sense?

Success has many meanings and every person defines success differently. Yes, to enjoy success I’ve always looked for these four traits in people: 1) dependability, 2) hard working with a tremendous work ethic, 3) being more selfless than selfish, and 4) being honest maintaining one’s integrity and remaining loyal. Not too many of us possess these traits, but if you’re able to find those that do, you can train and develop them to be successful. Sure, having some intelligence is important, but intelligence without common sense creates stupidity. I’ve known many extremely intelligent people who are extremely overeducated “who can’t see the forest for the trees” possessing zero common sense and just being plain stupid. I don’t necessarily believe in luck although I do believe in being lucky.

However, the glue which truly creates success, or a lack of success, is “timing”! In my 72 years here on Earth, I’ve learned being in the right place at the right time and being in the wrong place at the wrong time are paramount in helping to control one’s destiny. That’s why having good common sense is so important to everything in our lives.

We Baby Boomers are very fortunate to have come into existence when we did. The 1950’s was a relative quiet and peaceful time in America where the institution of family was strong. Family was everything and as a child you really depended on your parents for so much in your formative years. Not only did they nurture you, but they provided you with structure, standards, and held you accountable. They helped us to develop common sense by teaching us the difference between right and wrong, what was acceptable vs not acceptable, and that for every decision there was a consequence. We Baby Boomers conformed and our American Society was sound as we were comfortable and safe.

We’ve been so fortunate to have grown up during a time where we’ve witnessed so many things and advancements firsthand. We were raised by the Greatest Generation who not only survived the Great Depression and World War II, but created the postwar economic boom known as the Golden Age of Capitalism for which we were all beneficiaries. As quiet as the 1950’s were, the 1960’s became quite rebellious with the civil rights movement aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation and discrimination in America along with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert F. Kennedy, and, of course, the Vietnam War–although we did land on the moon.

The 1970’s, if you recall, was the decade of Watergate and political upheaval, soaring inflation, the energy crisis, the rise of disco, and many technological advances as computers came to the forefront.

In the 1980’s, we experienced a decade of conservatism, materialism, and consumerism. Being a “yuppie” became a “thing”, women’s rights and growth of women in the workplace, the first signs that the institution of family was beginning to fail, and, of course, more technological advancements. This was the decade the Baby Boomer started to see a lot more stupidity as parents began not to “parent” as they had done “back in the day” and kids got away with almost anything becoming much more independent, rebellious, and not conforming causing them to have far less common sense as rules, structure, and standards went by the wayside.

I’m not going to continue to bore you with a simple synopsis decade by decade, but just sayin’, what occurred in the 1980’s has continued through 2025 and really decimated our American society, as I knew it “back in the day”, especially during the coronavirus pandemic which began in 2020. That’s the reason our entire family decided to escape society, live together, and move to The Compound!

With the demise of the institution of family, the continued advancements of technology including AI, and everyone seemingly only caring about “me” and not “we”, the Baby Boomer has never seen so much anger and hatred amongst the citizenry where we’re not only lazy and dumber, but almost no one has any common sense today.

The Baby Boomer Generation had to be creative to stave off boredom. We studied reading, writing, arithmetic, and history and had to learn how to think and analyze. If we wanted something materialistic, like a bike, it wasn’t just given to us, we had to earn it. We were locked into our social network where we learned the social graces and how to be polite and courteous, treat people the way you wanted to be treated with respect, and looking people in the eye when in conversation. Our generation went to the playground almost daily walking through neighborhoods that were open and friendly where you felt comfortable and safe.

Folks, I’m done–very well done! So, rather than go on, and on, and on, I will close by saying I’m so grateful to be a Baby Boomer, feeling fortunate growing up in the era when I did, and not only possessing some smarts, but a whole bunch of common sense!!