Boomerism and Bulverism

how to prove your generation is better than others

At the ski slopes with my daughter the other day, in the year of our Lord 2023, I was shocked to see a special package deal for “boomers” which was available to folks 50 years of age. Being 50 myself, and having been born to genuine boomers, and being in possession of basic math skills, I was reminded that most generational jargon in pop usage is essentially nonsense.

The only source of wisdom which carries any weight re: the generations is the Word of God. So, let’s do a survey.

Most important text for a Christian is Ecclesiastes 7:

Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions.

This wisdom was true in the old testament, when GDP was flat; and it’s only gotten more pronounced and remarkable in our age, since the great enrichment. (Here’s a briefing).

I’d say Ecclesiastes pretty much rules out age-vanity on the part of old folks. What about whippersnappers? Let’s not leave them out. Here’s a key text:

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

If the best man on earth at the time, Elijah, considered himself of no greater worth than his Fathers, it’s safe to say that young folks should not take any pride in their youth.

Of course, this is all wisdom, which both raises up, and flattens. Is there any advantage to age? Much, as it turns out.

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.

Who were the first to be humble? The eldest. Why? Because being old gives you more opportunities to experience what an arrogant ass you are. It provides a greater sample set. For more proof, see 1st Kings chapter 12, where the young royal advisors tell the king to go treat their brothers like dirt and lord it over them, while the older ones tell him to go easy and remember that they're brothers. The king, being young, chose to go with… you guessed it… the advice of the young and arrogant.

So, age isn’t the thing. Humility is. It just happens to roughly correlate with age. Just remember: correlation implies causation, but doesn’t prove it.

In a famous essay, C.S. Lewis lamented the prevalence of cheap thinking.

…you must show that a man is wrong before you start explaining why he is wrong. The modern method is to assume without discussion that he is wrong and then distract his attention from this (the only real issue) by busily explaining how he became to be so silly. In the course of the last fifteen years I have found this vice so common that I have had to invent a name for it. I call it “Bulverism.” Some day I am going the write the biography of its imaginary inventor, Ezekiel Bulver, whose destiny was determined at the age of five when he heard his mother say to his father – who had been maintaining that two sides of a triangle were together greater than the third – “Oh, you say that because you are a man.” “At that moment,” E. Bulver assures us, “there flashed across my opening mind the great truth that refutation is no necessary part of argument. Assume your opponent is wrong, and then explain his error, and the world will be at your feet. Attempt to prove that he is wrong or (worse still) try to find out whether he is wrong or right, and the national dynamism of our age will thrust you to the wall.” That is how Bulver became one of the makers of the Twentieth Century.

Much of what passes for generational pride and jostling amounts to Bulverism. If oldsters want to run down the young, just complain about their statism… ignoring the fact that they inherited it all from the old, who literally invented welfare. If the young want to run down the old, just complain about their sense of entitlement… ignoring the fact that they are literally standing upon the wealth created by the old.

A beautiful young person wrote a famous lyric… When you are young, they assume you know nothing. It’s a line which could have been written by Ezekiel Bulver, or Methuselah. Just switch the words “old” and “young”.

If I’ve destroyed your hope of feeling superior to some other generation, lament not. There remains a way to actually prove that your generation is greater than another. Do what the bible commands. Honor your mother and father; this gives you a longer life. After you get the reward of longer life, you’re now old. Being old is roughly causative proof that you’re better than the young. Because… when you were young, you did what the bible said.

If it seems circular, that’s because it is.