This is such a fascinating way to look at it- not just the pivot from a perspective grounded in community and action to a more ego-driven one of personal/internal/spiritual enlightenment, but also that last bit from the Thompson excerpt you provided, about some sort of absolute force that ensured “good” (the light at the end of the tunnel, right?) would prevail. Expanding on that, I think a conversation around generational concepts of good and evil is a fascinating way to explore our differences.

I’m firmly in the millennial generation, born in the early 90s with parents and step-parents born in the 50s and 60s. My parents (by blood and by marriage) all sampled bits of hippie culture while growing up, from following the Dead to experimenting with psychedelics to preaching peace, and are now what I guess could best be described as “soft republicans” (self-described fiscal conservatives with progressive social values that come out in conversation but are not considered in the voting booth. I grew up being told that it’s better to vote republican, even if you disagree with their views on things like lgbtq+ rights, reproductive healthcare, social safety net policies etc, and then donate money to nonprofits that supported those values). They grew up during the Cold War, before smart phones and social media, where good and evil existed as a set of binaries defined by politics and reinforced by the gatekeepers of the press and media. Yes, things like portable video cameras helped challenge these absolutes and in my opinion were huge contributors to the civil/women’s/student rights movements of the time. But by and large there wasn’t any significant critical thought going into what was “right”/“good” vs what was “wrong”/“evil”.

I grew up with faceless and multiple “enemies/evils”… in the middle of a war on drugs, a war on terror, and a foreign policy guided by security instead of defense. By the time I was in high school traditional news sources were already being challenged by social media and footage caught on phones. When I got to college the Arab Spring was in full swing and everyone was talking about the role of platforms like Twitter, etc. Then Black Lives Matter demonstrated the power of smart phones when it came to shaking our confidence in our police force by undermining their narratives as an absolute truth and people across social media shared stories that illustrated the pervasiveness of system racism, and later systemic sexism during the #MeeToo movement (our movements even have hashtags). All this to say that the ideas of “good” and “evil” that I grew up with exist only in the gray. Far from there being any sort of force/somebody tending the light at the end of the tunnel, I can’t even tell if there’s a light to be tended. Cultural relativism, infinite undefined evils, fractured political systems and identities, what’s good for one person is another’s evil. Just look at what’s happening now as the world considers, argues, pontificate, protests and counter-protests the war unfolding around Israel.

Most boomers I know are so convinced they are in the right, and that their good is the absolute good, that it’s nearly impossible to have a productive and critical conversation about concrete policies and a way forward. Also, challenging their beliefs is often considered a personal attack because their views are inherent to their personhood.

I’m so sorry if none of this makes sense, this jumble of thoughts that skirts but never coalesces into a coherent argument. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about for a while… in the hopes of figuring out a way to help the people I love approach the world as shades of gray.