The Boomer Dilemma: Commentary, followed by Show-and-Tell

I've had numerous conversations with fellow Boomer-aged friends and acquaintances on blogging and "social media" over the past few months. The outcomes fall into two camps: "I want to know more, but I don't have time," and "that stuff'll never last - it's just a fad." The fascinating thing about the second response is how vehemently it's uttered. There's real anger seething behind the words.

I think it comes from we were treated to information in the sixties. It was a time when the walls of patriarchy were being scaled, but not torn down. There was always the "need to know" inherent in any conversation that involved a power structure, and this continues today. The result: so many of us "middle-aged" people are struggling with these newly-opened channels of communication. We self-censor, because we don't want to get called-out for "spilling the beans."

Take a look at Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for a clue as to how many of us were brought up:

You remember that U.S. National Space dignitary Heywood Floyd is the sole passenger on a very expensive space flight to the moon.


Floyd changes ships at the revolving multi-national space station.



During the brief layover, Floyd runs into a fellow scientist from Russia, and is introduced to her colleagues.


One of the Russian scientists questions Floyd about some strange things going on at Clavius base - a possible epidemic of some kind, necessitating a quarantine.


Floyd uneasily states that he's unable to discuss the matter and hops the next craft to the moon.


...where he briefs fellow US moonbase staff about the need for "absolute secrecy" on the matter...



...warning that the world would experience "widespread shock and social disorientation" if the matter at hand were communicated without proper preparation.*

What's the big deal? Just a 4-million year old monolith, buried beneath the lunar surface. The US finds it and keeps it a secret, preferring not to tell anyone that there's evidence of vast intelligences far beyond the earth.

The secrecy drives HAL crazy, he murders the crew of Discovery except for Dave, who then gives HAL a lobotomy.


Many of us who remember the sixties weren't a part of the counterculture. We were brought up to play our cards close to the chest, to keep secret information for secret's sake, and now we're not used to being so open. We might even be afraid of calling HAL's fate upon ourselves.
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*Floyd even requests that the council members he's briefing sign non-disclosure statements.