J. Pharoah Doss: The inglorious bastard boom on campus

The baby boom was between World War II and the 1960s. When baby boomers reached adulthood, their elders criticized them for being self-centered and materialistic. The boomers were dubbed the “me-generation.”& Millennials were the grandchildren of the “me-generation,” but the Millennials, who became social elites, birthed the me-me-me generation. The me-me-me generation was not just another surge in birth rates; it was an inverted bastard boom. In Shakespearean times, the bastard child could not inherit. The original goal of higher education was to pass on a cultural inheritance to the next generation, but the me-me-me generation has rejected their inheritance as a rite of passage. For example, student activists at Columbia University in New York violated school policy by establishing a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Hundreds of student activists pitched tents in the middle of the campus. They gathered to criticize the Israeli government for perpetrating genocide against Palestinians in the current Hamas-Israel war. They also demand that Columbia University withdraw its investments in firms that profit from Israel’s military activity in Gaza. These student activists copied a group of Columbia students who protested apartheid in the 1980s, leading to the university’s divestment from South Africa. The present divestment demand is...