It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty. So read the cover of 37-year-old Judith Viorst's 1968 poetry volume--and, in fact, the phrase "never trust anyone over thirty" was coined by a Berkeley postgraduate, Jack Weinberg, himself approaching that age at a time when the Silent came to notice, envy, emulate, and occasionally steer the passions of coming-of-age Boomers. While still craving respect from Greatest elders for their manliness and seriousness of purpose, the Silent were eager to convince Boomers that they understood them, were with them, and could help them channel their anger.42
Stokely Carmichael and the memory of the assassinated Malcolm X radicalized the black Silent message to suit young Boomers with more of an instinct for violence. From the lyrics of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon to the psychedelic art of Peter Max and the Motown sound of Berry Gordy, Silent performers and artists gave expression to youth. A young attorney, Sam Yasgur, first coaxed his dad to allow use of his pasture and then handled the details of what Sam expected would be a mannerly festival at Woodstock.
As last-wavers such as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin became the pied pipers of revolt ("We knew we couldn't get Archie Bunker, so we went for Archie Bunker's kids," Hoffman said later), first-wavers began lamenting their own missed opportunities in youth, rethinking their capitulation to Greatest culture, and becoming the prototype of what Greatest Spiro Agnew derided as "vicars of vacillation" and "nattering nabobs of negativism."43
Over a two-month span in 1968, the Silent grieved over the killings of two men whom many Silent today still consider their most gifted leaders--Robert Kennedy (then 43) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (39). A year later, the other Silent heir to the Kennedy mystique fell prey to a deadly extramarital entanglement on Chappaquiddick Island--a symptom of his peers' turbulent passage to midlife.
Having trouble meeting the power standard of next-elders or the ethical standard of next-juniors, Silent men built a composite definition of masculinity. Self-styled "liberated" males put their families at risk by pursuing what John Updike called the "Post-Pill Paradise" and by succumbing to what Barbara Gordon called "Jennifer Fever" (a fascination for free-spirited younger women). Midlife impresarios flaunted Boom erotica in Playboy clubs, R-rated movies, and O Calcutta stage productions.44
At one end of the Silent male spectrum lay those who combined the softer features of their generational neighbors: a confident and gentle Merlin Olsen offering floral bouquets, or a rational and sensitive Carl Sagan trying to communicate with extraterrestrials. At the other end lay the reverse mix: Chuck Norris or Clint Eastwood combining Greatest machismo with "Make my day" Boom judgmentalism. Staring at the two ends from a muddled in-between sat the Woody Allens, torn between the available choices--like one of Gail Sheehy's peers who wished "somebody would let me be what I am, tender sometimes, and a dependent, too, but also vain and greedy and jealous and competitive." Others became outspoken, out-of-the-closet gays (Harvey Milk, Barney Frank), even transvestites (Christine Jorgensen, Renée Richards).45
A female generation nearly all of whom had married young now insisted on being called Gloria Steinem's status-cloaking "Ms.," as their vanguard attacked "man the oppressor" (Kate Millett) for being a "natural predator" (Susan Brownmiller) driven by "metaphysical cannibalism" (Ti-Grace Atkinson).46
Fortyish women and men asked what Eisler termed "the question that signals the end of every marriage: 'Is this all there is?'" While all generations joined the divorce epidemic, the Silent were by far the most likely to have children in the household--leaving them with the greatest residue of guilt. The late--Twentieth Century "sexual revolution" and "divorce epidemic" have affected the Silent more than any other generation. From the 1950s to the 1970s, they reported a larger age-bracket increase in their frequency of sexual intercourse than any other generation. Similarly, Silent men and women born between the mid-1930s and early 1940s showed the biggest age-bracket jump in the divorce rate. From 1969 through 1975, as the Silent surged into state legislatures, the number of states with "no fault" divorce laws jumped from zero to forty-five.47
This page was last modified on 07/20/2025 06:20:46