The topic of this fireside chat with Ranger are the baby boomers. The boomer demographic wowed the world with its revolutionary rebellions and wild philosophies. Everything the “me” generation did was front and centre; art, style, ideas, and thoughts were breathlessly reported, studied, and adopted. Even though the boomer demographic thoroughly believed that they were the hope of all mankind, hind site has shown us that they were the “patient zero” in the philosophical pandemic currently poisoning mankind. Unaware of the mental contagion they carried, the boomers sought to transform the world into a place of peace and love, instead they laid the groundwork for the destruction of civilization. While some seek to simply heap blame on the boomers, Ranger comes at it with the aim of understanding what formed such a naive and dangerous subculture. To round out this talk, Ranger then takes a swing at the lie of the inherent goodness of “peoplekind,” and offers some practical tips to increase your powers of independent thinking.

Highlights:

The veneration of the normal man

• The generation that went boom, the narcissistic willful ignorance of the "me" generation
• The faults and mistakes made by the parents of the boomer generation
• The inherent weakness of growing up in a time of “plenty”
• When you surf the top of a demographic wave, all else is in shadow
• The emergence of the “teenager”
• The importance of the ability to “prove yourself”
• The haunted house of higher education
• The carnage that is built into the philosophy of fundamentally “changing” a society
• The effects of growing up in a world shadowed by imminent nuclear destruction

• The lie of the day: “people, at heart, are fundamentally good.”
• People are good when times are good-a full belly breeds benevolence
• People are good to avoid judgment/punishment
• People are good to gain social status-or at least to avoid social distancing
• People are at their best when they are aware of their own tendencies toward evil but strive toward a transcended goodness
• In order to aim at a transcended goodness, people must look beyond their own selfish heart and mind.

• A few exercises to gain personal agency and independent thinking.