Another snow-blowing night. Again we had that particular quality of snow, not wet but prone to sit in a lump in the chute anyway, rather than blowing out as it ought. It’s a heavy snow, leaden in quality. Or else something’s wrong with my snow blower. But it works fine when the chute’s clear, which lasts for the time it takes to clear the distance of about a foot, before I have to stop and clear it out again. With a stick. This is the first point in the Snow Blower’s Catechism—Thou Shalt Not Clear a Jam With Thy Hand. That way amputation lies.

We don’t actually have all that much snow yet, and there’s more scheduled for tonight and tomorrow. But I have a matter of family business to attend to tomorrow, and I’m not sure how long that’ll take. Which also means there may or may not be a blog post from me tomorrow.

Ori Pomerantz directed me to this excellent essay, Slouching Toward Geezerhood, from Bruce Thornton at RightNetwork. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the blunt truths of the universal tragedy that is the Baby Boomer Generation better expressed.

The most obvious feature of the Boomers is their refusal to grow up. The ever-extending length of adolescence, a confection of modernity, partly accounts for this. Post-war affluence made it affordable to prolong further this historically novel time of life between childhood and adulthood. Consumerism took advantage of the new market and the greater surplus wealth to elevate in social importance the whims and desires of a group flush with disposable income. The result was the most pampered, obsessed over, and indulged generation in American history. Why wouldn’t they want to prolong this privileged position as long as possible?

There’s much more, but I particularly like that thought. I’ve believed for some time that the whole phenomenon of the Teenager was a cosmically successful marketing ploy, designed to squeeze mountains of cash out of kids with unprecedented amounts the stuff to spend. Catch ’em while they still have no impulse control, and they’re yours forever. And if the moral fiber of the nation is goes from six-ply to two-ply, hey, that’s business.

A startlingly anti-capitalist sentiment from a conservative, I know. But capitalism isn’t a pure good any more than government is. Balance is the key, and has been part of the American genius… up till now.

Read it all.

It will not cheer you up.