I don’t think it’s that we actively chose not to do anything about the problems of the world — a lot of us were just as idealistic in our youth as the Boomers were and the Millenials and Gen Z are (remember “We Are the World?” “United Colors of Benetton?”) But we (many of us, anyway) were cynical enough to see that idealism was becoming just another commodity, something else for Madison Ave. to sell us.

Plus we were never given the keys to the car, so to speak. Always told we had to wait until we were older and had paid our dues. Then once were were actually older, and had paid our dues, suddenly the rules changed. Now the world wanted young, fresh faces. We went from being too young to too old seemingly overnight.