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Demographers somewhat inelegantly refer to the Baby Boom generation as "the pig in the python," a moving bulge that distorts and distends everything around it as it rumbles through the stages of life. Locked together in a crowded race, many Boomers have learned to use their elbows. The most outspoken members retain a kind of generational arrogance epitomized by Stockman's egregious assertion in his newly published memoirs (The Triumph of Politics; Harper & Row) that the so-called Reagan Revolution was in fact not Reagan's: "It was mine."
But the Baby Boomers' great expectations have been diminished by a series of rude social and economic shocks, from the Viet Nam War to double-digit inflation. Although the sheer size of the generation provided a sense of solidarity and power, it ultimately proved to be the Baby Boomers' bane. There were simply too many of them to maintain in the style to which millions became accustomed as affluent children of the '50s and '60s. Egalitarianism might have been the avowed ethic of their youth, but competition was, and still is, the harsh reality. Many bravely refuse to admit it, yet the fact is that many Baby Boomers do not live as well as their parents, and may never.
The generation idealized by Madison Avenue for its superior muscle tone and free-spending habits is ruefully discovering that, contrary to the promise of the ads, it cannot have it all. Not only that, long absorbed in themselves, the Baby Boomers are a generation that has avoided or postponed commitment to others. Many have little loyalty to their employers and less to political leaders or ideas. Partly because of the economic squeeze, they get married later and have children later. They also divorce more than their parents. Quite a few, it seems, are destined for an awfully lonely old age.
As they moodily listen to golden oldies, the members of the Big Chill generation sometimes seem to prefer looking back to looking forward. They often long for a simpler and dreamier time of dates at the drive-in, before real life intruded on their teenage idylls. Yet, as demonstrated in a poll for TIME by Yankelovich, Clancy, Shulman, Baby Boomers have not lost the American birthright of optimism about the future. While they may not live quite as well as their parents, a surprising number think they do, and most feel they have more freedom to choose their own life-styles. In the mid-1980s, as interest rates drop back down to single digits and the work force expands to accommodate their vast numbers, the Boomers may in fact have renewed reason to hope.