The Great Hoisting

For years I’ve whistled by and haven’t stopped to consider the phrase “hoisted by one's own petard.” I knew it was from Shakespeare, Hamlet I thought. I somehow made the assumption that it was a bit naughty in origin, and maybe I didn’t want a complete examination. Then, for some reason, I got to thinking about the Baby Boomers. That led me finally to learn the meaning of the phrase, for I think it describes their current predicament.

Oh, and the meaning: The petard, it seems, has long since fallen out of use, but was a small engine of war used to blow breaches in gates or walls. They were originally metallic and bell-shaped but later cubical wooden boxes. They were full of gunpowder, i.e. bombs.

The phrase means to be blown up with your own bomb. How does it apply to a population cohort?

The Baby Boomers have always been a little quixotic. Statistically, they, as measurable cohort, supported the Vietnam War. Statistically, as a measurable cohort, they did not support participating in the Vietnam War. They are, somewhat unduly, credited with stopping the war. Actually, the Viet Cong and NVA had something to do with it. Trust me. In fact, the opinion of a whole slew of Baby Boomers concerning war seems to have solidified in favor of the darned things since Jan. 27, 1973.

Fast forward to the present. The cohort appears to have taken a hard course toward conservatism. Republicans they are to a large degree, as Yoda would say. Their attitude seems to be what we call the Clarence Thomas Syndrome: “I’ve got mine. Ya’ll bite me.”

Now comes the hoisting. Having helped elect Donald Trump get elected, and having watched their investments, to a significant degree donated by their parents, soar for ten years or so, the Baby Boomers leaned back from warm rooms on full stomachs, turned on the Fox show, and prepared for the comfortable descent into Valhalla. Young people were discounted as being stupid cell phone addicts. Progressives just wanted their hands on someone’s money to build bridges and sewer plants the “Boomers” no longer cared much about. Worse still, they wanted to hire teachers by raising taxes. Minorities should have never come to America in the first place. Science was as useless now as it was in high school. Life was good.

Then came Covid 19. It was a nuisance. It amounted to nothing but a hoax, their hero Sean Hannity told their other great hero. It would pass soon. Laissez les bons temps rouler. The virus will pass quickly. Prez said it would.

Well, lo and behold, it didn’t. Worse Sean is telling “The Prez” that he must now open the economy up, i.e. quit all this non-participation nonsense. Profits are falling and that is a real crisis. Let's all go out and party on.

Oh, there would be some problems. A lot of people would die in the process.

No problem. It would be the old folks. You know … Baby Boomers who didn’t have a safe place to hide or respirators to see them through. They’ve had their day in the sun. Now it’s time for their day in the barrel.

That’s what it means to hoist yourself by your own petard.

January 27, 1973? That’s when the military draft ended. You know. Baby Boomer Day.