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In Reply to: Interesting Gen-X article posted by CB on September 17, 2006 at 11:15:39:
I think the generational divide is a sad thing. It would take both sides working at it to end it. I wouldn't expect that to happen on a large scale but am talking more within families. It would be nice if the parent initiated it especially with respecting the different ideals and values their child has chosen for their lives.
I wasn't a "hippy" when I was recruited, but I was young and not sure what category I would fit in. I would never have dreamed I would have wound up in a Jesus freak commune having been more politically interested and having considered myself an agnostic with interest in different religions but not buying any of them. Still, even if I had have been a drug dipping hippie youth which was common for the day, and yes, "free sex" was a common buzz word, sex with children was not part of hippy approved independence. I did toke with Zig Zag flavored wrappers, as did the drill team and cheerleaders, not just hippies in the sixties.
Pedophiles come in all types and ages. Berg was not a hippy and it wasn't the hippies that taught him to abuse women and children. That was already in his nature. Problem was, many of the youth of the 60s were far too gullible because it was a magical sort of era. "Cult" was not a buzz word and psychoanalysis seemed to be the only thing people were into but only if extremely rich.
Along comes a spider using his children and their mates to dangle a web of welcome and who knew or even thought to venture a guess that anything rotten was already in progress? By the time it was becoming evident or there were awarenesses,I already had learned that a "red flag" was my weakness and doubt. My bad.
I have sons that are hugely successful today and part of that is certainly the poverty they experienced in the family at a young age and the poverty at a young age on getting out of it without help, or with very little help once I left.
What I can say that I did for them that parents would do good to do is that I listened to them and validated how they felt. I didn't try to reframe their reality of what occurred. I was able to say "That was wrong. You deserved better and I wish I could have given that to you."
I have encouraged them to pursue their interests and helped as I can. Because of that I have relationships with them that I treasure.
It hurts to think of the pain the Family and BERG caused both generations.
