Nudity, sensuality, and the baby boomer experience

Discovering identity and liberation in the backdrop of post-war America

Editor’s note: The following is an edited excerpt of a larger work-in-progress narrative by the author for his own Substack. Today, it’s available exclusively for Planet Nude paid subscribers. The author’s longform edit will be available on his personal Substack in one week. If you’re interested in reading the rest, subscribe here.

Did Spock get it right?

Was my generation too self-indulgent? Were we coddled too much? Did our parents spoil us? That depends.

What can one say about his parents’ generation, where countless soldiers, sailors, and airmen gave the last full measure of devotion to the great cause against fascism and dictatorship in the 1940’s? Life was short, painfully vulnerable and uncertain. Home the survivors came from war and privation into the happy and welcoming arms of a population tired of trouble and strife and hungry for the simple joys of living. Too many were shattered by grief and loneliness. The nation was tired of trouble and strife. It wanted joy for a change. Procreate they did, prodigiously.

As the post-war economy boomed, it was time to build that house in the suburbs, bring a TV and a new couch, get the kids swing sets and new bikes, attire them in the new clothes one could find at bargain prices in department stores like Macy's, Sears, and Montgomery Ward, and then take them to destinations like Yellowstone Park, Disneyland, or the drive-in theater.

After the shock of war and the horrors of Nazi death camps, the better angels of our nature took hold and were allowed to thrive.