Around 50, some boomers rediscover their radical roots

Next month "We Are the New Radicals" will be published. It's a new book by Julia Moulden that chronicles the trend of baby boomers that reinvent and recommit themselves to improve the world. The book combines stories of people who've done it with "how to" tips for others who want to join in and drive change.

In an interview on Canada.com Moulden noted that despite being the driving forces behind "gay rights, the women's movement and the cementing of civil rights" that "boomers take a lot of slack for being yuppies and for having done nothing more than create a market for SUVs and non-fat tall chai lattés." Now more and more boomers are deciding to do something about that. Interestingly she found this radicalization happens around age 50.

Moulden is not the first to recognize the transition that many middle age boomers go through as they remember what they had stood and fought for earlier in their lives. Brent Green in his book on marketing to baby boomers noted:

Once again, it means honoring the nobler ideals of world peace, economic equality, egalitarian civil rights, human potential, and spiritual enlightenment. It means sharing a new, perhaps revitalized generational zeitgeist--that tenacious obsession with the perfectibility of the human condition. The stuff of truth."

Another author noting this trend is Marc Freedman and his "Encore: Finding Work That Matters In the Second Half of Life." In this book Freedman noted that as baby boomers age they rethink careers with the goal to secure meaningful work—that is work that has a sense of purpose. Freedman has numerous examples of people starting entirely new work lives, often at charities or nonprofits.

Here's our take: the values never went away but had been pushed behind a wall of personal responsibilities, career issues, and a sense of failure the first time around. Now, with children grown up and moved out and some money in the bank, boomers are reconnecting with the positive feeling that one gets in fighting for the greater good.

Thanks to Karen at the Best Kept Secret for the story tip