Recently I had the opportunity to listen to a reading of “Boom.” As one born in 1933, I observed, mostly from a distance, the history-making events of the 60’s, and I found the analyses accurate and impartial. I appreciate the wisdom that went into that report.

Except for one glaring omission.

Among all the events of the 60’s, the sexual revolution had the most lasting and destructive effect upon today’s culture. Brokaw mentioned it regularly but never described or evaluated it (which seems to be the rule by which the media operates).

Thanks to the sexual revolution, we have

1. More clients for the abortion clinics;
2. An epidemic of STD’s, both debilitating and fatal;
3. An elevated divorce rate;
4. A plague of fatherlessness. (In 1965 Patrick Daniel Moynihan noted with alarm that 24% of black children were born out of wedlock. Today that number is 73% for black children and 29% for white children).
5. Billions of tax dollars spent to relieve the pain of dysfunctional families.

But the most devastating effect of the sexual revolution is not so easily identified. If it could somehow be measured, the self-esteem of today’s generation would be found to be significantly lower than that of the “Greatest Generation” that survived the Depression and won the Second World War.

The strength of self-esteem derives from multiple sources, but the greatest single source of self-esteem is security in early childhood. We know our worth because Mom and Dad loved us and cared for our needs just because we were their children. Sexual freedom has denied many children the benefit of that security.

Ignoring, for the moment, the infinite variables involved, we and our children, black and white, would have a much better world today if the sexual revolution had not been allowed to succeed. But Brokaw did not think that this was worth discussing in his book.