Yes, each generation is brainwashed and conditioned differently, and therefore, react according to that (different) conditioning / brainwashing.

Perhaps I was unclear. I meant that, within a generation, different groups will react differently to the exact same cultural stimuli. Conditioning can be accepted or rejected in various ways and to various degrees. It is not a process that is experienced in a purely passive way.

Liberal materialism WORKED back in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. You are attempting to isolate an ideology as being THE crucial particular of a generation. That is flat wrong. Many many things came together to make liberalism the abomination it has become today.

I am not reducing everything to ideology - the ideology is downstream from the existential condition of the people who maintain it. The boomers were vapid, materialistic and indifferent to an unprecedented degree. Even the "radical" boomers like the beatniks were the same way, only slightly less indifferent.

This is not a problem caused by too much liberalism.

When I say "liberalism", I am referring to the entire system, not to screeching college students with pink hair dye.

It's a problem of not having checks and balances on the REPRESENTATIVE aspect of a "representative democracy".

Ah, I see. You are a liberal yourself. That is probably the main source of our disagreement. Addressing your reply more broadly, a functional welfare state is not "the answer" or "the solution" either. Personally speaking, I think we can hope for more from politics than simply covering the basic material needs of the people. It is certainly a good thing to do so, but it should by no means by the end goal, in my opinion. Liberals will claim otherwise. Many would also claim that is it both impossible and undesirable to even try to achieve more through politics. I disagree.