I've long held a theory that a lot of boomer men had fractious relationships with their fathers who could actually tell them how much harder they had it at their age and mean it and they in turn spend the rest of their lives trying, usually in vain to prove something to their dad to get his approval.
I don't understand? It's not an issue if who had or has it harder or winning approval, it's more about being a participant in life vs being an observer; I think the latter is a bit sad. It probably contributes to the increase in mental illness via unreasonable comparisons, greener grass effect, FOMO, etc.