That generation has a well deserved reputation for grit because they were less affluent and suffered more than the boomers or more recent generations. But there’s a lot of grit in us moderns too. It’s just that it manifests in ways that aren’t conventionally gritty. I work with a bunch of Gen X’ers and millenials. None of us were forced as children to sell apples on the street corner like my grandfather did, but we work our asses off nevertheless. We pour ourselves into what we do. It doesn’t get registered as grit because our efforts aren’t about staving off literal starvation. There’s a lot of character in the current generation, character that I am confident would rise to the occasion if pressed like our grandparents. I think it’s a mistake to think that what we had has been lost forever.
I believe that too, somehow.
No, I’m afraid I don’t share your confidence. People are obvioulsy a product of their culture and their times, so I’m hardly condemning individuals. And it has more to do perhaps with worldview than grit. American culture has now cultivated generations that cower before PC dictates, wallow in moral relativism, and have an “entitlement” sensibility towards everything. That’s where I see weakness and decline. Would these things be quickly tossed off if dire circumstances arose?
I once had faith they would be, but the last few years have been teaching me otherwise. I see people letting Obama get away with his lawlessness, I see the GOP unwilling to fight on anything, I see open-borders, I see homo-fascists going after bakers and wedding photographers with little to no pushback. It’s endless. I just see no proof anymore that America has any kind of spine.
I agree with you, Yardstick...We shouldn’t forget the Vietnam veterans are made up of Boomers...
Today...Just takes a few minutes talking with a young Marine returning from Afghanistan...
The grit is still there...