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The Infantile Generation
Intemperate Thoughts ^ | 11/10/2006 | George Mortensen

Posted on 11/10/2006 6:58:30 PM PST by mort56

Could someone please tell me what happened to my county? The landmarks remain familiar, but I don’t recognize the people anymore. I have become a stranger among those I used to consider amiable, fellow travelers if not friends and it saddens me.

When I was growing up there were disagreements between the political parties and the people that populated them but it would have been considered shameful and counterproductive to call your opponent a murderer and accuse a sitting American President of taking the country to war for personal profit. The American public would never have stood for such a lie or lunacy.

When I was growing up, American generals spent their time planning for our defense and scrupulously avoided public disputes with their civilian masters. Military men and women in those days knew the value of civilian control of the military and tried to steer clear of political affairs. They did not dare leak classified materials to the press in search of political advantage. It would have been unthinkable, even treasonable, for an American general to agree to testify for this country’s enemies in a foreign court against a sitting Secretary of Defense. It would have been even more unimaginable if this seditious activity were being celebrated by a national political party that actually voted for the war. In my youth, the American press would have berated such men at the very least as disloyal fools.

When I was growing up, manners were taught. The proper comportment of oneself was considered the mark of lady or gentlemen. Now, protocol and proper etiquette are considered passé or gender and ethnically insensitive. Vulgarity and debauchery by politician and celebrity alike are no longer given a cold shoulder. These actions now receive whispered if not outright approval. In fact, the cruder and more outrageous the behavior the greater acceptance it is given by today’s paragons of protocol. It is their belief that those who profess not to give into their baser urges are the fools and those who still cling to outmoded ideas such as belief in the sanctity of life are out of touch with reality. Today, America’s press and their heroes view the crude and tattooed as champion and the chaste as fools.

When I was growing up, the United States of America was the land of the free and home of the brave. I had no doubt. My father, my uncles and thousands of men of their generation stormed the beaches of Normandy, Iwo Jima, the Chosi Reservoir and other hostile environs. They didn’t want to. They didn’t enjoy it, but they knew that true evil could be stopped no other way. They did their duty. Millions died, sometimes thousands a day, to prevent the world from falling to fascism and communism.

And they were not alone. Their sweethearts and family at home dealt with rationing, blackouts and deprivation this current generation could not even image, let alone tolerate. They did so in good humor because they knew victory called for sacrifice. It would never have crossed their minds to speak treason and sedition during time of war. Their only thought was for the well being of their country and their loved ones in harm’s way. Surrender was not an option. Redeployment was another word for defeat. Difficulties were met with perseverance, setbacks with resolve, fortitude and greater effort.

Unfortunately, that America exists only in song and memory.

Our greatness as a country and a people started to disappear in the late sixties and early seventies during the Vietnam era when the heroes of World War II and Korea returned home and gave their children everything they wanted but the discipline to handle truth. It further dissipated when an American President broke the law and paid little price and continued to evaporate when another American President used the White House as his personal brothel and a funnel for money. Instead of being shunned, he was cheered.

America’s transformation wasn’t completed on November 7, 2006, it was merely punctuated. We still have a way to go and I am sure Tuesday’s winners will continue our slow march toward the fall.

The spoiled children of the great generation are now solidly in charge. Expediency and self deception have replaced courage and self examination. Impatience and speed are considered greater virtues than discipline and methodical workmanship. Self indulgence is thought to be a right and self denial is considered the mark of a fool.

The natural progression of life is to grow up and grow out of childish ways, to see the world as it is not as we would wish it were. I feel lost because most of my generation has yet to figure this out.

On Tuesday, the delusional saw victory for themselves instead of our enemies. Left unsaid and unthought-of were the men and women who died at our behest.

For those who have forgotten, our current war was not born in frivolity. There was no mystical Gulf of Tonkin incident. This war brewed for years. It was born as the result of a poor ceasefire and our abandonment of our allies in the region. It festered while our men and women in planes were being shot at daily over Iraqi air space. It came to a head after the death of thousands in New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and Afghanistan. This is a war the both political parties in Congress voted for and when their frightened, vocal base squealed, they quickly abandoned.

For the second time in my life, those who have no stomach for truth have chosen to cut and run. And make no doubt about it, that was the decision made last Tuesday.

Our enemies have been correct in their assessment. We as a people no longer have the stomach for reality. We are easily defeated. All one needs to do is make us uncomfortable. Break a nail and we cry. Tuesday was not a vote for America; it was a frightened vote against America.

Once again, our men and women in uniform have been left out in the cold. And does anyone really care? Why would they? These same children of the sixties did it before and were rewarded for it. What has changed?

Having watched defeat snatched from the jaws of victory before I thought my generation and the Democratic Party would have learned the lesson of Vietnam by now. But they have not. They are not interested in history because they believe they are immune to it. History is not immediate and it does not stroke in the present, it does not pamper. And that which does not pamper does not interest the boomers.

But what really saddens me is that sixty percent of my peers couldn’t find an hour or even five minutes in their ultra important day to get off their oversized derrières to vote. Their Pilates class or their meetings over double mocha lattes were far more important that the life of their nineteen year old neighbor braving death in Iraq on their behalf.

I keep wondering when my generation is going to wake up and face the often difficult realities of this world, when they will stop thinking about their own self interest and begin to think of others as they have always claimed they have.

The sad truth is songs do not define a generation or a country, voting does. I keep wondering when my generation is going to grow up. If Tuesday is any guide, the sad answer may be never.


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 11/10/2006 6:58:31 PM PST by mort56
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To: mort56

Nice piece, but who ever thought these people would grow up?


2 posted on 11/10/2006 7:06:17 PM PST by perfect_rovian_storm ( Churchill was rebuffed too before he led his people to victory. Rick Santorum in 08!!)
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To: mort56
This disintegration I've noticed since I was a boy, when, hanging in the parking lot of our parochial school, we saw a bumper sticker, declaring "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts".

When America gives up on its ideals, when politics becomes sport, that's when we are on the road to becoming what we are today - separated and paralyzed by a lack of common ideals. And the forces are pulling us apart, because the only way to get us back together seems to be some kind of force - laws, indoctrination masquerading as education, or just cheering for "our team", and against our enemies, who happen to be our fellow Americans.

Who's a gas bag???

3 posted on 11/10/2006 7:33:10 PM PST by PatrickF4
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To: mort56
AMEN!!! That is exactly what I feel like...a stranger in a familar land with strangers doing strange things that were NEVER done or thought about being done til the hideous 60's.

The people that want us KILLED are applauding the election, and it sickens and frightens me. God Help Us.

4 posted on 11/10/2006 8:41:53 PM PST by Suzy Quzy
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To: mort56

Lap it up folks. Place blame for all of the ills in the world on a "generation".


5 posted on 11/10/2006 10:19:14 PM PST by GoLightly
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To: mort56

I'd like to share a link to another post:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1736689/posts


6 posted on 11/10/2006 10:41:28 PM PST by GoLightly
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To: mort56
Sadly the greatest generation spawned the free love, hell no I wont go crowd of druggies. Many of whom are now college professors spewing their anti-Americanism to their students.

Many boomer parents thought the world was their oyster. Make money, hire the nanny to raise the children and turn away when the children are wasters.

Not eough of the good guys to overcome this plague.

7 posted on 11/10/2006 10:48:24 PM PST by OldFriend (Run and Hide, Tax and Spend for the next two years. Everyone happy?)
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