Posted on 11/02/2023 4:08:55 PM PDT by CFW
On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address after a close fought presidential campaign against then Vice President Richard Nixon. Both candidates belonged to a new generation in American politics, what we now call the Greatest Generation. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower were all born in the 1800s, while Kennedy and Nixon were born in the 20th century. Both had served in the Navy during World War II, and both had quickly been elected to both the House and Senate.
Kennedy remarked on the passage of time in his speech:
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
[snip]
I believe that the way most people see the world becomes ossified at some point. Most of us reach a moment when we realize that the music we like, the clothing styles we prefer, and the lens through which we view politics are all frozen at some point in our past. Most people, when asked what era produced the best popular music, will say the era in which they were teenagers and young adults.
You see this with nostalgia as well. Boomers look back fondly on the 1950s and 60s, while Millennials long for going to Pizza Hut in the 1990s. “Those were the days, my friends, we thought they’d never end.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gemstate.substack.com ...
"An anonymous blogger called AntiDem wrote an insightful piece a few years ago about why today’s crises are more dangerous to America than those of the 1960s. The difference is that back then we had a store of social capital that had been built up over the preceding generations. AntiDem defines social capital as:
…the bond that exists between people within a certain society; it is their sense of mutual trust, loyalty, obligation, and responsibility; it is what makes us say ‘We are one; we are all in this together’. These are the ties that bind a nation; that bind a people together. Once these bonds are severed – once the reserve of social capital reaches zero – then there is nothing that can hold things together but brute force. And this is where conflict begins."
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This is an interesting piece going through recent history and the current divide in America.
I thought some Freepers might enjoy reading it.
“proud of our ancient heritage”
well, that’s obviously no longer the case. Sorry, JFK. Your party is the party of traitors and loathers of their ancestors.
This wasn't always the case before the Marxist commies took the rat party over. The notion of "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" turned into this weird freakish indoctrinated victim mentality as shown in the video below.
Another paragraph from the article:
“Late last year, Glenn Ellmers and Josiah Lippincott collaborated on an essay looking at the growing generational divide in America. Ellmers is a conservative Boomer and a disciple of political philosopher Harry Jaffa while Lippincott is a Millennial who served in the Marines and is working on his doctorate at Hillsdale College. Together they try to bridge the generation gap, because we need each other if we are to have any hope of saving our country.
The older generation grew up in an America where, on the surface, institutions were trustworthy, or at the very least, not actively at war with the people. That façade crumbled for those who grew up after 9/11. Decades of pointless war in the Middle East, the financial crisis in which not a single banker on Wall Street went to jail, and the ever-skyrocketing cost of living, soured the generation that grew up under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The promise of racial reconciliation never materialized and the constant screams of crisis (climate change! COVID!) have further radicalized a growing youth faction on the right.”
It’s been going on for decades, but Obama came right out and said he was fundamentally transforming the country. And that is what has happened. It’s a very different place now — but I still encounter people who assume it’s pretty much the same.
I feel bad for young people starting out. I think the American Dream is mostly gone. The education, the careers, the housing market — it’s all bad now. And for people who say, “I bought my first house in 1980! Do you what the interest rates were in 1980? But I worked hard! Look at me now! I’m awesome!” I think people who talk like that fail to understand just how fundamentally transformed the country has become. Everything is stacked against the young now. Everything.
Very insightful statement.
We have imported negative social capital for 50 years ...
thank you ted kennedy .. may he rot in .. "
Everything is stacked against the young now. Everything."
It's a dark time ... things have been "transformed" ...
I don't see a road back.
I too thought it was a good piece and that it explained the "generational divide" very succinctly. Thirty years or so ago, you could find editorials such as this in mainstream newspapers, although maybe in a shorter form. Now, you have to go to Substack to read such insightful articles. Many of them are from disillusioned (red-pilled?) journalists who have left (or been kicked out) of mainstream journalism.
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Oh I remember it well. I used to read a lot of different newspapers and magazines then. Most people just screed these days. No thought, just rants.
Good article. He’s right about the differences between Boomers and Millennials, but Pence is a special case. Conservative Boomers may not have as somber a vision as Ramaswamy has, but usually they recognize that our troubles are more serious than Pence does.
America, along with other nations, is being prepared for a one-world leader to step up and “save” everyone. Many of both Ds and rino Rs, large corporates CEOs, heads of institutions, church leaders are on board with this as they think they’ll be special in the coming global government. It’s not going to end well. Is the time to get right with God if not already.
https://www.gotquestions.org/get-right-with-God.html
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