I disagree with your inference that our problems today originated with that generation. In my opinion, it is the prior generation to theirs that laid the foundations of much that is wrong, the generation of the first twenty to thirty years of the 20th century.
And it isn’t “self-anointed”, I find that characterization offensive. You do know that Tom Brokaw (who is NOT of that generation) coined the phrase “The Greatest Generation”, right?
The most damaging things we have were handed down to them, in my opinion, and can be encompassed by one word:Liberalism.
They folded like cheap suits when the “liberals” wanted to overturn the “establishment”; the beginning of the slippery slope. They watched their children co-habitate, breed without marriage, and overturn basically ervery norm (even making “norm” a bad word); I see no “greatness” there.
Wasn’t Brokaw referring to his father?
Now the “not-so-great” generations are fighting for the right to euthanize the “greatest generation”, as to avoid their retirement costs and end-of-life medical care. I guess someone didn’t pass down a good set of values.
If someone told me (I’m almost 40) that my generation was the “greatest generation”, I’d assume they were kidding. Some great people, certainly not a whole generation. Thankfully, our current economy has my generation taking a right turn beyond my wildest expectations; hopefully this will probably be the group that finally deals with the “illegal alien” question, affirmative action, and other gifts we’ve inherited.