And Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Luke 12.15
I sometimes think we forgot that. Not that prosperity is automatically some evil thing. But I fear we fooled ourselves into thinking it was the main thing. Especially back when we were at the height of our prosperity as a nation. Men especially failed in keeping our priorities straight, and not just after The Beatles arrived in New York:
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| Easter Morning, 1959 - the trend was already too apparent |
Ooof-dah! That image is a little damning. Given that those kids in this image marching to church on Easter were probably the same ones marching in protests, burning bras, and celebrating "free love" 10-15 years later.
ReplyDeleteI note the little boy, how he's looking at his dad. Whether judging his dad or wishing he could be with his dad, it's clear the message is not a good one. Some day we're going to have to take a long, hard look at that fabled 'Greatest Generation.' They may have won the battle of WW2, but they lost the war for the civilization they set out to defend.
DeleteYes, it's unfortunately true. And most likely, the "GG" guys seem to have figured, at large, they did their great duty so they get to chill on the responsibility front for the rest of their lives, LOL
DeleteThat's certainly a possibility. I also think they learned some lessons, but applied them badly. For instance, both Japan and Germany defined unhinged fanaticism. But it appears many in the WW2 generation were thus fine with being as unfanatic as possible, even to the point of not wanting to be seen as 'caring passionately' about - anything.
DeleteI think so many of the GG came back with PTSD too. That seemed to prohibit some to engage meaningfully in their post service lives. Reading “The Body Keeps the Score “ currently and it starts with PTSD stories. As someone who grew up with a PTSD father (who learned to cope recently enough) and lost a military friend to PTSD who could not cope so well... It’s fascinating to see how the “experts” viewed the condition as something it was not for so long and thus so many suffered in isolation.
DeleteThat could be part of it. I'm always reluctant to attribute valid psychological problems to everything. I think the US, like Europe but about 20 years behind, was already beginning to shred its core heritage and values. The monster success and wealth we enjoyed after the war (being the only un-bombed shop in town) encouraged a forward, post-Christian, material and consumer mindset. Plus they were frightened of being too fanatical, so better to let the kids run all over them than act too rigid in fighting back. Then you have the rise of the Cold War, and the almost overnight plunge into Korea, giving many to wonder what it was all for. Finally you have the whole industrial warfare and dehumanizing of conflict. Some began to realize they were expendable to the military planners. Some of the biggest critics of the war and its execution were often those who fought in it. I remember an article I read years ago called 'The Jaded Generation' that looked at how many of those most willing to throw the war and its entire time period under the bus were the ones storming the beaches and flying over Germany. Like most things in history there are probably many reasons and causes. But it can't be denied that while that generation did a wonderful job winning the battle of WW2, they lost the war for the civilization they fought WW2 for in the first place.
DeleteAgreed
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