Two generations of Americans, the World War II generation and their children, the Baby Boomers, are compared.
The Greatest Generation
In his book The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw wrote about accomplishments of World War II generation.
The greatest generation were soldiers in World War II. American G.I.’s would have been about 16 to 35 years old in 1942 when America entered entered the second world war. They were born from about 1907 to 1926 give or take a few years. During the Great Depression decade from 1929 to 1939, they would have gone from childhood to teen or from teen to young adult.
There was great hardship in America during the Depression, the time this generation was coming of age. Unemployment was 25% and jobs were scarce. Drought in the dust bowl resulted in a mass migration of people. People learned to do without.
Then along came Hitler and fascism. These self same individuals were asked to serve their country in World War II. Men were put in uniform, given a gun and sent off to fight Europe or the Pacific. The is no greater sacrifice than being asked to land on the beaches of Normandy or to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. Back home there was rationing of gasoline, food and other consumer items. More hardships for everyone.
The World Wat II generation succeeded in defeating the fascists. This was a great accomplishment and the WW II could have sat back an rested on its laurels, but they had more great things in store.
After the war, the soldiers came home and started working and rasing families. Eventually they built the country into the economic powerhouse it is today. President Kennedy, born in 1917, was a member of that generation. He got America started on the path to the moon. And American astronauts traveled to the moon on rockets designed by Werner von Braun (born 1912), another of that generation.
Baby Boomers
The Baby Boomers were the children of the WW II generation. According to the U.S. census, baby boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. Their childhood was a time of prosperity. The American economy was booming and everything was going pretty well.
However there was a new enemy to challenge democracy: Communism and the Soviet Union. The cold war was on from the end of WWII in 1945, until the Berlin Wall came down in 1991.
At times, the cold war became a shooting war as in Korea and Vietnam. How did the Baby Boomers respond to this challenge? They burned they their draft cards and ran to Canada to avoid conscription. Men grew their hair long, became hippies and protested the war because they didn’t want to get drafted.
Well of course no one likes getting sent off to war. It is not fun. The WWII generation didn’t go to War for a jolly good time. They served their country because they believed it was their duty and their responsibility. If not them, who?
With the hippie movement, smoking marijuana and turning on with LSD came into vogue. In San Francisco in 1967, free love was the mantra. Certainly free sex is better than getting shot or blown to smithereens in battle. So why not dodge the draft? Let someone else serve.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the baby boomer hippies became yuppies, for young upwardly mobile professionals. The phrase the “Me Generation” was coined to describe them because they were basically in it for themselves. The idea was to accumulate as much wealth and power as possible. The catch phase was Gordon Geckos “Greed Is Good” from the 1987 movie Wall Street. The drug cocaine became popular among the yuppies.
Meanwhile, during the 1980s, President Reagan (born 1911) and President George H.W. Bush (born 1924), built up the military which eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Both were from the World War II generation. So even as the baby boomers were shirking responsibility during the cold war, the WW II generation continued to fight to defeat communism.
With the cold war over, America could concentrate on building a better country. President Clinton, who presided over this period of prosperity, was born in 1946 and was the first baby boomer President.
The next President, George W. Bush (born 1946), was the second Baby Boomer in the White House. From 2000 until 2008 he presided over the unraveling of the American dream. Two useless wars and an economy that has gone nowhere. No net job creation as American manufacturing jobs are sent overseas. The middle class in America shrank during this decade, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
The current President, Barack Obama, was born in 1961 and is on the tail end of the Baby Boom generation. He was too young to dodge the draft like George W. Bush. But he is presiding over an era of unprecedented growth in the power and scope of the federal government. Through the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, trillions of dollars are being doled out to bankers in the form of bailouts and zero interest loans, which turn into mega bonuses for the Wall Street elite. This is perhaps the culmination of the Baby Boom generation, as they pillage and plunder the very country that they refused to serve back in the 1960s and 1970s.
A Tale of Two Generations
So the is a tale of two generations. One generation grows up in a Depression and goes on to defeat Fascism in World War II. Then makes the U.S. number 1 economy in the world with a huge middle class, sends a man to the moon, and defeats Communism in the cold war.
The second generation grows up in prosperity, and then goes on to become a generation of draft dodgers, pot-smoking hippies and responsibility shirkers that use drugs like cocaine for recreation, worships money and justifies it with the mantra greed is good.
Growing up with hardships like a Depression apparently builds the kind of character that gives one the fortitude to go on to do great things.
Growing in in prosperity leads to self-indulgent people with poor character that can not be counted on to do anything other than be selfish.
