Saturday, June 17, 2006

The Greatest Generation?

I'm getting really sick of hearing about how everyone who's too young to have fought in World War II is a spoiled brat who'll never be anywhere near as wonderful as the least among the "greatest generation."

There's nothing all that great about that generation, anyway. They fought in a big war. They went with the tide of history. They did what anybody else would have done in their situation. There's nothing heroic about that. It's just life. And they bred like rats, too. Thanks a lot for that population nudge, greatniks. Thanks for the boom that led to urban sprawl, toxic wastelands, and global warming. I am so humbled before your greatness.

There's no such thing as a great generation. The only thing we get from glorifying the past is the inability to grow out of it.

2 comments:

  1. Jim, 41, Phoenix AZ1:45 PM

    Combing through your blog, this caught my eye. I agree that the woes you detailed exist (global warming, et al.), but the WWII generation is not responsible, that would be the fallout from the next generations post-war development and greed...

    The reason for the topic label is not that they fought in that war, but by winning that war, they preserved the freedoms that you very liberally use to express your opinion among other things. It's cool if you don't see it that way; that's tolerance on the part of people whose opinion of your post aligns with mine... but...
    because there were men and women who deeply sacrificed (such as my grandfather who lost his arm 3 months in and flew the rest of the war with a prosthetic, still earning distinguished service...) you are not singing God Bless Der Fatherland and goosestepping in lederhosen....
    YMMV, mine doesn't.

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  2. I'd hate to ignore someone who took the time to go through all these posts, so: heya! Nice to see someone paying attention. I don't see any need to expand on my original post, though, except maybe to repeat the last paragraph. Feel free to comment on something else and maybe we'll have a nice chat. God Bless Der Fatherland! ;-)

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