Goodbye to the Way We Were

[johnc]

From American Digest http://www.americandigest.org/mt-archives/000990.php#000990

 

Goodbye to the Way We Were

 

A friend with whom I have a daily correspondence takes great pleasure in needling me on my, shall we say, rather adamantine position on the First Terrorist War. Last March, while I was trapped on a Cruise Ship somewhere deep inside the sixth circle of Hell, was an ideal time to set me up since it was the moment in which, as he puts it, "...the common citizens of Spain and France are saying 'Tell us again what this got us, other than lots of angry teenagers with bombs?'"

 

Although light on the facts that keep coming to light, he's right about the attitude. What, just what, was in the Terrorist War for Spain other than pain and death in Iraq and Madrid? In the short term, there seems to be nothing in this war for any one fighting terror than pain and death.

 

That's certainly true when it comes to the United States. We are at the stage of the struggle that brings to mind Churchill's proclamation that he had nothing to offer except, "blood, sweat and tears."

 

We've had those constantly as our media is so keen to remind us every few minutes of every day. Another factor seems to be that our leadership has become, shall we say, less than inspiring and more like Monty Hall in "Let's Make A Deal." In addition, we've been spending a great deal of our money on a country on the other side of the world that would not otherwise concern us. Finally, we're seeing a host of our fellow citizens so immersed in their hatred of the current president that the impression we are hip-deep in demented traitors is hard to shake.

 

All of these things conspire, on a daily basis, to shake our belief in ourselves, our institutions and our commitment to rid the world of the scourge of terrorism. It's a daily drip feed of despair and estrangement that's the stock and trade of a significant chorus of Americans to whom the country, as conceived by our founders, and struggled for for more than 200 years is merely a large joke.

 

I should know. I was part of the crafting of the joke and for years I thought there was nothing funnier. Conceived during the waning months of World War II, I had no idea I was a Baby Boomer, but that, in the end, was what I was. And being a member of this large and fortunate generation gave me the leisure to develop quite a sense of humor when it came to basic human values.

 

When I was a student at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1960s, we were busy inventing a brave new world where everything about the old world of our parents seemed either hilarious or evil. God, if he didn't emerge from 500 mikes of prime LSD, was just a funny old guy a little bit like Santa Claus but with less of a user base. The Bill of Rights was okay as long as you could figure out someway to erase a few of the amendments involving guns and add a host of new ones involving groups. The Constitution? Too long and too arcane to really read. History? The only really happening history was the future, man. The United States? They were really "Amerikkka" -- Satan incarnate. The US Military? Baby killers and agents of Satan. The Police? Pigs. The Viet Cong, Fidel Castro, and a host of other evil dictators and fascists? Heroes of "The People." The People? Really wonderful as long as you didn't really have to hang out with them. Voting in political parties? Stupid. We were into "participatory democracy" which involved really long meetings -- this is now known as "emergent democracy" and involves really long online discussion threads. We believed in sex and drugs and rock and roll. We were determined to resist "the man" on all levels. We were young. And we were very, very stupid for college kids. Check that. We were stupid because we were college kids.

 

Many of us, decades later, are still there and even dumber. We're professors now and our ability to be dumb has never been deeper. Others of us are well ensconced in the various parts of what passes for the media. We're there with a lot of others just like us and, even if we thought differently, we'd never say it for fear of losing regard, position, grants, or promotion. Besides, we've been around others who think like us for so long its no problem at all to top up the latte and nod in blind agreement. We never sold out. We bought in. But we kept the Che poster in our hearts.

 

And in our hearts, we're a lot like the Spanish Socialist Party: In love with privilege, comfort, money and safety. Afraid of the wrath of those who, unlike us that believe in nothing, believe in something so deeply that they'll kill and die for it. As a result, we like the slogans, books, and publications that confirm for us the deep liberal dream that if we are just understanding enough, long enough, and offer enough in the way of bribes, the oppressed of the world will come to love us and then just leave us alone. Like the Spanish, we believe that by selling off our ideals we'll receive, in return, peace and cheap vacation rentals in France and Greece for the rest of our lives. Like the Spanish, a lot of us believe that by just being nice we'll be left alone to wallow in our prosperity. Like the Spanish, we've come to believe that there's nothing in it for us except "teenagers with bombs."

 

Like I said, people of my 60s generation are very, very dumb. And, it would seem, we've bred children who are even dumber than we are. We are now into, as far as dumb liberalism is concerned, deep into the third generation of dumb.

 

You don't have to look very far to see that while the dumb teenager might be the Terrorist's first choice when it comes to delivery vehicles, that teenager isn't the one choosing the target, setting the timer, choosing the target, or buying the bomb. That sort of thing is left to the "leadership" which is far too valuable to expend itself on direct attacks.

 

Nor do you have to look very far to understand what the goals of the leadership are. You are told in sermon after sermon throughout the Muslim world week after week. But those of my generation who are invested in the foolishness of their youth cannot hear these words and believe them. Since they come from a culture where words seldom have any consequences as long as you choose the right ones, words don't seem like weapons to them. Words, to my generation, are merely poses at best or the glib lyrics of some pot-drenched rock song at the worst.

 

The Terrorist War scares my generation more deeply than bombs in Madrid put the fear into the once proud Spanish. It is something that is in ernest and it is something that will not go away. What scares them the most is that it is about something my generation understands only as one of the great standing jokes of our youth: Religion.

 

My "people" don't really get religion unless it comes with a lot of New Age claptrap or a heft dose of Zen. Pure Christianity or Orthodox Judism is far, far outside our ken.

 

Where previous generations could write, as late as 1927, the sentiments found in the Desiderata:

 

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

 

"Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful."

 

"Strive to be happy."

 

My generation was the one that came up with the variation called the Deteriorata :

 

"You are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, The Universe is laughing behind your back. "

 

"Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be,

Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin. "

 

"With all its hopes, dreams, promises and urban renewal,

The world continues to deteriorate. "

 

"Give up."

 

I believe that the ultimate bible of the 60s boomers, the National Lampoon, first came up with that one. I remember how funny we all thought it was. A laugh riot and, well, so true too. So right on.

 

But when you get a little further down the road and look back, if you have learned anything at all, you'll have learned to cherish the sentiment of the first and despise the mocking nothingness in the latter.

 

But my generation, being eternally drenched in a mindless nostalgia for its weird youth, refuses to learn that. It believes that the answer to the great crisis which has been brought to us in the last three years is to make a sign that says " I heart New York more without the twin towers," parade about in the streets and, when confronted with the death of your fellow citizens, to stand firmly in solidarity with the people of Spain and say, "Give up."

 

When I look at the spectacle that my Boomer generation has made of itself, a generation that had everything going for it and did little with it, all I can say is: "I resign. I'm joining the resistance."

 

Posted by Vanderleun at July 31, 2004 06:57 AM

[2126]

Wow John, that was intense!!! Would it be to much to ask you to provide a short summary for the proletariat? Somehow I think your post may be too deep for the general inhabitants. Interesting read for sure!

[johnc]

Would it be to much to ask you to provide a short summary for the proletariat?

 

Those that need a short summary are the subjects of the article.

[Guest 305240]

Well put and well answered in your second post. I'm also a baby boomer. Damn, I hate that word.

[datsunlover]

Funny.. there's a somg by 'The tragicaly Hip' (canadian band.. you folks in the states might not now of them) that has a line it it; A generation so much dumber than it's parents.... came crashing through the window... As I read that post it just poped into my head.. strange..

 

And as for this:

 

Desiderata:

 

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

 

I have always believed that one..

[innerware]

Well my folks were the baby boomer generation. I guess I am gen X. Whatever it all means. I agree to the general statement we are all getting dumber. I feel however that I am not.(its all relative right) With posts like yours that add some perspective on generational observation I feel we might be able to learn a bit more. "give up" sounds good to me. At what cost is our oil? I know we are there for soooo much more. But really, give up, stop buying oil and bankrupt all those damn hateful nations who can't seem to be happy. Did you know there are no Muslim children songs. (my sister married a muslim guy and my wife is a music teacher so we looked) Nothing at all. We found a book online that had stolen song themes and rythems but all the words were f'd up. Nothing like singing songs to your children about killing infidels. Anyway thought that was messed up. Wish we hadn't tossed it out.

 

But seriously, John, good email. All we can do is to try harder and love those that we have to love. Thanks for the good read.

 

P.s. If a Muslim man dies killing his enemy and he goes to his heaven and has 20 virgins...what do muslim women get when they blow themselves up?? Do they become one of the virgins? I don't think they thought this up well.

[tannji]

Would it be to much to ask you to provide a short summary for the proletariat?

 

Those that need a short summary are the subjects of the article.

 

Word.... I am 36.... and so, technically a baby boomer, imagine my surprise when I found that out.... Boomers were suppose to be my parents generation only. The above dissertation struck home with me, as I spent my first few years in a commune in the Mountains of New Mexico... literally a product of the 60's and the hippie movement. Some of the people I love the most were participants.... but most spent the majority of their lives vastly confused and at odds with reality. A lot of the people in my parents "crowd" were the political minority of the hippie movement, actually trying to accomplish something, even if it required actual work. In spite of their good intentions.... they damaged our country politically and ethically.... and you need look no further than the first president of their generation to see the results.

Their legacy will be reduced to descendant generations, struggling with problems they were not raised or trained to be prepared to deal with. Imagine a generation raised with the belief that parental discipline is abuse, trying to get terrorism under control. As much as people admire former presidents like Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Lincoln, ect..... they feel free to trash the current administration for getting tough on Saddam, or bending the truth to achieve a political means. All of the obove gentlemen perpetuated some serious "spin doctoring" to get what they deemed necessary done. Ironically, one of our most ineffective presidents was also probably the most principled and honest we have ever had. Thank God the president of my childhood, Jimmy Carter, is not the one dealing with our post-9/11 reality.

[Mikelly]

Oh Christ... 0600 on a Friday morning and I finally get around to this one... And then John's reply!

 

Boys and Girls THAT's Entertainment!

 

Mike

[Pop N Wood]

Did you know there are no Muslim children songs. (my sister married a muslim guy and my wife is a music teacher so we looked) Nothing at all. We found a book online that had stolen song themes and rythems but all the words were f'd up. Nothing like singing songs to your children about killing infidels. Anyway thought that was messed up. Wish we hadn't tossed it out.

 

...

 

P.s. If a Muslim man dies killing his enemy and he goes to his heaven and has 20 virgins...what do muslim women get when they blow themselves up?? Do they become one of the virgins? I don't think they thought this up well.

 

 

Boy. You can have all of the grandiose words and flowery prose. It is the simple statements that speak the loudest to me!!!

 

I actually had a related conversation about the virgins of the Koran just yesterday. I had not thought about the female martyrs...

[pparaska]

Even though I could not actually put that prose together, I can certainly relate to it. Luckily my dad was in his 40s when he got married and had kids (he's 86 this year) and I "missed" the baby boomer thing. I'm a "gapper", born months before JFK was shot (Kennedy, not his more liberal bud Kerry).

 

Just my view, but the real devils of this war are not just the Taliban, Bin Laden, Saddam or the clerics that tell their followers to kill all Americans. The vastly liberal media that seems to have no bounds as to what they will print or say figure in as well. All you hear is the dirty laundry about Iraq and Afghanistan. Never what the US and it's allies are doing FOR those places. Just that a very small majority of the inhabitants hate us and want to kill us. Never mind the freedoms these people now have.

 

I often wonder what this world would be like without organized religion. If everyone just believed in a being that thought we should be good to each other, but there was no organization or spokesmen, I have the feeling that there would be less war, violence and chaos. I don't mean to offend people who belong to an organized religion. I suppose being brought up in a strict Catholic home impressed upon me good morals and ethics, while showing me hypocracy and corruption in the church.

 

Stupid teenagers, whether they have bombs or not, are the culprits. And we were all teenagers once. As the article stated, if the teenagers grew up and actually used the gray matter they had upstairs to THINK about what they did and said, we'd be alot better off. The people I really disrespect are those that refuse to think - but will quickly move to an emotional reaction. Sounds like a teenager, huh? Or a grown-up that's mentally lazy and irrational.

 

I must be getting more cynical in my old age, but it seems fewer people are using their brains in any real way. The world seems so superficial to me. PC has taken over. Maybe it's the caffeine.

 

Just my opinions. Nothing I'm forcing on anyone. We could all be just holograms anyway.

[jt1]

Well spoken.

 

John

[blueovalz]

I see some truth to the original posting, but not through it all. Each generation has it's "moments" that give it the markers separating it from any other generation, and in that light, each generation goes through the same cycle. Stupid youthful emotion overides logic, turns into the aged where logic conflicts with sentimental memories of the youthful emotiion. I always feel a sort of sadness in my feelings that my boy will not have the same stage I had when I was growing up, but I must believe that my parents thought the same way when they saw me taken away by the yellow bus every morning.

[Mikelly]

Well Spoken Both Pete and Terry!

 

Mike 8)

[Guest the_dj]

Ain't no way I'm reading something that takes up more than a screen in my groggy pre-8 AM state.

[Guest 77vegasz]

Many people today have become soft and out right wimpy when it comes to the hardships of protecting our freedom and way of life. And it is due in part to the peace protesting draft dodging panzies of the 60s and 70s.

 

war means loss loss means sorrow. But preserving our society and way of life in this country occasionally means those of us that reap the benefits must pay the price.

 

A sad, ironic,but true fact is there are times when we must kill and be killed for peace.

 

Jon