The Greatest Generation. Those who came of age during very hard times in American culture. The Great Depression, World War II, The Cold War, The Civil Rights movement…All hard fought struggles that one generation bore the brunt of the work for.
From that generation came, primarily, the Baby Boomers, and from them most of my friends and colleagues known as “Generation X”, or as we were known as youth, “slackers”.
My Mom and Dad…in the late 40’s.
There is however a small group of us GenXers’ that are overlooked and have a very skewed view of the world, life and our place in it. This very small group though, born during the time of Generation X was actually birthed not by Baby Boomers but by the Greatest Generation themselves. Essentially we are the youngest direct descendants of the people who won the hardest battles of the 20th century.
I believe it is time that we say something because we were home during the twilight days of the Greatest Generation, lived with them, saw their views change and listened to their now decades of experience of living in a world that went from dirt roads and a radio to space shuttles and global network communications.
One would think that as the Greatest Generation grew into old age they would push their kids to follow old paths, to do what is expected of you, to conform to the “needs of society”. That “striking out on your own” and “taking care of number one” would be at the top of their life lesson list. What I found though as they grew old and past their prime was the advice given was more akin to someone who was a hippie in the 1960’s than a person who struggled to make ends meet in the Depression.
Being born in the late 1960’s (1966 for me to be exact) meant that I got to see much of the downward spiral of what was the boom years of the 50’s and early 60’s. Which leads to me some funny quotes I would get from my parents as a kid… Dad, “It’s a fucked up world I’m leaving you son”, Mom, “Free country…yea right”. As a teenager just heading out to work and live, I was enjoying the high life! I was riding my BMX bike, seeing the country, having fun, making money! All was good…all was good though due to me heeding my parents advice about several things.
These were all pretty simple and still apply well to today.
1. Do the right thing. Spike Lee didn’t coin this phrase, every responsible parent in history did. Doing the right thing means following your heart and your intuition, this is also known as, if it feels wrong…yea it is.
2. When trouble seems to be coming. Leave. This was changed to, “if you think something bad is about to go down, get in your kiddy car and come home.” When your friends are telling you, don’t worry, drinking and driving is no big deal…or pyramid schemes are good for a quick buck…think again.
3. Don’t get into stuff you can’t handle. This ties into #1 above. Follow that instinct. If you are facing down something that does not seem to be in your best interest. Do not do it.,
4. Work for what you want-need. Don’t expect others to do for you. Strangely enough, I was also told to, help others when you can. Two opposing ideas that only work properly when following #1 and #3 above. Of course there is a limit to how much work you can do for what you want, if your tastes are a little too…expensive or your skills are not in demand, but as long as you work, do the right thing, don’t get into trouble and get into stuff you can’t handle, working will get you what you need and quite a bit of what you want.
5. This is a strange one…always have health insurance! Since I was 19 years of age, (essentially when my parent’s policy dropped me) I have had health insurance of some kind. Why did they give me this piece of advice? Well…you will get sick, this is not a fantasy or a tall tale. The day will come when something will happen and if you don’t have some form of health insurance, you will be carrying massive, unforeseen debt for a long…long time. (This is why I keep calling for universal healthcare, but I digress.)
Originator of the saying “It’s a fucked up world I’m leaving you…”
So all those things seemed like pretty sane advice and easy to heed. (Although I had more than a few friends who seemed to not be able to stay in those loose guidelines.) The thing I didn’t understand was why Pop would tell me he was leaving me a “fucked up world” and Mom wasn’t seeing America as the “ultimate land of freedom” that I was told it was in school.
I learned those lessons later on…
When I was young the world was a relatively fun place to be in. Riding BMX bikes, traveling, having fun, what could be fucked up about this?! Then the realities of adulthood come into play and you begin to see the other side of the good times coin.
Why do people believe in gods but not science?
Why do people hate other people they don’t even know?
Why do the overtly wealthy and powerful get away with things that would put the rest of us in jail, in debt or on death row?
Why are corporations allowed to pollute and destroy and the consequences wind up in public hands but the profits wind up in a small amount of hands?
Why do other countries invest in infrastructure, healthcare, public transportation, education far exceeding what they spend on their military?
Why do we allow money to be the overriding reason we do anything and not whether it is good for the people?
Why are we fed fear when the reality is we are safer now than at any time in our history?
Why, why, why, became something I kept asking myself as I delved into my late 30’s and 40’s and the only answer I could come up with was, humanity is a severely flawed animal.
Why?
If I had the answer I would not just be writing in my own little blog.
The Greatest Generation’s women shoveled snow well into their 60’s.
Free country?
Yes. But only if you have the wealth, power and influence to buy your way into it.
Otherwise be prepared for debt to massive companies, taxation where your don’t even know where your money goes…(Ok, social security, got that, medicare, ok, makes sense…”federal” well that is a big blanket number…can I get a breakdown on that one? Shut up, citizen.) and power concentrated in the hands of a few.
So what am I saying? What is the lesson of the Greatest Generation that is now fading into history? What was their point? What advice did the “boomers” not heed or not get because the Greatest Generation was too young to impart it on them and only saw it when they too were in their 40’s and 50’s?
Someone right now is running around with the mandate to “Make America Great Again”. Nice slogan, with little substance. But it does beg the question, when was America truly great, if ever?
Well going by wealth inequality, raises in pay and general feeling of upbeat enthusiasm it was when…
1. American companies had unions that kept the balance between workers, owners and management in check. So that jobs weren’t sent “away” to keep “shareholders” happy.
2. When America invested in itself. Invested in our infrastructure, in our people, in education, in…healthcare and social security.
3. When strong movements were coming into being for civil rights of all people regardless of race, religion, income or sexual persuasion.
4. When large corporations were taxed to provide for infrastructure, education, health and social security.
5. When we had government and leaders who understood the balance between the needs of the individual and the needs of the many and did not even consider the needs of the…corporation.
Essentially, we were, at the very least a better country when…
We had leaders who took charge and pointed a direction for the country that made us believe in not only ourselves but each other.
So that really is my take away from my parents, “The Greatest Generation”. That is what I believe is missing now. The balance between the needs of the many and the rights of the individual. When the greatest generation was young, things were booming, the good times were rolling and I am sure they thought it would last forever… it was not until the recessions of the late 1960’s and 1970’s that they saw the way things were going. By then their boomer children were in the workforce and it was only us handful of generation x’ers who got more sage advice on what to do with our lives.
So that’s us, the in between Generation…the X generation. Looking at humanity and wondering…WTF is wrong with this thing?…