What The Greatest Generation Can Teach Us

Gasoline and food rationing, domestic production mandates, a military draft! Sounds like a totalitarian nightmare, but it stopped global fascism. As we face our own global environmental crisis, what lessons can we learn from pre-war Americans?

My wedding ring belonged to my husband's grandmother, and I love to hear about the times she lived through. Recently, I got to know that history a little better through a museum exhibit showing information provided to Americans battling international fascism during WWII.

Lines like "conservation or concentration camps, the choice is yours..." really jumped out at me. "Conservation" was patriotic? Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" knew that winning meant: they had to make some adjustments. They conserved, invested in war bonds, and joined the armed services.

In the current "oil war on terror", our patriotic duty to conserve, or do anything to reduce climate change is ignored. Instead, we're asked to consume more for a stronger economy.

Our grandparents left us a legacy and a lesson: to succeed against huge odds, requires a huge effort made by the contributions of free citizens. Conserve energy, invest in clean technologies, and join the efforts to make positive environmental change for all. Conserve, Invest, and Join - that was grandma's recipe for victory, and it hasn't changed.

Today, it's our turn. Talk to the elderly people in your community to learn what they did when the challenge was at their door. Are you up to it?

Comments

[baldblackman]

What is the deal with these under 40 year old Black people adopting the "America was great back then line"?

[angelwax]

Yep, the guys running the country are not our leaders. Our leaders are you, me and the guy down the street. It's do this for us, our country, and our future generations, not for the politicans that have sold their souls for 30 pieces of silver.

[NoPCZone]

I understand your charge for us to step up to the challenges that face us here and now, but I have a real problem with the 'Greatest Generation' title hung upon the generation that came of age during the Depression and entered adulthood during World War II.

This is the generation that-
1- Tolerated Jim Crow for much of their adulthood.
2- Failed to back President Truman's push for Universal Healthcare.
3- Laid back and allowed the Red Scare to run rampant.
4- Let the Vietnam War drag on and on and on.
5- Elected Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
6- Authored the White Flight to the burbs as school desegregation was implemented.
7- Went to school for free on the GI Bill in their youth, then starved the schools & higher ed with Prop 13 and Reagan Tax Cuts.
8- Underfunded Social Security by dumping ever heavier taxes upon generations that either couldn't vote or were yet to be born.

My dad was of this generation. They, as a generation, were no better or worse than any other. They squandered a lot of opportunities, just like every other.

[Blutus]

Generational amnesia.

One generation raised on the Great Depression,
FDR and WW2.

My memory growing up is of JFK's head getting blown off, Watergate, My Lai and Richard Nixon.
I was raised when the government couldn't do anything right and was full of crooks.

Kind of like now.

And the "Greatest" generation would indeed be the greatest if they had had a choice.

They had to deal with the Great Depression and win WW2 because they had no other choice.

I think other generations of Americans would have responded in a similar way.

[usna73]

There is a huge difference at work. The WWII gen had COMMUNITY. Post Reagan the ruling class has successfully dismantled this with the bogeyman of "guns, gays and god."

Near term I am not optimistic. It may take an economic catastrophe or global war again, before we look around and figure out that there is no us versus them. It's all US.

For 98% of us, we were tricked, seduced or sleepwalking while it has all unfolded. It will take 30 years to fix what 30 years has done.

Say no to urban sprawl by moving back to the "neighborhood." Save your money no matter what it takes, as soon as you can get started.

Move forward by "passing the torch" as JFK declared. Vote for Obama and be sure to send a Democratic Congress up in 2009. Then cross your fingers.

[Producer1]

I've never been comfortable with Tom Brokaw's revisionist history of the "Greatest Generation". The only thing I've ever learned from them is what not to do. He is as wrong about them as he is with his current 1968. The heroes of the 20th Century are the members of the inapropriately named "Lost Generation".

The generation of FDR, Eisenhower, Churchill, George C. Marshall, Harry Truman, etc. planned and conducted the recovery from the Great Depression, planned and conducted WWII, founded the UN, desegregated the military, started the Civil Rights movement and contained Communism. They gave us a fabulous framework to work within and my parents generation blew it. The Yiddish term for their generation is "Chazzer".

Other than JFK, we have the shining examples of Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, Ronald Reagan to be ashamed of. There is no way you can call this gang of crooks (ugh)"Greatest". Just look at whom and what they've spawned.

Their kids did not learn their lessons well. They forgot the lessons of the Depression and therefore never taught them to us.

[Merlin7]

Here's the problem: the World War II generation (not the greatest, by the way) had the federal government on their side. Our current government, in contrast, represents the oil-addicted establishment and actively works against grass-roots conservation efforts. The pathetically weak energy bill passed this week is a shining example of how our government pretends to want to shed its oil addiction but really doesn't. (Just like it pretends to oppose militarism while invading and bombing one weaker country after another.)

Yeah, let's all drive a Prius. Rah, rah, rah.
Bah, humbug!