Loosing America and Getting it Back

[The Oracle]

Much has been spoken on the state of the country and the world, but I have come to the conclusion that all of the rhetoric is systemic of a bigger problem. Look around, for those with the retro attitude or sprit we see many things in our lives that are conducive to the loss of the values of yesteryear. As a result, I will say that our future relies on us looking to the past to a time when dignity was displayed in dress and the idea of self-reliance was not a foreign thought. Side note, I will leave any discussion of religion out, although I do feel it is a good one to have on the subject.

My father is a retired truck driver. I am intrigued with a comment he has made about drivers of today; he calls them bums. In his era, drivers dressed with shined shoes, button up shirts (pressed) and they were clean. They took their breaks at meal time where they stopped at a truck stop and had coffee and yes a cigarette with their meal. Today, the drivers can be found wearing sweat pants with holes, grabbing fast food and put in the words of my dad, "they are $60,000 a year homeless people who drive like crap," there is no pride in the work.

In my own job, we are fighting with a new generation that does not understand the idea of being the best. They complain that they cannot wear t-shirts, their uniform shoes have not seen polish in a year or more and they are in many cases uninterested in training. The idea that this blue collar job has escaped our numbers of college graduates. Twenty years ago, few would have thought twice about wearing a shirt and badge, 50 years ago no one would have left a fire house without a shirt, tie and a service cap.

What of simple cooking. Few people today can make a meal. Oh we are good with dinner in a box. I remember when we got our first microwave. Let’s just say that things have gone downhill ever sense. Almost every aspect of a grocery store is designed to make the modern family reliant on a producer of something. If we cannot cook from scratch, then we need “Betty Crocker” to do it for us. Furthermore, if we cannot cook, we don’t need a family garden.

What does this mean? For those of us that long for days that were gone before we were born, I hope it is a desire to step back to those values of dignity, personal pride and reliance on self. Does it mean you can’t wear a t-shirt outside, no but perhaps remembering that in the 1920s, even the janitor wore a tie might remind us that taking the time to look good for the situation is something to be admired and emulated by others. Taking the time to cook a meal and have dinner with the family around the table. Perhaps that will kindle a flame to plant some tomatoes in the spring.

I know that to many on this forum, I am preaching to the choir. But I have felt compelled lately to look at problems that I see as ripping away at our society and culture. I have been told that we need to encourage diversity, but I would remind people that we were founded as a people with things in common and we came together as a country. Diversity in the way it is been forced upon us seeks to destroy the common threads that made us one. Every part of modern lifestyle is designed to make us rely on someone to exist. Few have pride in what they do, perhaps they feel that they were hired and that is good enough. So, I will wear my fedora with pride and dignity not only because I love it, but because it is a symbol of era when people did things from themselves.

[davidg]

I will agree with you that there appears to be less concern with pride of work but I don't really know where that comes from.. could it be education or the various machineries of education? Perhaps, .. but I also remember when my Father and others were proud of being part of larger bodies, .. the Union, the Church, etc.. Now there seems to be SO much encouragement in individuality that there is no pride in group action.. We do things for ourselves, but we do them for others as well.. Granted, there are those who take advantage of that and that needs to be dealt with .. had I the answers.. well I certainly would hope I'd be somewhere better than here.

[The Oracle]

I have spent the last month conducting training for some young firemen. During that time I have seen some with the desire to excel and equal numbers that appeared to think they were going to be given a pass just because they were there. This got me thinking about the roots of the problem. I was fortunate to have been trained by the last generation of old fashioned “smoke eaters.” These guys had to know their jobs because they did not have the benefit of modern protective clothing to get them by. They were trained by the WWII generation who did not question authority and had a work ethic that made things happen under the most trying of conditions. We all know what they did in WWII, but these same people build the Hoover Dam, the ALCAN Highway, etc. They made things happen.

I once heard that it take three generations to create a new thought process. Well, the generation that I am seeing now would be three removed from the WWII generation. What does it mean? My parents are part of the “Baby Boomer” generation. Many of these people were brought up in the first of the suburban environments where their parents gave them a lot because they did not want them to go through what they had to. Of course with each generation this has amplified getting us where we are today. They were looking for gadgets to make life simpler until the point was reached were all of the time savers created a non-stop environment. Work is a hindrance to the conduct of the non-stop way life.

Dad was a teamster. They pushed for restrictions on the hours a driver could work per day. Rightly so, it made them and others safer on the roadway. However, this also created a group of reckless individuals behind the wheel who will not stop to take a break and guys that drive as a nuisance on the highway so they can get further in the same amount of time. In my job, protective clothing that was intended to make us safer has made us less safe because guys no longer learn what is needed to survive without it; we have a superman syndrome, it can’t hurt us because we are protected.

So, what can we do? It will take three generations to see total reversal once the seed is planted. However, it can start with evaluation of our family and work ethics. Do we strive to slow the family down? Have dinner together at the table (something rare in my family that I have sought to change with my kids). Strive to display pride at work in appearance and how we conduct our business. Perhaps we CAN have a trickle-down effect and influence one or many to do the same. Yes, be active groups. Religion is the foundation of our beliefs and morals (even the atheist had to get a since of right and wrong from somewhere). Professional organizations should look towards making their people the best at what they do, not just look at what they can get. Perhaps the dialog can go back to the attitude of JFK when he posed the question “What can you do for your country?” What can you do for your organization? Not the other way around.

This has been my observation. With all of the rhetoric in the news and politics of who is doing or not doing what, who is going to fix things? Any change for the good of our culture, country and community can only begin with looking in the mirror.

[davidg]

Very nice! Yes, each and every one of us influences a circle of people and the size of that circle is larger than we might even realize. Each and every action we do, each and every image that we convey spreads like ripples and has consequences.

[n11pilot]

A friend of mine who is a little older than I am has been expressing this same sentiment for years. He is very concerned about the future of the US with the "Wintering" of the WWII generation.

Many times I have heard him say something to the effect,"Aging is forcing the "Can Do" generation to hand the reins over to the "Won't Try" generation."

He is only saying something that I have felt for years. Having been born in the 1950s I've had the honor of knowing not only members of the WWII generation but also members of the generation that fought in WWI. When I compare those generations with my own I realize that my fellow Boomers and myself fall far short.

[Hakaider]

You know, I used to think that the more advanced the technology becomes, the more smarter people will become. Unfortunately, the last ten years has shown me otherwise.

You have kids now who claim that WWI and WWII never happened in the internet. In fact, one kid claimed that the entire history of man was faked, and history didn't begin until he was born. (He must think that his parents appeared from magic.) Their reasoning of course, was it was something that happened long before they were born, so therefore, "it didn't happen". (One of these kids in the internet, even said that Europe doesn't exist & the British accent is all fake. One of his reasons was that it's too far away for him, so it doesn't "exist".)

50 years ago, such ridiculous & absurd talk would be unthinkable. In fact, even as late as the 1980's I never heard anyone talking like that either. When you have people believing that history had never happened, they can easily manipulated by any government to believe anything. (Especially if a government decides that the past can be rewritten & recreated. That's what the communist governments did.)

I also saw 3rd grade kids who couldn't add 1 plus one, and 7th grade kids being unable to do very basic arithmetic. (Division & multiplication.) Many of them can't read or write in cursive or script writing. (Some of them can't even read a simple handwritten letter.)

With the explosion of vast knowledge on the internet, how could some of these kids end up becoming so willfully ignorant?

The sad part is that a 19th century child who was educated in a log cabin schoolroom, would know more about arithmetic, history, and geography than some of today's 21st century tweens.

On the bright side, there are still many bright kids today who are very well educated & are quite eager to learn, but it is my hope that they will not become a minority in the future.

And here's a scary thought..

What kind of future will America hold, if you have a generation of kids who don't believe that WWI or WWII, (Or the American Revolution for that matter) ever happened? What will happen when a generation thinks that the American Founding Fathers never existed, and the U.S. Constitution was faked by people in the 21st century?

[n11pilot]

Hakaider, I believe that if a group or individual wants to fundamentally change a country to the point of collapse, that group or individual must first destroy the country's history and sense of self worth. If you can convince a generation that everything that has gone before is meaningless or worse something that is fundamentally wrong, that is the first generation that will begin to fully reject the values of the past.
Once the basic tenets and values of a country are deemed worthless a strong individual, group, or movement can then instill new values in line with their philosophy.

When I first went back to college after military service I thought that some of my professors were simply incompetent or bad teachers. Now, years later I believe that they may have had an agenda.

[davidg]

Revisionist history can have some very good points and some very bad ones. When it is backed by good, thorough, research it can gain great insight into areas of history where it was thought nothing new was to be learned, however when there is too much speculation and not enough solid grounded research it can be the worst sort of propagandizing there is! This is done by all sectors of politics, left, right, and center and IMHO it is ALWAYS a bad thing!

[The Oracle]

Revisionist history can have some very good points and some very bad ones. When it is backed by good, thorough, research it can gain great insight into areas of history where it was thought nothing new was to be learned, however when there is too much speculation and not enough solid grounded research it can be the worst sort of propagandizing there is! This is done by all sectors of politics, left, right, and center and IMHO it is ALWAYS a bad thing!

This is very true, unfortunately I think most revisionist history is based on political correctness, not fact. Also, omission of fact has created a problem. When people attempt to change history it is often noticed, but when they leave things out, it is often overlooked and the real meaning does not come through.

[davidg]

This is very true, unfortunately I think most revisionist history is based on political correctness, not fact. Also, omission of fact has created a problem. When people attempt to change history it is often noticed, but when they leave things out, it is often overlooked and the real meaning does not come through.

Sometimes it is based on political IN-correctness as well. When I was in college a lecturer was invited to a debate on the existence of the Holocaust. His view was that the political enemies of Germany had become infected with various diseases which ran rampant through the camps and the ovens were merely the most effective and efficient way eliminate the bodies. He also said that there never were any sort of Zyklon B showers, that the gas itself had been used in de-lousing of prisoners. I'd say his revisionism was just based on clear insanity.