Keepers of the Culture of The Greatest Generation

[Flat Foot Floey]

I wonder why some things the observation bar seem to be almost impossible to comment without breaking the "politics banned"-rule.
I accept the rule and certainly there are some clever statements here that would go well without breaking it. All this invetions are pretty interesting to read about. Also I am glad that the allies won the war (is that already politics?)
I just live in the wrong country to agree with the generation that lived then here and well...I can't deny the progress since the golden era. I also disagree that it is bad to look at things from todays point of view. Yes, we should include the knowlegde of what the people were used to back then.... but and this is a big butt: some things are just plain bad, evil and wrong. And I rather don't pretend to be blind and/or stupid.
Why is it so hard to accept and appreciate the best of both worlds...now and then? Modern day bashing is gettin old (haha) and it pushes every discussion in the wrong direction(=politics)

I didn't want this to sound harsh. I just think we could have it easier and more friednly here without certain discussion.

 

[CharlieB]

To get back to Widebrim's original question, we can keep many things from the era that we are discussing. We can keep the history (orally or written), we can keep the material culture, we can keep the feelings/values .

Perhaps though, the most import thing that we can keep, the one that really makes a difference is keeping the interest in the era. We do this so that those who come after us don't let this very pivotal period of time be forgotten, or only remembered through nostalgia.

Just my two cents.

 

[Chas]

I wonder why some things the observation bar seem to be almost impossible to comment without breaking the "politics banned"-rule.

Because the FL is made up of people and people are political animals?

I'm glad the Allies won the war too, but it invokes in me a tired cynical laugh whenever I see attempts in the FL to rehabilitate the image of the Axis or to equate the behaviour of the Allies to them. I have learned that the FL is not a place for debating history, it's for nostalgia. Nostalgia is an emotional response, and the emotional rarely mixes well with the analytical. The nostaligiac want to keep their rose colored glasses.

For banter with historians and for debate (which is mind-expanding and educational) I have to go elsewhere.

My parents were of the WW2/depression generation. Much of what they were about are worth emulating and extolling, and some, not so much. The "good old days" for some were the "bad old days" for others. Nothing is black and white and there are many shades of gray.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Reading the article it appears to me that school segregation is determined by demographic/geographical trend. I have a hard time believing that there is an official policy of it.

And yet -- isn't the end result the same? In both cases you end up with a divided, unhealthy culture. To say, "well, it's not *segregation by official policy*" doesn't dismiss or justify the divisiveness that results.

To keep this on topic, there was a lot of soul searching about segregation and its results during the thirties and forties, and especially during the war era -- read Myrdal's "An American Dilemma" and Ottley's "There's A New World Comin'" for a good grounding in the direction in which thought was moving during these years. It was a culture increasingly willing to confront its own flaws -- and that soul-searching led to positive steps. It was *that generation* that brought about the civil rights movement, the generation born between 1910 and 1930. With all due respect to the Boomers, they were just riding that generation's coattails.

What's worth Keeping in that Culture is exactly that spirit of self-confrontation -- a spirit which I see being replaced more and more by a spirit of complacent self-*congratulation.* It has nothing to do with politics, I suggest -- rather, it's a flaw at the very core of today's society. All the problems we see are *OTHER PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS*, and not *OURS.* Because "they" have "their" culture, and "we" have "ours."

 

[Chas]

Oh, I agree Liz, the result is the same. No argument from me on that one. A segregated society can never be equal and just.

From my readings on the 30s and 40s there were a great many people who didn't like the way that the color line was drawn and what effect it was having. I will look into your recommendations (when I get a chance). I'm also good with self-confrontation. It's healthy and necessary for personal growth.

In my humble opinion.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

You are right chas. It was more of an rhetorical question. It just appeared to me that there are some topics that would be much more ejoyable without modern-times-bashing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Bashing" is one thing -- "hah, look at those stupid kids in their baggy pants, aren't they stupid." But analysis should be quite another -- we should be willing to examine and judge the modern era by the same standard by which the modern era judges the past.

 

[Chas]

Which is nigh on impossible, considering that we live now, and not then. Well, perhaps not impossible. It requires a lot of critical thought. Critical thought is not taught much anymore, and I can go into a long and paranoid rant about that. I will briefly posit that the "powers that be" don't want that. It is against their interests.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Which is exactly what it means to be a Keeper of The Culture Of The Greatest Generation," I'd think. Critical thought was a highly prized ability then.

 

[Chas]

So was handwriting. One thing I've always liked about folks from that era is their handwriting skills. I have it, because they taught us to do it at James Thompson Elementary; but my parents' generation had (mostly) beautiful handwriting skills. That, and they wrote letters which thanks to the internet and texting, is almost as dead as the Dodo.

In general, the youngsters I work with at the hospital have pretty juvenile-looking script. That, and their spelling is not always very good.

And yes, they were critical thinkers. I can tell some stories about mum, dad and their friends' amazing skill at improvisation and critical thinking skills- good old fashioned common sense. Horse-sense, as it was also called.

 

[CharlieB]

So was handwriting. One thing I've always liked about folks from that era is their handwriting skills. I have it, because they taught us to do it at James Thompson Elementary; but my parents' generation had (mostly) beautiful handwriting skills. That, and they wrote letters which thanks to the internet and texting, is almost as dead as the Dodo.

And yes, they were critical thinkers. I can tell some stories about mum, dad and their friends' amazing skill at improvisation and critical thinking skills- good old fashioned common sense. Horse-sense, as it was also called.

Interesting you should mention hand writing. One of my coworkers has a daughter in elementary school. Her teacher told him that they are considering dropping cursive writing, since "everyone just uses the computer now."

This got me to thinking, I volunteer at our local Historical society in the library/archives. It occurred to me, that without that skill, looking at most of the documents created before the 20th century would be as unintelligable as if they were in a foreign language.

 

[scottyrocks]

I think that the great unwashed, so to speak, present and past, doesnt and didnt give these deep cultural and national issues much consideration. There are thinkers in society - always have been. But it has always taken a crisis, or a series of them, to bring about changes, and then the changes are often met with continued resistance which increased the time it takes them to come into full effect, if that ever does indeed happen.

The way world is moving now, with so much happening simultaneously on our 'shrinking' planet, it could be argued that we are in-and-due-for a societal-changing crisis (or series of them) possibly quite soon, or at least within our lifetimes. It never stops. We just dont know the how-and-whens in advance.

 

[CharlieB]

I am reminded of one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes

"History may not repeast itself, but if often rhymes."

 

[Chas]

Unfortunately, in difficult and uncertain times the loudmouth schmucks get more airplay than the intellectuals. We live in an age of uninformed bigots and demagogues dominating the Rupert Murdochian universe.

The "golden age" had it's Citizen Kanes and jerkwads like McCarthy, too. But for some reason, we as a society don't read our history properly.

[video=youtube;fqQD4dzVkwk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqQD4dzVkwk&feature=related[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the essential flaw in the "Great Man" theory of history -- it ignores what the ordinary, everyday people thought and felt and believed and wanted, and turns them into just a faceless mass of abstraction. As Keepers Of The Culture I'd suggest it's our responsibility to learn and know the difference between such abstractions and the reality.

 

[rue]

The greatest generation...
Forgive me for not being as eloquent in my answers as some of the loungers here.

First, what does the term "mean" to you, and does it really apply to us of the Fedora Lounge?

To me it's pride in.... country, family, values, in holding down the fort while the men were fighting, in helping others, in our military and trusting that those that are fighting will win. Something that's greatly missing today, in my opinion, being a wife of a soldier.

As far as applying to us... well, some live in the land of "the good old days" and some know what their parents/grandparents went through, so to me it's an individual thing. As long as that generation is held in high regard for any reason, that's good enough for me.

I think I answered all three questions above, but I will add that the one thing we can take from that generation is basically pride itself.

As far the bad.... well, every generation has it's issues, but if it was possible and I had to choose when to come back in history, it would be the generation we're speaking of, because even with the politics, war, racial issues, medical disadvantages and everything else, it looks like a picnic to what I see going on today. Of course that's my opinion and well, everyone has one just like something else

 

[Pompidou]

Of course that's my opinion and well, everyone has one just like something else

I was thinking of that same quote as I read the thread. That warrants two thumbs up for you.

 

[rue]

I was thinking of that same quote as I read the thread. That warrants two thumbs up for you.

 

[John in Covina]

One of the drawbacks of the Greatest Generation was the fact that many had tough times and in turn said that they wanted their children to have all the things they did not have.

As such many kids were spoiled getting all that their parents did not have but at the same time the kids did not get the values of their parents, this is what spawned the worst parts of the 1960's.

 

[rue]

One of the drawbacks of the Greatest Generation was the fact that many had tough times and in turn said that they wanted their children to have all the things they did not have.

As such many kids were spoiled getting all that their parents did not have but at the same time the kids did not get the values of their parents, this is what spawned the worst parts of the 1960's.

My husband said the same thing, after I had him read this thread. He also said that he thinks "the greatest generation" is not the one we're writing about, but (in the USA) those of our country's forefathers generation and the generation at the turn of the century in the industrial age. He believes that the "greatest generation" were a great generation that did outstanding with what they were handed. The former on the other hand created their own opportunities and risked everything they had. To him it takes more out of a person to risk everything, than to have to deal with what they're handed. He also said that he's not taking anything away from that generation.

Disclaimer..... *Any opinions expressed in this post are solely those of my husbands and do not necessarily represent myself