culture 093019

I was born too late to be a depression baby and too early to be a boomer.  Not part of the greatest American generation but I do know it by second hand as the first half of the twentieth century.  For me socialization began with my father who at 14 drove his family across the country while teaching my grandmother to drive.  There were no highways and maps were farmers' tales at country stores.  Later dad would fly over the land in a “Jenny”.   An uncle went from climbing poles to climbing the corporate ladder that built “Ma Bell.”  Another uncle was a pioneer of the Army’s Armored Force and survived landing on Norman Beaches. 

As a teenager I met many from the turn of the century and WWI.  I grew up on stories about early radios, automobiles, the depression and mobilization for WWII.  I regret to say I didn’t pay much attention at the time and now it’s too late to recover the little historical footnotes.  I’m left with trying to mine the memories of other first generation dependents of our greatest generation, but like me they are disappearing rapidly and becoming history themselves.

Sitting in South American bar I discover a friend’s father was one of the army of depression unemployed that flocked to a desert in the middle of nowhere to pour concrete that became Hoover Dam.  A dam that made Las Vegas possible, taught the unskilled workers new technologies that made possible rapid WWII mobilization and built America’s infrastructure.  My friend grew up on the personal stories and observations of his father’s experiences that shaped his own values years later.

Now almost a hundred years after that army of unemployed face down danger and primitive living in desert heat I discovered that another friend’s father was pushing a railroad across equally hostile terrain in the same era.  That railroad was part of a network transporting soldiers and weapons to embarkation ports leading to WWII victory.  This discovery came to me through binary technology that pole climbers, track layers and tank drivers could never envision but they are responsible for scientific and societal advancement that made America great.

The term “Greatest Generation” was coined long after WWII in a book about the soldiers and Rosies that made victory possible.   Taking nothing away from the contributions of 1942-45 Americans but the victory was the result of the culture and values gained between 1900 to 41.  Unlike other nations American recruits not only knew how to drive but also how to repair vehicles, even build their own hot rods.  Many already knew how to fly, others were ham radio operators who built their on sets.  They were used to hard work on farms, oil fields and living rough during the depression.  Every thing from toasters to radios to trains had to be repaired with limited resources.   The generation were problem solvers, able to fix everything with nothing.  If they couldn’t solve a problem with what they had, they invented new technologies to construct dams and lay track.  New industries emerged along with mass production that improved output.   America got to the moon on the groundwork of Goddard and Langley science.  It was a period of cultural advancement; invention and innovation like no other and may never again be as great.  That advancement came from a universal public school system building on family values of hard work and integrity.

Sociologists are in agreement that the culture and values of the greatest generation are no longer those of modern Americans.  Consensus on causation of this change is limited because they are interactive.  Single parent households amplified by latchkey kids entertaining themselves with rock-em sock-em television, broken by sell, sell, sell commercials of exciting, invented facts.  TV news is filled with murder, mayhem, and white collar criminals who escape punishment.  They walk down streets playing violent video games where the dead and injured are recycled for the next game, no one dies.  Higher education teaches how to lie with statistics, sell the unsaleable, glorify greed and plagiarize someone with better ideas.  Kids notice that the country has become a throwaway society from planned obsolescent to running companies into the ground while bailing out under a golden parachute.  Century old businesses are collapsing or already fallen from bad management.  Management adding up bonuses while exploring more companies to exploit.  The concept of building for the future has given way to “I want it all now,” what ever it takes.  Even the buildings are throw a ways designed to be replaced in decades rather than last for centuries.  Toasters can’t be repaired and few know how to repair a tractor or even change a tire on cars they can’t drive.  Digging ditches, mowing the grass or even climbing stairs require mechanical machines that will be replaced rather than repaired.  The military has discovered that only a small percentage of Americans can meet minimal physical requirements to enter service in time of emergency.  Public schooling for all is being replaced by tiered system the favors elites, another for those expected to serve the elite and a final tier for those considered likely to dropout and a waste of time to educate.  The effect of tiered education is cultural stratification and elimination social equality as the dynamic of national advancement.  The ethical models for the now generation are televangelist extorting the faithful.     Business leaders who are rewarded for evading taxes and absconding with payrolls.  Politicians who openly lie to mislead voters and exploit public budgets for personal gain.  With this socialization as the American “Way” it is understandable that modernist have abandoned the values of the greatest generation.  What is lost is greatness of a nation that may never again be as great or even survive.