This week marks the 75th. anniversary of D-Day, the 6th. of June. This was the event that clearly indicated that the end for the Axis powers was only a matter of time. It also marked the military highlight for what became known as the “Greatest Generation”. This was so named by Tom Brokaw in his book by the same title. It has been adapted to enshrine the militant cult of a war nation and to glorify the machinations of the state. It is also bunk.
As I argued recently, there are no greatest generations, because people are rarely all good or all evil. Generations, like people are a mixed bag. The “WW2 generation” is no different, except perhaps that they have been needlessly mythologized in the service of the empire. The first thing to consider is that, if you think that the war was a worthy cause, then you should thank those who marshalled the resources to fight it and had the tenacity to wage it until they reached a successful conclusion. This would be the generation born between around 1880-1890. This would be the generation of FDR, George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patten, Omar Bradley, etc. These were the ones who had the power to continue the war or quit, not the grunts who were the line troops.
Also, it should be noted that the WW2 generation was mostly drafted to fight this war by their elders. Over 60% of WW2 service personnel were drafted. While this is certainly a lower figure than other U.S. wars, indicating a greater “patriotic” enthusiasm, the fact remains; without the draft the war could not have been fought successfully. History has a way of throwing cold water on statist myths. Again, if you think all of this was a positive thing then thank the generation preceding the “WW2 generation”. However, you must then blame this generation for the war crimes that were endemic to the prosecution of WW2.
To fairly evaluate the historical record of any generation we must look to what they did after they grasped the reigns of power. For the WW2 generation this did not occur until the early to mid 1960s, particularly the advent of the Kennedy administration. From this point on the record is…ahem, shall we say a little spotty.
Let’s look at the foreign policy “achievements” of this generation. They greatly expanded the size and lethality of the U.S. empire. They made it global in reach and generated global enmity toward the U.S. They gave us the “domino theory” and the disaster that was Vietnam. They gave us a tight alliance with dictatorial regimes throughout the Middle East, and the blowback of Islamic terrorism. They perpetuated mayhem all over Latin America and Africa. Let’s not forget they provided us with the constant threat of global thermonuclear war. In short, they gave us endless imperial war with all the moral bankruptcy involved.
Speaking of bankruptcy, they completely bankrupted the public finances of the U.S. government and saddled the taxpayer with a tax and debt burden that simply cannot be sustained. They greatly expanded Social Security, they enacted Medicare and Medicaid, the two largest drivers of our impending fiscal implosion. They destroyed what was left of the gold standard and set loose the Federal Reserve to completely distort the capital markets all the while lining the pockets of the bankster class. They vastly increased the scope of the regulatory state, so that now the federal government is involved in everything from how your light bulbs work, to how much water you flush down your toilet to the most intimate decisions about your body, due to the socialization of medicine and the drug war. They have erected a welfare/warfare state that sees citizens as a parasitical host to support the state and as an enemy to spy on, restrain and if need be, kill.
Now, as I said, all generations are a mixed bag. This was also the generation that gave us an integrated world trading system that they erected from the ashes of WW2. While not perfect, this led to the lifting of millions out of absolute poverty than had ever been done before. They gave us a culture that was far and away they most varied and diverse than had ever been known before. This culture was so alluring that the world consumed it with a breathtaking gusto. Sorry, lefties, global people voluntarily wanted U.S. culture, this was not an act of “cultural imperialism”. I mean, nobody put a gun to the French and made them go ape over Jerry Lewis movies (a facet of French culture I shall never understand).
This was the generation that gave us Coca-Cola as a global institution as well as Disneyland and Hollywood and more cool stuff than anyone could describe in a lifetime. They set the foundation for the digitized technological marvel that is our current world and they created more wealth than any generation had ever done before.
Please note the pattern here; the things they did well were outside of, and in spite of the government. Those things they jacked up were within and because of government policy. We absolutely must reject the hagiographical revision of the actual history of this generation, which, as always, is done to further state social, political and economic control. Rather, as God’s people we should use the brains He gave us and look at the actual record with an unjaundiced eye, evaluating the good and the bad. So, in the end a charitable historical evaluation will look upon this generation and conclude that they, like all other human generations past; did the best they could. That is good enough for God, it should be good enough for us.
Praise Be to God
