Bjcorbin's Blog

I was born in 1963; about a month after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  I vaguely remember Charles Manson, Woodstock and the Vietnam War; but I was really more a product of the Cold War era.  Back then, kids were raised with the notion that if we didn’t all perish in the midst of a nuclear holocaust, or succumb to the “killer bees” that were steadily migrating from the south, we’d inevitably be consumed by the coming of a second ice age.  This might explain some of the skepticism that people of my generation have about this whole global warming thing. 

It was a strange period in history, but as American’s we had the distinct advantage of having that “one thing” we all agreed on, which was that the Soviets were the “bad guys”.  By default, that meant we were the “good guys”.  That may not seem like much, but in hindsight, it was a lot more valuable than we understood.  The Cold War was largely fought in the fertile imaginations of the people and so it was quite a relief when we finally saw the Berlin Wall come down.  Since the Soviet Union soon broke into little pieces, it seemed obvious, even to the most casual observer, that America must be the winner.  This was sweet vindication for democracy, the US Olympic team and for our space program; all of which had bore questionable results in the past.  Presuming that the whole episode was a titanic struggle between the world’s two “super powers”, one had to conclude that we (i.e. the USA) were now the world’s preeminent “super power”.  After a mere two hundred years of history, all our hard work and struggle had paid off; and now we could rightfully claim to be the most powerful country in the world.  Certainly we had biggest middle class, the highest standard of living and the most fearsome military-industrial complex.  We even had a president that most American’s believed in, which turned out to be another thing that would soon become a distant memory.  That’s the ironic thing about making it to the pinnacle; the best you can hope for is that you stay there for a while.  Arguably, we did.

Just as adversity has a way of bringing people together, prosperity has a way of dividing them.  This problem is compounded when that prosperity is inherited instead of earned, because then it is viewed as a birth right instead of the byproduct of blood sweat and tears.  Indeed, the people of my generation were the benefactors of the generations who came before us and who were willing to pay a price, that we now seem unwilling to pay.  They believed that the good of the whole outweighed the needs of a few, while my generation ascribes to the belief that every person has a God given right to pursue happiness on their own terms.  We were raised with the idea that every generation ought to prosper even more than the last, but we failed to recognize that this principle only works when we are willing to put forth the same kind of effort and sacrifice that our predecessors did.  Indeed, democracy and free market economies only work when there’s a consistent level of effort and reinvestment in them; but we’ve become a generation of consumers.  As if that weren’t bad enough, we somehow managed to convince ourselves that we could somehow circumvent the principle of “supply and demand” simply by voraciously consuming the world’s goods.  Though we were able to pull that illusion off for a while, the economic equivalent of the law of gravity has finally caught up with us.  While we may have admired our grandparent’s gardens and while they may have left our cellars stocked with canned goods, the cupboards are now getting barren and we’ve never bothered to learn how to work the land for ourselves.

In moments of crisis, there is always a temptation to blame someone else for our condition, but to do so is rarely productive.  Though external forces are certainly a factor, we are generally hard pressed to change much outside of ourselves.  The cost of successfully finding someone to blame is that we become powerless to alter our course.  Sadly, my generation has made “The Blame Game” America’s favorite pastime.  We’re not fat because we have no self discipline, it’s because our parents damaged our self esteem or because McDonalds doesn’t have the right nutritional standards; we’re not in debt because we spent all sorts of money that we didn’t have, it’s because interest rates are too high or employers don’t pay enough; our marriages aren’t failing because we haven’t invested ourselves in them, it’s because our partner just isn’t meeting our needs; our kids don’t struggle in school because of our lack of genuine parenting, it’s because the teachers just don’t know how to motivate them; it’s the governments fault; it’s those right wing fanatic’s fault; it’s those bleeding heart liberals; it’s the radical Muslims, it’s Christianity; it’s everybody and everything, but me.  It is the proverbial “them”; and sadly, that has become the American way.

Our forefathers were raised under an oppressive regime and because of that, the government they formed was constructed to ensure that its leaders never attained that kind of control over the people.  They envisioned a government that would be a support to the people, but wouldn’t impede their opportunity to prosper.  They never intended for the government to be the source of that prosperity.  But in today’s world, as America’s collective prosperity seems to be teetering precariously, the people of my generation seem to be looking toward the government for the fix.  We expect them to make sure that we have a high paying job; that we always get to negotiate our price; that we all have good medical insurance; that the price of gas doesn’t get too high and that our borders are safe from terrorists, without causing us a corresponding delay at the airport.  Not only do we want that and more, we don’t want it to cost any more than the relatively sparse governmental model that our founders envisioned.  We keep electing people who promise those things, even though there is no possibility that they can deliver them.  Because my generation has never really experienced genuine governmental oppression, we clamor for them to take care of us; failing to realize that a government that is able to take care of the people, will ultimately control them.  We need only watch the rioting all over the Middle East to see what that looks like.  

On the rare occasion that the government does produce something to help the people, there never seems to be a shortage of individuals who stand at the ready to exploit it.  Like “The Blame Game”, exploiting “the system” for our personal gain is just part of the way that my generation does things.  When the Capitalists gave corporations incentives and tax breaks, in an effort to create a prosperity that would “trickle down” through the economy, corporate America exploited it into record profits; thereby blunting the intended effect.  When Socialists created programs to help those in need, many in our society made an industry out of exploiting those systems as well.  Regardless of what program our current administration may initiate, we can be sure there will be a group of American citizens who feel perfectly justified in exploiting it.  While the statue of “Lady Liberty” in New York’s harbor may be a symbol of the virtuous intent of our forefathers, I fear that if we had to recast her today, she would rightfully be in rags; ravaged and robbed by the very people who claimed to love her.    

Ultimately, I believe that the greatest crisis that we face in America today is not our collapsing economy, or the sky-rocketing national debt or even the threat of terrorism; it is the crisis of our national character.  Unless that changes, we will likely lack the unity and resilience needed to deal with any other issue.  It’s not them, it’s us, it’s our generation, it’s me!