The Age of Adolescence
Never-never land
One of the great themes of the 1960s was to “do your own thing.” But usually “liberation” distilled down to creating your own rules and norms to justify allowing the appetites and passions to run free, while offering some sort of exalted cover for being either gross or mediocre — or both.
The hip generation that came of age talked about a new, perpetually youthful world that would supplant the values and aspirations of a fading bankrupt establishment (e.g., cf. Bob Dylan’s “the order is rapidly fading”). And in time the promise of the sixties, in fact, did permeate the last half-century, creating a contemporary culture of perpetual adolescence, of defying norms and protocols without offering anything much in their place.
From Lady Gaga to Iranian Nukes
Witness current events. A 22-year-old PFC Bradley Manning, without much experience, knowledge, or maturity, somehow becomes a “military analyst.” (I thought those were 2-star generals, RAND Ph.Ds, decorated colonels, or old Kissingerian National Security Council pros.)
And in our culture without hierarchy and requisites that title apparently allows him — in between downloading Lady Gaga music while in a combat zone in Iraq—to tap into the secret cables of the U.S. State Department, and destroy two decades worth of diplomatic contacts, trust, and friendships.
No matter — you see poor Bradley was also upset, depressed, and he felt underappreciated. In part, that was because his drag-queen boyfriend had recently dumped him. He was, in his own words, “regularly ignored except when I had something essential then it was back to ‘bring me coffee, then sweep the floor.’ … [I] felt like I was an abused work horse.”
Iranian nukes? North Korean missiles? Again, no problem. Bradley, you see, was depressed and in response had the desire and the power to change the global order. (Or in 60s parlance, “who is to say that Bradley doesn’t have the right to shut down the diplomatic world?”) Even Bob Dylan would be impressed with how “the times they are a-changin’.”
Wikicoward
Next, enter one Julian Assange — himself on the lam, avoiding a little sexy horseplay that the uptight Swedish authorities for some reason deemed thus far sexual battery and molestation. Jason is also angry at “them,” the Western world that does horrific things like guarantees enough affluence and security for those like Julian to jet about at will without any visible means of support. In the tradition of sixties nihilism, Julian, of course, tries to gussy up his destructive egotistical angst into some sort of cosmic humane call for more transparency and nice behavior on the part of the U.S. State Department and military.
In more earthly terms that means he is supposed to be something more than a two-bit computer punk that he is, one who would be terrified to extend his online liberationist creed to Iranian mullahs, Chinese communists, Hezbollah terrorists, or Russian gang lords. The latter do far more to trample the human spirit than does any Western nation, but they also at times tend to decapitate, blow up, or jail permanently any would-be Julian who dares to cross them.
Ant-Christ
While this is all going on, we have the spectacle of brave curators at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery offering us for Christmas season a new exhibit, emblematic of this current post-“piss-Christ”/Andres Serrano age of art.
Its title is coyly encrypted in postmodern bipolarity: “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” And the exhibition apparently is full of Mapplethorpe-inspired gay-related imagery and offers us an image of Jesus being swarmed over by ants. Clever, brave, bold, shocking. Or in the words of the overseers of the federally-subsidized National Portrait Gallery, such artistic courage proves how the gallery is now “committed to showing how a major theme in American history has been the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America’s promise of equality, inclusion, and social dignity.”
Helter skelter time.
The elections didn’t go as planned for our overlords. The natives seem a little restless, foolishly thinking they might have a say-so in the next set of events.
Time for some bread and circuses to keep them amused.
The real work of destroying the only force standing between the next infallible rulers and their thrones continues apace.
Yeah- the tea crowd, the most easily manipulated population in America. VDH is no more than a shill for the petro chemical war profiteer crowd. You want more babies in America folks? so they can go fight in wars for the benefit of Dick Cheney’s stock portfolio? How Christian.
…
Boo!
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Otto, Otto, vie gehts? But mein freund……the 60′s are over. The gray poneytail should be a clue.
You guys won, at least for a couple of years, and guess what, it’s worse; much much worse. Giving away houses didn’t work. Facism didn’t work. Waving your butt in the air didn’t work. $250 tax rebates didn’t work. Shovel ready projects didn’t work. $3 trillion down the crapper didn’t work. Bailing out the unions didn’t work. Free health care isn’t free at all. Mr. Soros isn’t such a sweetheart after all. And the lightworker? Louis IV must be envious. But you? Had any wagu beef lately? How’s sleeping in the car working out for ya?
Wake up. The Cheney meme is 10 years old, almost as old as your epaulettes. Dick only stirs up your buds in the cardboard houses. And Dubya’s approval ratings are beating the boy kings. after 50 years, it may be time to try out some new slogans.
Hey Troll,
VDH publishes MASSIVELY, and his commentary is always erudite and insightful regardless of whether or not you agree with his position. That is a track record that is far more substantive than you, pal. So, start by stinging together more than bile and invective in your replies. Who knows: you might even make a point!
Besides that, if one were to peruse the VDH archives they might actually see real logic and deductive powers in action. It’s a good way to learn something about themselves and the world in general.
Now if we can only convince VDH to run for President.
And, yes, this is the extent of depth that suffices for a the left’s “intellectual elite”: screeds based on conspiracy theories, straw-man arguments derived from willful ignorance, with a dash of religious bigotry. And all in under fifty words.
My congratulations to you for your concise, judicious, skills in the English language.
What more would one expect from someone whose entire world view was summed up in the lyrics of a Janis Josplin song 40 years ago.
And at least she thought the world was good enough for her and Mr. Robert McGee.
Ha! You are pretty funny, Otto. If the the tea crowd were as easily manipulated as you are, they would be singing cum byah in D.C. An VDH a shill for petroleun? Where on earth did that come from? What does wanting more babies have to do with anything that was mentioned in the article? You might want to know that all your leftists heroes have the same stocks that Mr. Chaney has (although I have no idea what he has personally). Same petroleum companies, same fuel companies, same armaments companies, etc. Great book with research details this: Do as I Say, Not as I Do. You might check it out. But maybe you’re not a real person, but a drone sent to bomb conservative web sites. Classy.
You are obviously the product a liberal education.
Hey Otto, you should go check out HuffPost…over there its “No Brain Cell Day”, so you qualify!
Jesus, I wish you’d read a book or two.
Otto! Otto! Otto! Poor creature. You truly live in a strange nightmare world of unreality. It is obvious you have no clue about Christianity or anything else.
VDH
There’s a reason they call them “Children of the 60′s”
They told off their parents regarding racism, regarding the Viet Nam war, and BECAUSE THEY WON THE ARGUMENT (we can discuss the merits at a later date), they return to the same themes and apply them with impunity to any fact pattern.
If Viet Nam was a “quagmire” and “unworthy” and “poorly reasoned”…then ALl conflicts get applied the same bumper sticker logic.
“Southern Man” was a song by Young, but is applied today without any hesitation to anyone who doesn’t adopt leftist pap as his daily staple.
The heady days when all that energy was the catalytic converter to marching and carrying signs and belief in the righteousness of the “moral high ground”, is an addictive high. Except they have to make it synthetically now. They keep trying to clone it on phony issues and faux discontent.
They trump up charges and fuel the class, race, any “victim” that can be championed warfare. It’s lame. They are bored with themselves and have to create enemies (usually America, Israel, conservatives and faith-based Christians).
They have taught their children that it’s wrong to compete. They believe they have saved the world. They are instead doing a magnificent job of ruining it.
Where are the parents? Well, lacking them or in their absence let’s channel Terry Pratchett’s Susan : “Hi! I’m the inner babysitter! ” VDH, this is a good start in that direction.
Abject Cowardice sums it up entirely. It is no less amazing that a country that allows it’s citizens the ability to achieve success on a scale beyond their dreams, is so condemned by those whose only talents are, well, to condemn this country. As you have pointed out Dr. Hanson, they’d never dare point out the hatred, intolerance, and tyranny in such nations as Iran, China, and North Korea. Abject cowards indeed, as it is easier to go after targets that you know won’t fire back……
Herr Dokter: It is high time those targets started firing back-verbally, and if necessary, in other ways, among them – the ballot box.
VDH-
Unfortunately, since the parents of the Sixties generation are either dead, dying or retired, it will fall to the great-great- grandchildren of the Sixties generation (those of the Justin Bieber haircuts and endless text messaging) to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, that’s also the generation upon whom the wages of the sins of the Sixties generation will fall the hardest. And they are, sadly, least served and prepared for the end of all of this.
Scott
The cleanup is happening now with Generation X. We grew up resentful of the 80s Yuppies who exploited the integrity of the professional workplace and created political correctness to provide cover. No, us Gen Xers are already on the case — raising *our* kids right and waiting for the hippies to die off.
Amen, David H. As a fellow GenXer and a parent of two very young rugrats, I couldn’t have said it better myself. The 60′s freaks currently in power are abject disasters. Cleaning up their mess will be painful. However, I stand for everything they are against (God, the nuclear family, free markets, individualism, etc.) and my kiddos will be too. Count on it.
You were making me feel all warm and fuzzy with hope UNTIL…. I got to ["individualism"].
I would so hope you might rethink that one!
Transitioning from a unitized society to an individualist society was the beginning of the destruction in America. ALL successful societies MUST have some “common fabric” that binds them together for good and common cause….even if limited to no more than values.
Individual “rights” does NOT equate to individualism!
Individualism is actually a central component of the anarchist ideology and used by socialist-progressives to break down and remove the common fabric of society to help them achieve the implementation of own ideology.
I agree – perhaps he meant individual responsibility? i.e. Taking personal responsibility for your actions? Because, seriously, that is one thing the 60s crowd have always done – pass the buck and blame it on someone/something else.
A word of caution to those looking forward to the death of the Baby Boomer generation: Be careful what you wish for. It’s not just the “hippies” that will be kicking the bucket.
Check out the demographics of the 2008 vote. It was not the Baby Boomers who put Obama into office. A majority of us, unlike most Gen-Xers, voted against him.
Even when we were stupid youngsters (and subject to the Vietnam draft, BTW) we overwhelmingly voted for Nixon over McGovern.
I’m I GenXer. I was in grade school when Nixon was elected, and I’m pretty sure the boys in my class were not subject to the Vietnam War draft.
The twenty-somethings of today are not GenXers; they are the children of Baby Boomers, generally called GenYers. The ones who voted for Obama are most likely the children of hippies, and/or they were indoctrinated by an education system dominated by hippies.
Wolfie,
As a fellow “Boomer” and life-long conservative, “Thank you!”
Don’t be too concerned Wolfie.
I was your stereotypical Gen X / Gen Y’er (30 years old) until 12 months ago. We’d never seen the left wing in power you see, here in Australia we’d had a conservative government since I was fourteen years old and before that a pretty central Labor government. Over there, for all Clintons failings at least he moved to the center and you had a Republican congress, so in a similar fashion, most of my age had never experienced nor even *seen* the left wing with power.
After the left took power though it was like ice water down the back of many of us. We who had rabidly supported Labor here and Obama there and railed against the “evil Bush / Howard facistic alliance” (groan at my stupidity) suddenly wondered what the hell we had been sold. Many found ourselves doing some serious questioning of just what we believed and *why*.
Upon seeing the rank hypocrisy of the left after taking power, not to mention the authoritarian nature of their governance it was immediately apparent that we had not only been fooled, but had been nothing but useful idiots for them as well.
Before my grandfather (a WWII veteran and hardened Aussie) passed, he used to say a Labor government is good once in awhile as it reminds the country of what scumbags they are once in power. I used to sit smug in my cloak of ignorance that he was just an old man saying old man things.
Now I fully understand, so does my brother and many of my acquaintances of just what exactly he meant. The sweet thing is, our rejection is *complete*. We completely reject the soppy worst generations failed social experiments. We’re sick of being verballed into to being guilt ridden over our nations and cultures and history, sick of being told what to do and think by busy body left wing puritans and by sick of the interference in our lives by lefty social engineers.
We may not be able to out-politic our the boomer generation with their monolithic numbers, but our children will be raised and schooled properly, the future is theirs.
To twostix the aussie: I love you. Now, if we can just convince the rest of our brethren down under, here in the States, and throughout the West how crazy-corrupt leftists truly are. I’m afraid it’s going to take a miracle of biblical proportions…or a real nasty war.
I am convinced that a surprisingly number of people who voted for Obama are already dead, and were so at the time when the votes were cast.
Remember, Obama got his start as a Chicago politician, where the dead vote early and often.
I think that this generational generalizations thing is just a fog of generalities. The boomer generation wasn’t any different than any other generation. Except that a small minority of loudmouths were able impress their template on the rest of us. Most of the Boomers grew up to be responsible adults, good parents and patriotic Americans. But we were never able to shake the stink of miscreants like Bill Ayers, the Yippies, and the self satisfied “radicals” who grabbed all the headlines. Sadly, it continues to this day.
This is far too much an unbecoming rant from an author whose writing is generally admirable, but too often self-indulgent and inadequately peer-vetted. Regarding the Sixties, as the old saying goes, “If you can remember them, you must not have been there”, so since VDH claims to remembered their downside at least in such awful detail, he must not have been there. And whacking Bob Dylan, at this stage of the game…pul-eeeze!
Hanoi Paris Hilton….sorry, but no cigar. I was there, and I do remember them. We lost a daughter to those days, and whatever VDH says here is only the half of it. As usual, right on, VDH, and moreso.
The only “wood stock” I remember from the ’60′s was on my M-14
EXACTLY!! (My last battle in serving for 30 years.)
Speaking of “woodstock” I have one put aside for the likes of Lt. John Kerry and Hanoi Jane, just in case they slither past ole Saint Peter up at the big gates.
Childish, much?
Not sure of your point, Hanoi (uh huh), but if I may sum up VDH more succinctly, it is that (given that the civil rights movement came out of the fifties, not the sixties, which gave us the black panthers), other than the advancement of women and some decent music, virtually every damn thing that came out of the sixties was pretty much universally loathsome. From its proud hedonism, which is selfishness to the extreme, to its alliance with monstrous Asian totalitarianism (a first for a majority movement in US history), to its appalling deconstructionist corruption (just a fancy word for “destruction”?) of academia and culture, the litany of nonsense and downright cancerous philospohophy that came out of that gawd-awful decade is endless.
As for “if you can remember it, you wern’t there”, that is a wry but genuine acknowledgement that those who were “there” were stoned on drugs through it all. How proud they must be.
I was in college during the late sixties and early seventies. I remember a rally on campus shortly after the Kent State “Massacre” (4 dead is a tragedy, but a massacre?). At the climactic point of his speech, the speaker raised his right fist in the usual ritual revolutionary gesture. It was a stirring moment – if your eyes were on him. If you happened to be standing at the back, as I was, you might have noticed that out of roughly a thousand spectators, only three returned the “salute”. The antiwar movement was certainly vocal, but I’m not sure that it ever was a “majority”.
I disagree with the “advancement of women” statement. Basically all these people did was destroy the nuclear family and reduce women to common whores. By the 70s the feminine mystique was no more and men actually EXPECTED physical “payment” if they so much as took a young lady out to lunch. Women entering the workforce during this time ended up being wage-slaves for life.
I have never hated a generation more than this narcissistic, spoiled generation and I can’t wait for them to die off and leave this world in peace!
Oh, Lolly! Don’t you know that the ripples still affect the pond, long after the rock that caused them is long sunk to the bottom?
Who spoiled them? Who catered to their every whim and called them sweet idealists? Who let them shut down schools and happily capitulated to every perverse demand? Who applauded the destruction, who egged them on, who handed over the media and academy to these brats?
Their parents – the greatest generation – spoiled them. Remember, they were Depression Era people who did not want their children to without as they did. Unfortunately, they ended up flunking the parental test and gave us these dirtbags.
After Kent State, no one could stop these ingrates. The faculty – mostly conservative – capitulated in the name of fairness. Another mistake. You never surrender to your enemy.
The media has always been closet communists. They are just 100% so, now.
I agree as far as Dylan goes. In fact, he grew up while many of his followers have not. I offer up his Slow Train Coming. His Neighborhood Bully and this … Things Have Changed. Just like Bob.
from Things Have Changed – Bob Dylan
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
Copyright © 1999 by Special Rider Music
Has Bob Dylan learned how to sing while he was in the process
of ‘changing’?
Not so as I have noticed. On the other hand, well…I offer you Leonard Cohen.
The fact that you consider that a snappy comeback might just prove my point, Mr. Jones. Bob Dylan continues to enjoy an amazingly successful career. How you doin’? Made your first half billion yet?
I suppose that would qualify as a snappy comeback except for the fact that Bob Dylan continues to enjoy a tremendously successful career even as he approaches seventy. He is still making ground breaking music and selling out shows to audiences from nine to ninety, wherever he goes. He has sold over 100 million records and has become incredibly rich as a result of his amazing output of songs and his constant touring. Not bad for someone who “can’t sing”. How you doing? Made your first half billion yet?
And here are the lyrics to Leonard Cohen’s “The Future”:
“Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every other living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!
“Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that’s left
stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother:
it is murder.
“Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
“When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant.
“You don’t know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I was the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
but love’s the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It’s over, it ain’t going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil’s RIDING crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder.
“Things are going to slide …
“There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
and a white man dancing
You’ll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin’.
“Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder.
“Things are going to slide …
“When they said REPENT REPENT …”
I think it’s reasonable to say that Cohen is Canada’s Dylan. They’re both prophets and their message is grim.
VDH gets it–Hanoi Whoever doesn’t: however, like all of us (s)he is going to reap the whirlwind of a Western world bereft of adults, a world that mocks its very foundation.
Kyrie eleison.
…as the old saying goes, “If you can remember them, you must not have been there”, so since VDH claims to remembered their downside at least in such awful detail, he must not have been there.
Don’t you hate it when trained historians talk about the past?
Then again, perhaps it’s time to consider that the Summer of Love was 41 years ago, meaning as much time has passed between now and then as had passed between 1969 and 1928.
In 1969, did you not consider 1928 ancient history?
No doubt that I woulda thought while wandering stoned through the Panhandle en route to the free Grateful Dead gig every Sunday. But I suspect that for people in their mid-sixties at that time, 1928 would be just yesterday… like 1968 is now for us despicable hippie geezers who have utterly ruined everything forever.
VDH frequently has a lot to say of interest and value, but there’s something of the leg tingling messiah shtick on the part of his epigones (I learned that from him!) all over these comment threads.
Well, I was there (around, not at Woodstock), never part of the culture but influenced. Still a semi-liberal till 9/11, then got over my disappointment at Gore’s defeat REAL fast.
The War generation was shell-shocked and determined their children (us) should never have to suffer the same agony. And went way overboard in tolerating and excusing the “rebellion” of youth. Now said youth are starting to learn what that cautionary adage means: “Be careful what you ask for; you might get it!”
The ’60s/’70s mindset burned cultural capital like there was no tomorrow, ideal breeding ground for progressive delusions (= we moderns have progressed beyond needing to listen to anything learned or said before, and can design our own future out of whole cloth). That progressivism is itself a thread and product of some of that very heritage it scorns is carefully ignored. See Chomsky for a howler of a fer-instance. See Obama for a sock-puppet for the super-Statists wanting a free hand.
This is and must now be a fight to the knife if there’s to be any hope that Leonard is too pessimistic.
If you had read any of his books or followed the professor for as many years as many of us have, you might share the extent of admiration that many of us feel. To compare that to Chris Matthews’ feelings about the President lacks clear reasoning since the President has published only two biographies and his authorship of them is in question.
This is the best blog.
BTW, Tie-Dye, if my braincells haven’t totally calcified, the Summer of Love was 1967, not 1969. I wasn’t there. At least I think I wasn’t there.
… the Summer of Love was 1967, not 1969.
Ah, you’re correct: 1969 was Woodstock, 1968 was the peak of the Vietnam War, and 1967 was the Summer of Love.
Occasionally I transpose the years. But as I said, the late sixties is getting to be ancient history, and that tends to happen the further an era fades into the rear-view mirror. If you still carry the political sensibilities of that era, you are way, way, way behind the times. (And it shows.)
So let me restate: “Then again, perhaps it’s time to consider that the Summer of Love was 43 years ago, meaning as much time has passed between now and then as had passed between 1967 and 1924.
In 1967, did you not consider 1924 ancient history?”
No doubt that I woulda thought while wandering stoned through the Panhandle en route to the free Grateful Dead gig every Sunday. But I suspect that for people in their mid-sixties at that time, 1928 would be just yesterday… like 1968 is now for us despicable hippie geezers who have utterly ruined everything forever.
Heh. Strangely, I’ve been to Dead concerts, and I lived for three years (almost) on the corner of Haight-Ashbury. And I’m Gen X. Never been stoned in the Panhandle (not my thing), but I KNOW I’ve been high on ecstasy there.
Hippies and thier derivatives didn’t ruin everything, but their most singular characteristic is that that are fiercely committed to a bygone era, which by definition makes them backwards and regressive. People who were in their mid-60s in 1967 weren’t still dressing in Flapper gear, fedoras, and top hats on formal occasions.
In political terms, HPH, you’re like the guy wearing a top hat at a Grateful Dead concert.
Assuming you really are a hippie, the inability to move on is your defining characteristic, and as a boomer, it seems also to be the defining characteristic of your generation (its liberal adjunct, anyway).
Mr. Manning’s tantrum has set back American diplomacy by at least a generation.
However, if the cables are to be believed, I am not entirely sure that that’s a bad thing.
Maybe this time around we need less “jaw jaw” and more “war war”, and the wikileaks folks have absolutely helped in this regard. It’s almost like Douglas Adams’ Babel Fish:
“Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”
Well put. And as for PFC Manning, he reminds me irresistibly of Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, whose attitude was that since he’d just had an unhappy love affair, he didn’t see why anyone else should have a good time.
Please note that we used to keep a careful watch on the emotional state, and personal affairs, of people with access to classified or critical material (classification O-level and above). These days, not so much, I guess.
clear ether
eon
If the cables are to be believed then for Israelis and Lebanese it’s good to find out that US positions on UN resolutions pertaining to their general security are not to be accepted at face value but to be mixed with large portions of Realpolitik and other political machinations, as the disclosure of Syrian arming of Hezbollah, with the use of Red Crescent ambulances for transport to boot, seems to indicate.
Sure, a private was responsible for this.
Hey, unrealated note. I have a great bridge in a major city for sale at a low price. Interested?
They have killed the golden goose. Now they wonder why no more
eggs. It will be a generation before we recover from Obama and his
anti- American and anti-Semitic policies. If we had a real CIA(not a bunch of CYA desk jockies), people like Assange would have disappeared long ago. Has anyone noticed that Soros doesn’t mess
around with Russian and Chinese currencies?
Exactly. . . when was the last time terrorists hijacked a Russian plane, or screwed around with Soviet interests and got away with it? There is no fear of punishment for our enemies when they try to harm us, only the wagging of a finger, and a “no, no, don’t be bad!” Soros and his influence needs to be neutralized, but with his puppet in the White House, it will NEVER happen.
The last time?
Lotta kids massacred at that school, I recall.
Pretty nasty subway bonbings too, where you been lately?
The Russkies (and local family members) killed those terrorists that took those kids hostage. . . .hasn’t happened since. . .where have YOU been lately? Besides, we are
not talking about terrorist activities.
Our public school systems don’t know a dangerous thug they’re not wiiling to embrace and try to appease into “being nice”. Even though, locally, it’s not working, big time, our politicians are trying on the same lame and disastrous game on the international stage.
God help us.
Let’s not forget that the most lasting contributions of the 1960′s will turn out to be two new venereal diseases. Oral sex, popularized and promoted during the 1960′s sexual revolution, qllowed the Herpes virus to spread from the oral cavity and the skin surrounding it (cold sores, etc.) to the human crotch, and of course who can overlook the spread of HIV and AIDS. That will be among the first things future historians associate with the baby boomer generation of North America (who have a great deal to be modest about).
Now y’all have gone much too far with the Puritanical reversal. 100 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong in matters of love!
Try to keep in mind that Dr Hanson admires the Spartan ethos and try to keep your sense of humour.
The exhibit curator at the National Gallery is following the avant garde tradition of “Epater le bourgeois” and we should start an e-mail attack on their site, demanding he or she be fired!
Again, some obvious things are being missed…
The Sixties were the ONLY TIME in human history when wild buggerey WASNT potentailly fatal…
All sorts of nasty, untreatable things luked below among the “too well trodden” which is why most civilizations had a ‘Healthy” respect (pun intended) for chastity for about a bazillion years or so….
The fact that it also tended to elevate sexual activity to a higher plane, create respect for life, children, responsibility and , oh, I dunno, LOVE, may have SOMETHING to do with the succcess of western civilizations….
Compared to, say, those backward tribal areas still living in grass huts, with bones through their noses, and rampant diseases the Witch Doctors tell them raping infants it will cure
(true, look it up!)
Pennicillin was going to be the cure all, so anybody could do anything they pleased, with no consequences at all (as long as they could kill off the babies before they were born)
Perfect!
Those hippies…..SO MUCH SMARTER THAN ANYONE ELSE!!
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=on+the+lamb&word2=on+the+lam
Isn’t it “on the lam” instead of “on the lamb” ?
Yes, but I suspect Dr. Hanson’s publisher uses an automatic spellchecker that refuses to acknowledge the existence of homonyms, like most such programs do.
This is why I turned mine off a long time ago. I am quite capable of misspelling words all by myself, thank you very much, Windows.
;-)
cheers
eon
I think so, too, but given the visual imagery of the phrase “on the lamb” when followed by “sexual horseplay” I think it is a wonderfully apt error.
“On the lam” means “fleeing.”
“On the lamb” refers to an act of beastiality.
I found the error a bit jarring as well, but then in the next sentence, Victor says, “avoiding a little sexy horseplay”, so maybe there’s an intentional bestiality pun being attempted here. But in that case, wouldn’t it be ‘ewe-play’?
Bah.
And don’t be Sheepish, now.
Actually, Jesus being swarmed by ants seems like an apt metaphor for modern western civilization.
How terribly sophisticated of you. See a chiropractor about that wrenched shoulder you must have suffered from patting yourself on the back for that observation.
Hey, Ben, well said. I loved your astute and apt observation, and laughed!
(Owain, get over yourself.)
I gotta say it.
Hippies stink.
Always have.
In WWII 20 year olds were flying in bombers over Europe by the thousands.
Today thousands of 20 year olds don’t even know where Europe is.
Yeah, and most come from southern states!
No Otto,
Since the “Southern States” enlist more soldiers than the liberal coastal areas, I’d say its a better chance more Southern 20 year olds not only know WHERE Europe is, but BEEN TO IT…
By flying over, or taking Leave and Liberty somewhere in it, whilst going back and forth a couple times to fight wars meant to keep ungreatfull snarky coastal age college slackers drunk and stoned in front of their X-Boxes and I-pods….
The only “wood-stock” I remember from the 60′s was on my M-14
Thanks for reminding me, some things never change.
“southern states”?
to complete your infiltration i suggest you refer to the southern states as the “south”
Over 50,000 men died fighting in Vietnam, most of them Baby Boomers.
Only thing is you can;t say you weren’t warned. You just didn’t listen.
Bravo! And we shouted long and loud!
“he is, one who would be terrified to extend his online liberationist creed to Iranian mullahs, Chinese communists, Hezbollah terrorists, or Russian gang lords.”
Something that has come to my mind in the last few days. To go a bit further, how about Obama’s scholastic record, and dare I say it – birth certificate. Should be a piece of cake. Maybe he could do us all a favor and put the latter controversy to rest.
Shouldn’t call too much down on his head. Or maybe not…..
Indeed, if Assange were to turn his attention to college transcripts, tuition payments, original written material of The Won, it would be interesting to see how some of his current supporters (collaborators?), including the NYT, would respond.
Victor Davis Hanson failed to mention perhaps the number one crisis resulting from this never ending adolescence: the refusal to have enough children to eventually replace them. These immature overgrown individuals too often shun the responsibility of parenthood. They opt instead for small pets and a commitment to struggle against perceived attacks on Mother Earth. Our only chance of survival will mostly depend on those mature adults who attend religious services on a regular basis.
Exactly. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
Mandatory pregnancies for all.
Grow up.
“Idols are best when they’re made of stone,
A saviour’s a nuisance to live with at home;
Stars often fall,
Heroes go unsung;
And martyrs most certainly die too young.”
This snippet from a homage to Bob Dylan by Joan Baez always comes to mind when I witness the prancing pantywaist poseurs, aka our self-perceived “elite”, pratfall square onto their pointy little heads.
Or, like my mama always said, “Don’t spit too high.”
Poor little Manning is a victim of his own affirmative-action-fueled delusions, with the whole enchilada funded one way or another by Soros in order to distract the public (with nothing really new except that we – and the rest of the world – were only to ever suspect as much) so that government expansion may continue exponentially during this lame-duck session. Did anyone even notice the Senate passed their version of “Food Safety Act” today? An act that does nothing to fix the most prevalent problems that stem from meat, poultry and dairy farming since they are overseen by the Department of Agriculture but instead extends the reach of the FDA and HHS as deep as they wish due to the vague wordings of this lobbyist-birthed legislation.
WikiLeaks is bread and circuses. Dangerous, perhaps even treasonous and therefore ought to be punished from Manning right up to the top of its little food chain, but bread and circuses nonetheless.
Heh. Happens they blew it. They included tax increases, which the Senate is prohibited from doing; strictly a House prerogative. So it’s Bill is null. RE-DO time; not gonna happen.
I wish to take VDH’s argument a step further. This is not a crisis of adolescence, its a crisis of manhood. Most females due to some aspect of their biology have an innate desire to put away the frills of adolescence and get on with the raising of the next generation. In other words, most females by the desire to mother a child find it necessary to grow up. It is boys who must be trained to become men. It is boys who have been failed by a society that rejects the idea of manhood.
The age of adolescence is not just a function of “do your own thing”. It is also a function of the hatred of male leadership. Boys tossed into the role of leader, without the necessary training to exhibit the character of manly leadership, commit foolish and awful acts. “Lord of the Flies” would not make sense told as the adventure of a marooned Girls’ School class. It only makes sense because boys set out to take the roles of men, without the education, maturity, backbone, or training to prevent tragedy. Let us hope a similar story does not play out internationally.
You could also throw in the term “arrested development.” The failure to mature is yet more residue from the ’60′s drug-addled influence on our society.
While the rest of us grew up and sought a better understanding of how the world really works, the radicals held onto their immature notion of “revolution” with themselves as the hero. In their fantasies, they envisioned themselves as some sort of new-agey god saving the masses from their own stupidity. “Look at me! I know how to free your mind! Tune in, turn on, drop out!”
What utter bullshit.
What we’re witnessing is the ego gone wild. Gone are the time-tested ideas of self-control and restraint, those being replaced with “If it feels good, do it” bumper-sticker pop psychology. Unless and until we return to a reality based philosophy, especially when it comes to government, we’re in for nothing but needless suffering and confusion.
Kinda like what we’re experiencing today.
What we experienced in the 60′s was a unique first time combination of three things in America:
An large adolecence population with:
1) No arduous chores to help feed the family
2) Lots of free time on their hands after school
3) A little bit of spending money provided by mom and dad that they called “theirs”
The result eventually, is Trolls like Sensie and Otto…
Subsidized phoney educations, no “real world” experiences outside a patronizing classroom or a frat house Bong Party, who’s opinions are reflected by a media full similar minded wannabe celebs where snark and riducule are considered valid arguments to facts and reason.
Its a tragedy when the smart asses think a spray can of political graffitti is the same as the disciplined and methodical art of historic truthes and factual research, but they havent got the education (in real books OR hard knocks)to know the difference.
Its their “allowence” and they “earned” themselves.
They are perpetual, whining children, unqualified and incapable of important decisions.
The world is simply too dangerous a place for them to have a serious voice in its affairs, but we tolerate them, because they are CHILDREN who will forever need to be protected from running into the street without looking both ways
You’re right, of course, but the dumb impish bastards are just smart enough to know how to vote. And always for the wrong person.
OUCH!!!!
Thats is SO true it HURTS!!!
the trolls actually prove a lot of the essays here. you’d think they would see the irony of their comments. … if they could I doubt they would make them.
I do agree with you, Mr. Hansen. There is an epidemic of “fatherless” children in this country. Women were told men were non-essential to their lives and by extension, the lives of their children. Boys need men as in fathers, to help them learn to become men. My father in law was flying a plane over North Viet Nam for the first twelve years of my husband’s life, yet he still found time to teach him how to be a man.
Cathy,
Its a sad thing, but sometimes the only lesson a father leaves is the example of principals worth dying for….
Glad you husband got to spend time with that hero as a boy.
Hope you did to later as his daughter in law.
I thank god every day my military career did not happen to overlap my fatherhood era. Cant imagine my little boy being told daddy aint coming home, him forever traumatized by a uniform in the livingroom.
We owe all the kids of THIS generations fallen (who I still cant BELIEVE are young enough to be MY kids!) everything the country can spare….
No spending, no welfare, no Gov’t pay increases, no pork, no projects, no “Madamme Speaker” on Air Force Planes, NOTHING until every single ONE of those kids is taken care of.
It is literally the least we can do
One of the many behaviours targeted by the marxists is manhood, in some ways by exploiting techological advances, in others by celebrating irresponsible and or weak behaviors:
How so? Let me count the ways.
1. Free love (why commit?)
2. The pill (no more oops)
3. Elevating homosexuality (6 of one, half dozen of the other)
4. Restraining agression (don’t play too rough mikey)
5. Demeaning competive play and sports (there are no losers here)
6. Attacking guns and hunting (bambi)
7. The ‘self esteem’ movement. (tying hard is good enough)
8. No-fault divorce (I want more time for myself, but with your money)
9. Feminism (I want to be just as irresponsible as any man)
10. Affirmative Action (incompetance rules)
11. Destroying the black family (who needs a daddy when having babies pays better)
12. Denigrating righeous anger (war never solved anything)
13. Marginalizing religion (real men don’t believe in fairy tales)
14. Enabling excessive behaviors like drug addiction (it’s just a virus people catch)
15. Pretending that passivism solves problems (make love not war)
16. Pornography (so much easier than getting along with somebody)
17. Unisex play (johny likes dolls better than trucks. He’s so cute)
and many many more.
It’s a wonder there is a man left in the country with any backbone at all.
Come to think of it, the only politicians with gonads are women, and Chris Christie (who might only be strong about spending).
Yup, the very Idea of “to resist, with manly firmness” is practically illegal in any circumstances.
I’ve always said government doesnt care about crime, because more crime pays for more of them (judges, cops, etc)…but Shoot a robber in YOUR house and see how fast they try every possible nook and cranny of the law to punish you.
Manliness is a threat to the government. Why else are their panties in a bunch over the “dont tread on me” flag as a vanity plate in Texas
“… on the lamb, avoiding sexual horseplay”…? Hmmmmm. Interesting turn of phrase.
I think he’s probably on the lam instead. ;-)
Yeah, I was going to say something about this, but sometimes what seems a clever double entendre is nothing more than a typo.
I really admire VDH’s ideas, but he really needs an editor. He tends to ramble and use nonstandard word choices and punctuation, which just makes it harder to communicate what are otherwise sound ideas.
Just couldn’t seem to get past this comment!
I supose your reference to writing style is in support of yet another by-product of the 60′s and 70′s….”I don’t have the time nor the will to read all the background and details so condense it down to some general jist and I’ll figure the rest out if I think it important.”
Thus, the new generation of business style communication construction that has evolved into common [general] practice sloppy, unprecise (see legal dictionary), loop-holed…..communcations, to wit; most congressional bills (laws), historian and philosophical writers of today, etc.
“Lord of the Flies” would not make sense told as the adventure of a marooned Girls’ School class. It only makes sense because boys set out to take the roles of men, without the education, maturity, backbone, or training to prevent tragedy. Let us hope a similar story does not play out internationally.”
That’s it in a nutshell!!!
The description of Julian Assange is “right on man”!!
I remember (and I was not in the 60′s) seeing signs posted in the windows and doors of cafés in the lazte 70′s and early 80′s saying, “No shirt; no shoes; no service”…In other words, “Grow up before you come in here”.
Most of the movements I have seen are all frauds in the first place. There are the true believers, the wild-eyed kooks. Then there are the guys who are involved, because the words and excitement make it easy to separate women from their panties.
It was really all about getting laid. Used to be a guy had to get married, or be seriously seeking it, in order to get laid. So, he had to grow up. Now he can remain a child forever, and women will still put out. Why they would baffles me. What is attractive about a boy in a man’s body? Women no longer have much in the way of standards, but they may complain of the lack of good men. Well, start closing your legs, and the boys will grow up.
Ah. You are hitting a bullseye — but also “the third rail.”
Do you not know that some truths are forbidden to be spoken?
What’s attractive is that it’s fun, at least for girls in women’s bodies. Fact is the sluts are no more grown up than the players using them. Why else would they insist on abortion on demand?
Mark,
“What is attractive about a boy in a man’s body?”
Where have you ever SEEN anything that looks remotely like a “mans body” an any of these twirps?
Sissy boy hair do’s and girls pants? Effeminete hand gestures when they talk? I know MORALLY they have no backbone, but the lazy weak body posture and general “slacker sleaze” appearance makes it look they dont PHYSICALLY have one either.
My WIFE kicks their asses when she needs a little warm up every now and then….and shrieks “what woman can touch them without feeling “eeekkkk”?”
your view of the EU is very superficial. not at all an “utopian sixities-style project”, quite the contrary. a very pragmatic effort to avoid another continental war by intermingling economies in one single market, so to make war too costly an option.
“non judgemental” – maybe you know that most European countries had to stop expanding their budget deficits only to follow strict European economic policy? we in Italy had to make a very, very strict diet for 5 years in order to respect the Maastricht parameters.
“anti free-market” that’s the weirdest one. the EU is IMPOSING free market rule all over Europe – for example, forbidding public subsidies to private companies, forcing to open up monopolistic state-owned markets such as energy, opening them up to foreign companies, etc.
as for the ruling elites. that is RIDICOLOUS. do you know that the European Commission has very few powers, and that the real powers rest in national governments, represented at the level of head of state at the EU Council??? please DO inform yourself before writing about complex issues.
hang on SDRAIO
“your view of the EU is very superficial. not at all an “utopian sixities-style project”, quite the contrary. a very pragmatic effort to avoid another continental war by intermingling economies in one single market, so to make war too costly an option” – ……………….Agreed – it partly came out of the ruins of WW2, with a desire to get out of the cycle of European continental wars.
“non judgemental” – maybe you know that most European countries had to stop expanding their budget deficits only to follow strict European economic policy? we in Italy had to make a very, very strict diet for 5 years in order to respect the Maastricht parameters. ………………..This is a Panglossian view – to put it mildly. Many countries knowingly cooked the books. Do you think the current tensions woudl exist if everyone had actually followed the rules?
“anti free-market” that’s the weirdest one. the EU is IMPOSING free market rule all over Europe – for example, forbidding public subsidies to private companies, forcing to open up monopolistic state-owned markets such as energy, opening them up to foreign companies, etc. …..that’s a joke – with Government spend as a proportion of GDP running at greater than 50%? Most of the spend in the “private” sector is actually tax payer money….
as for the ruling elites. that is RIDICOLOUS. do you know that the European Commission has very few powers, and that the real powers rest in national governments, represented at the level of head of state at the EU Council??? please DO inform yourself before writing about complex issues. …….Come on – you are now completely barking – France, Holland and Ireland all voted “NO” to the EU constitution – so they changed a few paragraph headings and forced a re-vote until they got the answer they wanted. Many “powers” in the UK (for example) have been reduced to mere box-ticking and rubber-stamping – Parliament does not meaningfully direct law in many sectors. And just ask the Irish how much in control they feel!
The EU is a busted flush – the sooner we stop pretending otherwise the sooner we can get back to some sense of economic reality. Failing this, the tensions will grow until we get some very bad consequences – the very things the EU project was designed to stop.
While I generally think this is a silly thread, there’s one song lyric that occurs to me at times like this: You can’t fool the children of the revolution.
History shows that you most certainly CAN fool the children of the revolution ;-)
The Left has undermined so much of our society. Fortunately, as Adam Smith said, there is a lot of ruin in a nation. But a lot is not infinite.
Our culture enabled us to become rich. In attacking the basis of our culture the left are undermining the basis of our way of life. What separates us from the past and from the poorest people on earth? Our inheritance, the intellectual and physical capital bequeathed to us by our forebears. Capital for which they fought and died for.
http://www.lovefreedomtruth.com explores this more. It is vital that we stop the rot. If we do not then life will be as short and brutal for our descendents as it was for our forebears. And we will have to hang our heads in shame.
Some people today (like me) yearn for a lot of the common sense the World War II Generation had. Do you think this private would have lived long if he had given hundreds, let alone thousands, of pages of secret information to the Japanese or the Germans? Nope. He would have been executed, and rather quickly, for either treason or espionage. And even though the Internet didn’t exist back then, if a guy like Assange published that information, I know that the publication he worked for would not have lasted long, either. During World War II, there were strict censorship rules placed on the press and the press knew enough not to break them, or face being shut down or thorwn in jail. And how long do you think a guy like Manning would have existed with a J. Edgar Hoover running the FBI? Not long, I would guess. Nope, we really are wimps when compared to that generation. God only knows what the Iranians, the North Koreans, and the Chinese are thinking about all of this.
But what would have happened to someone who blew the whistle on the communists in the US government or the sellout of Poland at Yalta?
Hey buddy,
Just wondering, were you a cargo can sailor? My dad sailed Liberties during the war, Youre common sense reminds me of him..
God bless , almost 90 now, WTF are we gonna DO when all them are gone?
Everybody was a patriot then, now its few and far between it seems. That Turd Sensie is a pefect example, I’d Effing kill myself If my son turned out to be such an ignorant jackass
Hey Root, your dad being on Liberty Ships during World War II really does make him a very special person. If he was in the Merchant Marine, he was part of the true unsung heroes of the war. They sustained the highest percentage of casualties than any branch of the armed services and got very, very, little recognition for it. If he was part of the Naval Armed Guard who were on those ships, they suffered appalling casualties and received precious little training before they went on those ships. Either way, your dad was one brave man sailing on ships that carried the bombs, bullets, and armor that won that war for this country.
As for me, well, I do my web site and try to carry on the best I can for an old vet who looked after me. He was a great guy, a Marine, and when he got out of the service he became a tough cop in New York City. He always loved these ships because he sailed on a lot of them during the war. I always respected him and he was the closest guy I ever knew who was like a living version of John Wayne. So I try to carry on the way he wanted me to, to try and tell other people what a great country we live in and how special the people are who defend this country. He passed away last year and I’ll miss him a lot.
So I’ll keep doing my bit because he already has, and I would rather die than let a guy like that down.
Liberty Ship,
Where is your website I’ll have to check it out.
Thanks for the comments,
Dad was just a immigrant kid from Kearney NJ. One of 9 kids, he joined the Merchant Marine when still in high school, because all his brothers were already in Europe and Asia. He was off the coast of Normandy at “D + 3 hours” exchanging pallet loads of ammunition for pallet loads of broken men. Tough lesson in the mathematics of war for a 17 year old. Sailed averywhere, from Burma to Africa, Murmansk to Sicily, ’42-’45 and got out.
I remember in the 1980′s when the MM finally got “Vereran status” and we went to a few reunions….Sad to say, alot of the conversations were all about “union talk” among the “career guys” who dominated the meetings …Re-living this strike, that concession, those demands, these contracts….
Dad never went back. He was a wartime cargo ship sailor, the son of a man that came to America in the the midst of the “Great Depression” and yet never wanted for a days work, or a soup kitchen, to feed his 9 kids.
He hated Democrats and commie unions bums as much as the Axis!
” . . . upscale white nerds like a Bill Ayers . . .”
We’re up against cold-blooded killers, Dr. Hanson, not nerds or adolescents.
I’m a fan of Dr Hansen, so it pains me to say this, but this is a rather one-sided invective that condemns the wrong generation.
I’m one of those guys who served during the Vietnam era. Like the rest of my friends, except for the ones who were 4F due to football injuries. I wasn’t too happy about the strife on campus either, but it wasn’t my generation that tolerated it. It wasn’t my generation that got us sucked into Vietnam either. We didn’t invent Social Security or Medicare. We just paid for it all our lives.
My generation didn’t abandon the Humanities and Social Sciences to the freaks of the left. I suppose I should have been out there protesting, but I had a family to take care of.
This one missed badly, sir.
Get used to it. This is the same kind of misdirection and dissembling that defines the right wing media machine. Purely a one-sided contrivance to indict. Take the Smithsonian canard. That ART exhibit is privately funded. But you won’t read that here, or hear it there on Fox News.
Such is the method, the hallmark of the conservative echo chamber – agenda over truth. especially where the sticky icky parts are concerned. Provincialism at its worst. Digital Carrie Nations.
But when will “art” do the same smear job on muslims?
Show me an art gallery with mohammed just doing what they say he did, raping and killing, and I’ll show you courage…
They are as lame as you are…nothing but Grafitti over the top of something larger and more valuable.
Nice attempt at mis-direction. Were it not for the taxpayer funding of the National Gallery of Art, there would be no museum in which to show the current bit of trash. Scream to the high heavens all you want about the “right wing” and “Fox News” not reporting that the exhibit in question was privately funded, but thinking people know that such an exhibit would not exist at the National Gallery were it not for John Q. Public. Please go back to HuffPo to get your next talking point.
If it were up to you, we wouldn’t have any Muslim soldiers buried in Arlington. Here’s a question: How many John Q. Publics have no problem with the Smithsonian exhibit? And if it’s the majority, would you acquiesce to their view? Or, as I suspect, would you continue to whine? Just like DADT. Conservatives against the repeal are in the distinct minority among civilians and military personnel, you know, everybody, and yet you continue to suggest that only your opinion matters.
Well, Cheech, guess what, you don’t get everything you want. And you can’t forbid everything that makes you a little queasy. If that were possible, Jan “Sorry, The State Says You Don’t Get Your Bone Marrow Transplant” Brewer would be hidden from public view. Hideous creature.
Your first paragraph is bears no relation to what the person you are addressing wrote. It is an offensive slur upon that person’s character.
Have you no better reply? Good heavens!
The problem with that exhibit – which I sampled on line – is that it is utterly banal; offensive because it has nothing at all to say. It merely offends, appealing only to a smirking lot of pseudo intellectuals with no more taste or judgment than Beavis & Butthead, without the comedic value.
Sensei….I happen to enjoy reading all of your retorts on here I can find!
Your ONLY problem I can see is, that your powder is never dry and your ONLY remaining weapon is self-serving contrived or issued MIS-FACTS.
Other than that, you serve a great purpose on here! A constant reminder of the mutated gene pool that serves the socialist-progressives and that ignorance is indeed a “real” danger to Traditional America’s future.
Cheer’s ole chap!
really, snuffy? Are you sure the lighting, heat, and cleanup of the exhibit are not paid for by the Smithsonian? The guards, publicity, administrative work of the Smithsonian related to this exhibit are all paid for by the private funding. Are you sure, nummy?
Oh, Fred, if you only knew how vulgar your comment is, but I’m sure that escapes you.
Now, now. You’re disturbing the three bong hit fantasy that non-sensey’s taken what must have been all day to construct.
If you give him a banana, he’ll probably lose interest and go back to his tire swing.
actually it is best not to engage the troll. it can’t get love on the left blogs so it comes here for attention.
ignore it
I don’t care how it’s funded. It’s still shallow, inane and just plain stupid. And the presentation was at the “National Portrait Gallery” – a venue that is by its very nature is a tax-payer funded venue.
The outrage is that a tired, boring, and outworn narrative received the billing of “challenging” and “important.”
BTW, the Musee d’Orsay (Expressionist) exhibits currently touring the United States are also privately funded, to a very great degree. Does that exempt them from criticism when they appear in publicly funded museums? Or make criticism somehow invalid?
D. you disappoint me. You don’t care if you and the rest of us are paying part of the freight to hang sxxx on the walls of Mall buildings intended to show the excellence and glory of our history, culture, and kunst and the best of the entire West and East? I’m afraid I can’t even begin to understand that way of thinking.
I understand why a nihilist like snuffy thinks that way, But you?
It’s not about criticizing the art. Everybody does that. It’s about forbidding the art. You say it’s shallow and banal. So is Thomas Kincaide and Dancing With the Stars and keeping your “powder dry.” What’s your point?
Hey Mark,
I’m sure VDH didnt mean the guys who “went” when he condemned the “whole generation”.
But just like today, there is (and was) a part of the generation that deserves a good kick in the ass for being so selfish and arrogant, even though my niece is a 3-tour vet of the sandbox(s) and so are some of my neighbors kids…they are the “good ones”
BTW, thanks for serving….
Tid-bit for you, the entire 2 Mar Div calls Beiruit “The Root” because all the REAL MEN were in “The Nam”…we had to come up with SOMETHING that sounded like that!
Should have seen the near MUTINY that occured when the Kevlar Helmets first came out, and we didnt look like “you guys” anymore!
Semper Fi, Brother!
MarkD,
You have a point. Adolescents can be expected to act like adolescents, as the worst of the Boomers did. It is up to adults to keep them in line. The parents and professors of the previous generation failed miserably in that duty.
Furthermore, they did so acting on a widely shared liberal consensus — liberal in a better sense of the word than it generally carries today, but still misguided. It was a liberalism that could not see what the fences were for, and therefore thought it essential to progress to remove them.
Yeah, but damn I was happy when they got rid of those crap “permanent-press” Polyester OD Green uniforms.
As an artist and critic in the NYC artworld, I will relay an in-house secret: The shows at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the attendant writings are considered so dopey that no one is covering them; the essay prose is stock second year art history melodrama, clunky, reaching and useless, don’t quote it, blow your nose on it.
I would expand Mr. Hanson’s theme into the current malaise of pop art, nothing wrong with pop art really, its just that its all there is any more: Pop was Rauchenberg, Johns, and especially Warhol’s insight that new money doesn’t arrive with old taste and that if one could furnish an image engrained prior to puberty, eg. soup cans, Brillo Boxes, etc, the nouveau riche would feel comfortable enough to part money for it.
It was Jeff Koons’ insight, now the most expensive living artist, that puberty was too late a cut off date and instead it should be the animal balloons and others that decorated one’s 5th birthday party. Hence his hat trick of selling chromed animal balloons for eight figure money.
Mr. Hanson should expand this theme, because as with the economy, there is nothing in sight to alter this current artworld malaise.
“So who cleans up the messes?”
But who really caused the messes? In both Assange’s and apparently Manning’s cases, the Iraq war and the atrocities, public and not, became the driving force, with Afghanistan, as been the case with the media and public in general, wrongly connected with it: remember the thing that happened on 9/11/01 — that was connected to Afghanistan, not Iraq, in case you too are fuzzy on that. Who set up the system that allowed Manning and countless other military people access to such a sensitive (although not top secret) file set?
Actually, who made a very expensive, colossal mess of intel operations in general after 9/11? Grown-ups or malicious and greedy children in grown-up bodies? I can’t help but notice that none of those “messers” are mentioned in the article. Is it because that sort of info upsets the delicate political nature of this site? In not mentioning at all the background facts, however painful or embarrassing, does this really show anymore of a grown-up attitude?
Anonymous….IF you will background the leadership of government and their critical advisory hierarchy throughout the past two decades you will find the answer to your questions of “who”.
But…just in case you haven’t the time, allow me to assist. The socialist-progressives of the 60′s and 70′s grew up in body and have infiltrated every level of government to included elected, appointed, staff’s, judicial, career and special interest advisory. A government [for and representing] Traditional America is no more! The security of America is no more! It’s ALL an internal and external war for supremacy of ideologies waged by guess who?
Yes indeed! The same human waste and their new generation of minions this article so aptly is describing. The same mission and the same socialist-progressive hierarch perpetuating the movements of the 60′s and 70′s….hells bent on destroying the Constitutional Democratic Republic of the United States and it’s Capitalism….from within!
Dr. Hanson.
You’re getting there. Cold truths in hard language AND naming names. No more Mister Nice Guy.
If only more citizens would join you, get hard, take to the barricades, AND find some minstrel to pen anthem for a new / old revolution. To re-commit to the promise from the Founding Fathers. Promise squandered by marching to the tunes of the Pied Pipers of the “Liberals” of the 1960s with their apotheosis in BH Obama.
Founding Fathers, Parents, who gave their offspring that most precious gift of ALL times : INDEPENDENCE and FREEDOM, protected in Law, from obeisance to arbitrary power from self-propagating groups / royalty.
BUT with the responsibility to protect those freedoms from hostiles, internal or external, who would savage or steal them.
The promise and responsibility documented for all to witness in the Declaraation of Independence AND the Constitution of the USA.
Founding Fathers? Why would you trust those opium addict whoremongers?
…because they could form complete sentences, off-the-cuff, and make a great deal of plain sense. Unlike Teleprompter Lad.
Like this?
“I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.”
Sensei,
Other than just bomb-chucking another snarky reply onto someone ESLES well concieved thoughts, why dont you try something like this, for the first time ever in this forum:
Tell us, in a little detail, who YOU trust or believe in…
Tell us WHY those people and/or ideas make sense to you…
Pretend you are speaking with someone you respect, and ask if they see some merit in your arguments, if your point is understood. Ask for feedback on agreement or disagreement with it.
Too much of a task for you, isnt it?
Too hard to actually contemplate a serious, honest thought, and have your intellect, rather than your tantrums, be seen by people you feel are smarter than you.
My son is four, he kicks things when embarassed or frustrated.
As do you.
The answer as to why so many western countries are in this mess at the same time is because most of the adults were busy dealing with more important issues. There was also a legacy of trust between the people and their political leadership that made it hard for former to come to terms with how badly the latter was performing. In the meantime, the adolescents made more and more messes for the adults to clean up. The situation we have now is that bad performance has become the norm for people in government. It will take a lot more than one election to change this attitude and clean up the mess.
Must you skip the generation born in the seventies? It’s a habit, I know, but still…….
If you google things like “aprons” you’ll find a whole substrate of grownups writing and talking and listening and creating a livable, grownup world. Or, “cloth diapers.” It sounds like a silly phrase to google. You will, however, find values-driven individuals making conscious moral choices for their families. They do tend to have more than one kid. And, then they start talking about every other moral issue, or political issue. It sounds small, but when you’ve had to research things like garbage dumps, sustainable development of suburbs ( an entire suburb in LA in the fifties was built where all garbage was supposed to go down the kitchen sinks’ garbage disposal) and slanted research- there are two research articles on disposables- one by the disposable industry- one by the cloth industry- and both were flawed in regard to at home diapers—-one is prepared for just about any nonsense spewed out by the media.And academia, too. The care and feeding of a family- mostly invisible. Or measured in awkward ways by immature, horrified, “researchers.” I’ve had corporate working mothers say the most wretchedly ignorant, patronizing things about playgroups. I don’t think they got, that at any given week, I was having to do hours of research on a topic, plus read major book a month,and a book a week, just to show up prepared. That contempt for what you imagine people do, rather than the respect and curiousity to ask what’s going on……..
The people who were the victims of a divorce in the seventies and eighties- the children- are not people who are carefree about love and leave em relationships. People who grew up latchkey while their parents played finding themselves- keep a strict eye on their kids. People who were manifestly not the apple of their mothers or fathers eyes, are raising orchards of children, edenic.
There are grownups all over the place. There aren’t as many- this is the single most aborted generation in American history- ever. It’s the smallest generation. It’s the least welcome, too. Horror films about children- only during the seventies and eighties. It’s the quietest. It was also the most integrated. Just saying. And the least appreciated for this fact. 1/3 of all the unprevented pregnancies – fooh- dust in the wind, gone as hell- all of them, not just a bad habit for ethnic minorities. Our brothers and sisters didn’t show up, and frankly, our parents told us about them. It’s not pretty. It’s Black Plague numbers, without pictures, or art, or prayers.
There are grownups. They just aren’t in charge yet. And, frighteningly, may never be.
you sir tell the truth and you are brilliant
nice reminder of how truth shines and has weight
God bless you
The Obama administration’s response to the Wikileaks imbroglio reminds me of Lincoln’s description of General William Rosecrans passive inaction after the Union defeat at Chickamagua. Lincoln observed that Rosecrans seemed stunned, “Like a duck hit on the head.”
Whatever else it was, the Wikileaks data dump was clearly intended to compromise American foreign policy (note -”American”) and injure American diplomacy. It was a hostile act by an enemy of the U.S. Yet the Obama administration seems paralyzed by it. Could it be that on some deeper level both President Obama and his advisers agree with Assange that American foreign policy SHOULD be compromised and that U.S. interests aborad SHOULD be damaged?
In this case who do we think Mr. Obama is more tempermentally and emotionally “in tune” with – Julian Assange or John Boehner? Which one better represents Mr. Obama’s worldview, a worldview that is a product of 1960′s culture? If Mr. Obama were not President but rather still an inner city “community organizer” or a faculty member at the University of Chicago, what would his take on the Mr. Assange’s “right” to disclose this data? It bears thinking about.
Once again Professor Hanson hits the nail on the head. It reminds me of my days in college (they all had not yet become universities) in the sixties. One of the children of the sixties an obnoxious anti war protestor was bragging about stealing his books from the book store and declaring that he was striking a blow against the “establishment”. I confronted him and said that all he had accomplished was to make the rest of us pay more for our books and since I had to work the night shift at a truckng firm to pay for my education I was not impressed. He only looked at me with that stupid smug expression of moral superiority which I still see in the faces of the Clintons, Obamas and Kennedys. What a filthy depraved generation they were and still are!
Mike, you win today’s Dork Award. Wear it with pride.
Oddly, this is the first mention I’ve come across about the traitor’s sexual orientation. Wonder why that is. It couldn’t be another instance of the MSM withholding information it doesn’t think we should have, like just about everything concerning Obama’s background before his election. No, there has to be another explanation.
David Thomson – I wanted to respond to your #16 post referencing the ‘struggle against the perceived attacks against Mother Earth’ comment.
I was at a workshop recently flirting with the idea of purchasing a smaller home.
I was given the stink eye by other attendees by arriving in my vintage, gas guzzling Chevy truck. A few more suspect glances when I eating some leftovers, a steak sandwich for a snack during the pow-wow.
Later, the host of the workshop was asking a few of us why the interest in building/purchasing a ‘tumbleweed’ home. The majority of answers were ‘a less carbon footprint’ ‘needing to downsize and doing ‘their part’ to stop urban sprawl’ etc.,
As luck would have it I was asked why my interest and said it’d be a great guest house and/or in-law suite in my backyard.
Following the workshop some individuals approached me and asked me if I would consider to live in such a home to ‘assist in combating climate change’?
I said I’d consider living in one of the larger homes available though not for AGW purposes. I based my case on the dozens of books I’ve read on the subject both pro and anti-AGW views, working with a handful of brilliant atmospheric scientists who debunk AGW, and lending my knowledge on the matter having continued my 15+ years in the atmospheric field and having worked on 5 continents for my differing views.
Their being in their 20′s – 40′s wouldn’t budge or recognize fact over their emotionally based dogma. I ended the ‘conversation’ with the ‘We’ll agree to disagree’ exit. I had to leave, for the ‘social dignity’ they’d had was all but kaput!
And yet there are thousands of scientists – far more than who deny AGW – who are more experienced and credentialed than you and your colleagues. Why should anyone believe you instead of them (trucks and sandwiches notwithstanding)?
Because their livelihoods, careers, and lifestyles are entirely dependent on the hundreds of billions of dollars being pored into their budgets every year?
And increasingly we’re finding out that many of them are also sitting on the boards of directors and heavily invested in “green” companies.
Otherwise know as having a vested interest in keeping their scam going.
84% of subscribers to New Scientist magazine said they think the IPCC is a corrupt political organisation. Yet I’m going to hazard a guess that the ignorant likes of you still think it’s upstanding.
It’s over, nobody believes nor cares in the Global Warming fantasy anymore, move on.
Are you referring to the 50-odd scientists of the IPCC, versus the over 30,000 who signed that petition not long ago, declaring the IPCC is nothing more than a pack of a-scientific hacks pushing an agenda?
I dont believe them because you cannot argue these tiny decimal point level degree shifts without ACTUAL DATA collected with CALIBRATED INSTRUMENTS in MILLIONS OF ACTUAL LOCATIONS over THOUSANDS OF YEARS without a margin of error exponentially larger than any “shift” you claim to see.
Since they DO NOT have any such data-sets, climate science works like this:
Stay with me!
I can GUESS your current shoe size…and I have a computer!!!
Therefore, I will “computer model” the your recent shoe size increase with my “measurements”
Its statistically improbably its a size 3, and equally unlikely to be a size 17, so my “computer model” predicts that your shoe size, today, is 9.5
Its definitely getting bigger, because “historic data” from baby footprints your mother (may have) cast in resin (or drew with a marker or stamped with an ink pad) SHOULD be smaller than they are today, since a long time ago you were (probably) a smaller child…And HAD she ever actually cast (or drew) a souvener footprint of YOUR foot, like so many OTHER mothers may or may not do with THEIR kids feet, the trend is “beyond dispute”
Therefore, my computer model predicts the INCREASE of your shoe size over the last 5 days to be .005423 inches (plus or minus three feet), caused by a cheeseburger (or some other food) you had for lunch (or dinner), sometime in the past 10 years.
See? without any ACTUAL data collected, I can “computer model” something close to true (most guys are between 8.5 and 10 shoe size) with a huge “variable” to CYA, (I used 3-17 as my range) and ramble on about some microscopic increase NO ONE independently can prove or disprove (because feet spread when you put weight on them, I wont tell if you were sitting or standing, sox on, or off, because my “raw data” is “secret”)
And the best part is, my “data” would fall within 3 Standard Deviations of a bellcurve with a CPk of 1.33! Pretty well accepted statsitcally as “sound”
See? Man made foot growth, caused by cheeseburgers….we need more funding for reasearch
OK, great, three attempts to answer the question, all of them relying on the exact same premise – “I agree with people I agree with.”
That’s the source of Fox News success . . . emotional group think. That’s why 25% of conservatives think Obama “might be” the anti-Christ. Model that one.
Why should we believe him? Because there is NO evidence on the other side, as ClimateGate demonstrated fully.
They deny FOIA requests. They massaged the numebrs. A lot! They destroyed the underlying data, rather than release it. Oh, they didn’t? Then it never existed, right? Oh, they simply “lost” it? Oh. The dog ate their homework? Oh, but they are far more “experienced and credentialed”.
The fact is, the underlying, raw data, if it ever existed, no longer does, so their “science” is invalid. There is no data. There is no proof. Thus, there is no science, by definition.
NonSensei, it’s not you are stupid, but rather, that you are willfully obtuse. Or you get off on being contrary. Or you are a paid troll. Or you are so hyper-partisan as to be effectively mindless. Each of these is a form of stupidity, though.
How do you know they are more experienced than he is? Seems to me science has gone politik and they are producing (read: working backwards to produce their already defined conclusion) the results they are paid to produce. No AGW? No grant money.
to senseless
can you remember any other movements where all of the “smart” people wer sure they were right and that their movement was the future?
hard to shake that impulse huh?
…the sputtering EU
Here are 3 short videos of Nigel Farage sputtering back at the EU and his own PM.
Which may be mildly cathartic which may be as good as it gets.
Anti-Euro Rant
Right on the money, Doc! sadly, we’re left to hope that the first nuke to go off, gets their attention and that they finally give their heads a rattle.
cfbleachers, #2
…applied today without any hesitation to anyone who doesn’t adopt leftist pap as his daily staple…The heady days when all that energy was the catalytic converter to marching and carrying signs and belief in the righteousness of the “moral high ground”, is an addictive high.
For poster children rabble rousers such as Savio & Rubin (both now prematurely deceased), their speechifying was mainly in service to their own egos.
Megalomania and attention getting, ego and abjectly stupid premises…
As laid out by Evan Sayet
“To the Modern Liberal success – simply by its existence – is all the proof needed that some “social injustice” has taken place.”
Only ignoramuses and sheeple buy this crapola. We are blessed with a plethora of both, thanks to massive and, apparently, intentional dumbing down since those not-so-halcyon daze of the 60′s.
“Its title is coyly encrypted in postmodern bipolarity: “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” And the exhibition apparently is full of Mapplethorpe-inspired gay-related imagery and offers us an image of Jesus being swarmed over by ants. Clever, brave, bold, shocking. Or in the words of the overseers of the federally-subsidized National Portrait Gallery, such artistic courage proves how the gallery is now “committed to showing how a major theme in American history has been the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America’s promise of equality, inclusion, and social dignity.”
Well, that about sums up everything that is intellectually bankrupt over at the the university for the last couple decades. Imagine reading variations on the above all day, every day, for years, and you get the idea.
“Its title is coyly encrypted in postmodern bipolarity: “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” And the exhibition apparently is full of Mapplethorpe-inspired gay-related imagery and offers us an image of Jesus being swarmed over by ants. Clever, brave, bold, shocking. Or in the words of the overseers of the federally-subsidized National Portrait Gallery, such artistic courage proves how the gallery is now “committed to showing how a major theme in American history has been the struggle for justice so that people and groups can claim their full inheritance in America’s promise of equality, inclusion, and social dignity.”
Well, that about sums up everything that is intellectually bankrupt over at the the university during the last couple decades. Imagine reading variations on the above all day, every day, for years, and you get the idea.
@16. David Thomson:
Immature, drug-addled morons having children? Do we really need more children of Leftists who end up like the pathetic “Saint Pancake”? I think there’s a tasteless Darwin joke in there somewhere.
As far as the “Hippie movement” is concerned… Who were the supposed “adult” parents of these jokers in the first place? Weren’t the “Hippie” douchebags a reflection on their parent’s inept parenting skills? How parents of said “hippies” had mini-bars, drank every night and smoked like fiends? How far back in history do we need to go before we find an actual adult? How many “Great” and vaunted as honorable ‘men’ in history were womanizers and adulterers? Sure, they weren’t as brazen as Slick Willy in their day and age, but…
Have a pathetic percentage of Americans become ‘entitled’ grifters who vote for the biggest pick-pocket? Yes. Who’s fault is that though? Who raised these greedy, lazy people to become this way and who raised the people who raised those people? Where does the buck stop?
Grown-ups. Hah!
How doe’s some one get enough information to do that? doesn’t make sense to trust any one with that much power unless he or she is in congress and on a committee in that field
I love Bob Dylan just as much as the next person but let’s not forget that he was no prophet. He kept telling anyone who would listen that he was an entertainer. And he was a very successful one at that, regularly tapping in to all kinds of nascent influences to keep his sound fresh. That people insisted on overinterpreting his lyrics and elevating his songs to scripture is not his fault.
As for Vietnam, it is interesting to speculate what would have happened if the draft had been avoided. I think the protests (which were more out of self interest than anything else) would have been greatly muted. There might still be a South Vietnam today and the killing fields of Cambodia might never have happened.
Who knows?
Manning’s next few years I bet are not going to be too pleasant. He has no clue the poor sot.
Disagree with John Hansen to this extent. In the world today, there is a significant segment of the female population that is not interested in having babies, and raising them. They are interested in “having it all”, and raising children is not that high on the priority list.
Besides, back in the 60s, females led the race to reject the mores that defined society. Traditionally, the female controlled, or at least influenced, behavior of the male by withholding “rewards” until certain conditions were met and maintained. Suddenly, the females were leading the race to lowest common denominator. They called it liberation.
These women are raising the 20 somethings of today.
As the Kardasian sisters become the new “Gabor” sisters, and reality TV implodes over its angst, remember that to kill the “vampire” one must do more than a simple stake through it’s heart.
Our elected officials, mostly trained lawyers, still have not heard the clarion call. We must wait two more years to shout again.
Hopefully, we will have even more dedicated candidates for offices.
Real adults who think clearly, not malignant narcissists like Obama-Mao, the muslim commander in chief who did a little blow while in college…
Dig in, gather up canned food stuffs, save your bullets and see if you can get a ride on Kerry’s sailing boat before it’s too late!
I love the way Hillary’s face is puffing up beyond normal. Soon she will look like a smurf doll!
Your Hero GWB did a lot of blow in college. More drugs than any other president in American history. I’d rather have a moderate muslim as president than a fundamental christian.
Your Hero GWB did … more drugs than any other president in American history.
You say that like it’s a bad thing …
too bad you have to be an american citizen to “have” a president
You seem to know a lot about GW’s college days, Otto. Where did you two do the blow, in an alley, a Dorm, where?
Gee Mr Hanson, touché, but isn’t that hitting below the belt a little? Doesn’t making reference to Mr. Mannings personal life as a possible explanation as to his possibly alleged “treasonous” activities amount to bringing ones character into it? As if that mattered…we all know the (new) rules, it’s all justified if it’s the result of “oppression” and how, and how much, he’s suffered under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
He can change it into “I’ll Tell, But You Don’t, or Won’t, or You Shouldn’t” if he wants to? Just look what he’s been through? A Modicum of decorum would serve well here, don’t you think?
One note that is seldom addressed thanks the 60s
exhibitionists“revolutionists” – a multi-generational legacy of self-indulgence.Want an example?
Bill Ney, “the science guy”, while giving one of “profound” scientific speeches USC, collapsed while walking to the stage, suffered slurred speech during the presentation, finally collapsing to the floor again.
The student body’s reaction rather than rush the stage to offer assistance was to text all their friends – I suppose in amusement.
A perfect example of why America is in more trouble than she could possibly understand. I weep for my own children of the same college age.
Delia, the ‘parents of these hippies’ has many hypothesis.
A colleague of mine who DOESN’T boast of being a teen during that period believes these ‘flower children’ were offspring of:
Women whose first husband and/or love may have died during WWII and married someone, anyone who’d have them. Albeit their new beau being a fit/unfit partner and eventual father. Some of these women being pregnant prior to their late-husband and/or boyfriend leaving for the service.
Either of these results can and had produced anti-military, anti-draft etc., type of mentalities.
What I find ASTOUNDING are the same hippies who WERE anti-Government are for Social Security, universal mandated health insurance, unemployment checks for how many years now, on and on. ‘It’s all relative’ – frightening mantra.
Talking bout my g-g-g-g-generation, or close enough. The possibilities for generalizations are endless, so everyone can gore their least favorite ox, beat their least favorite mule. Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Vietnam, and drugs in the mainstream for the first time were all major contributors to what we did and what we have become.
The traditional role was man starts to work early in life, the woman has babies early in life, the man is the supposed boss of the family, and the rest sorts itself out. Now, many/most of the women having babies early in life are unwed and need the government dole for support. The working, educated women tend to wait, and wait, and wait. As long as women have choices, it’s hard to see a significant number of the bright ones clambering to have children before they are thirty. Also, most women will decide that they want one or two, not four and up. Large families used to provide extra workers, now they demand extra resources to support, send to college etc.
Yes, the times they have changed and the changes cause all sorts of consternation, as changes always have. I forget which ox I am supposed to be goring here, but I think that I will just skip that.
The contributions of my generation (off the top of my head) great music, running and biking as recreational sports and general outdoorsy adventure with a concomittant desire to keep the outdoors a good place, a skepticism about foreign entanglements (although to be fair, we had that after WWI as well). The vast majority of my generation “grew up” “sold Out” got jobs, raised families, made money, and are hoping not to die before they get old, but are still trying not to get old.
Kinda confused, there. I’ll limit myself to pointing out it’s “clamoring”, not “clambering”. YCLIU
LOL @ “Traditionally, the female controlled, or at least influenced, behavior of the male by withholding “rewards” until certain conditions were met and maintained.” Written by [46.] ‘OldflyerG8r’.
PUHLEASE! Women who ‘withheld’ didn’t have ‘power’…they had resentful husbands. And, what a pathetic statement to say that the only power women had at one time was via their ‘putting out’ or ‘not’ to keep ‘men’ in line (because, as we all know, men are just mindless, rutting penises without a thought or conscience). lol!
Pathetic. With an attitude like that… you wonder why the Feminists went berserk? But, yes, let’s blame it all on the ‘wymmin’! Men are all innocence, pureness and light.
bahahahahaha
Not withholding sex from her husband, but rather waiting until marriage, or at least betrothal, before giving him sex. If he ain’t good enough to marry, you don’t want to chance having sex with him.
You don’t have to be much more than an adolescent fool to not only survive, but do well in our society.”
So said Da Free John many years ago.
When no demands are made on an unevolved youth, who is still min a lower stage of life, what else can be expected but stunted growth?
If one doesn’t prune a new tree as it shoots up, the branches just go ape spit, and the uncontrolled growth tries to fill as much space as possible.
I’ve long thought Bill Buckley had at least two most basic ideas, impelled by insights about human nature:
American society should have a rule that all able bodied youths serve a couple of years in some kind of service to their country, with military service the highest ranked. As one who reluctantly couldn’t escape the 1966 draft and spent 3 years in the US Army as a finance specialist, including a safe year in Da Nang, Vietnam, my experience robustly confirms this!
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. No pain, no gain.
But, more existentially pertinent, no demands or sacrifices made, no vital connection.
Ever since at least the 60’s, new Americans have not had much skin in the American GAME!
It’s like the involvement of most “normal” males with sports. Playing all the seasonal games is so much FUN, and as time passes, only the best arise to be “starters” in the high school squads, and on up to college and then the pros.
And, of course, the vast majority become spectators, ONLY. Their “skin in the game”, then, stems solely (mostly) from the location they happen to live in, and/or the schools they choose to attend, and usually, that’s it—for LIFE!
Obviously, then, IMO, the dominating mass of adolescent fools roaming America these non-demanding days had to become unattached—they have hardly any skin in the American game!
“What’s for dinner?” is the only demanding question most people have as skin in the game, nowadays.
It’s about taking “sides”.
In this regard, our very sick and fat or obese majority of aging adolescent boomers get to observe all those recurring nightmarish ads about pills to ameliorate the results of their previous bad choices.
The best “pain” inflicted on our stupid lives has to be the legal disclaimers at the end of these ads, all about the—“SIDE effects”!
Hey—“side effects” is shorthand for “INSIDE” effects.
A lifetime of swallowing both physical and mental crap, necessarily leads to what we see in today’s sad state.
For America, as a human whole, the side effects are INSIDE the societal “body”, and—adolescents RULE!
Just you wait, Henry Higgins! Soon enough we’ll be led by childish leaders—indeed, I see quite a few babies who’ve cried their way into power!
50. paul_unalaska,
Interesting view on war widows with children back then (sad). I don’t doubt that was part of the equation.
-Not really that astounding if you consider that the Lefties have gained such power and influence over government-run everything since the days of yore when they were so vehemently against government. Many hippies didn’t want responsibility back then…why on earth would they now? Their perfect geriatric Hippie ending is to get all of the ‘grown-ups’ to pay for their own ineptitude, not planning for their future and their poor health after all of the drugs they’ve damaged their bodies and brains with.
They will be the only feeders at the trough as the Ponzi schemes peter out for the rest of Americans.
GENIUS!
The phrase, “hitting the nail on the head” comes to mind. A cliche to be sure but appropriate nonetheless.
I haven’t read all the posts, so pardon if this has been covered.
Question. If the WWII generation was so great, how is it that they raised such spoiled children? What didn’t they see what they were making?
My thought on this. They worked hard to better their (and their family’s) lives, thinking this was the right thing to do. Who doesn’t want a materially better life for their family? This meant little Jimmy and Linda didn’t need to work to have the things that the parents only dreamed of having when they were children. There was little of the struggle compared to those Depression years.
So, if you’re a child who never had even a thought of struggle or hardship, you more or less think the world is your oyster.
I don’t really blame the WWII generation. More, I see it as riding the sine wave of history – good times bring laziness and complacency, and struggle and want bring on discipline and the virtues of work.
I’m 56.
Mel,
The answer to the “why?” is as old as time itself.
The simple, universal truth is that NO good deed shall ever go unpunished.
Professor, you need to move.
You see too much California, and university types.
Come to America.
We have excellent Warriors, by the hundreds of thousands. And Law enforcement Officers, EMTs, paramedics, and in my part of the Country we have a lot of VOLUNTEER Firefighters.
Yes, some of them have dubious families, but they coped with it and grew up whole and strong.
Yes, the wounds caused by the nihilists are still bleeding, but America is fighting back and defeating the pseudo-culture of the blathering marxists.
Leave California, move to America.
You will feel better.
You can’t say we haven’t progressed. 30 years ago, Julian Assange would have simply been walking around town and occasionally opening his raincoat.
All the quotes in our paper from nyt are from the time prior to 2009 — could the current adminstration be “THE LEAK”?????
Perhaps I’m alone on this one, but I don’t see anything in this wikileaks story that someone with even a passing interest in current affairs couldn’t infer from a couple of issues of the Economist. Silvio Berlusconi is a degenerate? The dying Sunni autocracies are terrified of a resurgent Persia? Hillary Clinton is running an active and ambitious State Department?
There’s no story here, and certainly no reason for outrage. I’m not sure where people got it in their heads that the people who administrate the Republic are entitled to keep secrets from the electorate, but I’m certain that presumption does more harm than good. I’m disappointed to see you making a heady show of indignation, signifying nothing.
A lament for the “Flower Children;” Too soon old, too late wise.
“Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines…
…
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.”
Lol. Clearly the rule doesn’t apply to the columnists’ arguments. Like this one in which the professor — no doubt distracted by the arduous yet fun task of composing zingers — manages to miss the main point.
That point being, that the marginal cost of duplicating and transmitting information is continuing to drop toward zero. It is a fact as etched in stone as the nuclear age.
Attention to the Republicans who want to label WikiLeaks as a “terrorist” organization: Somehow or other we managed to transition to the latter without destroying American liberties, you know, the Bill of Rights and whatnot. The direction in which your knees are jerking.
Go figure.
Dr. Hanson:
If you find the diplomatic cable disclosures by Manning to be disturbing, just mentally rename them as “The Pentagon Papers” and think of Manning as Daniel Ellman. Everything then falls into place. Chickens may fly around for a very long time, but they eventually do come home to roost.
Daniel Ellsberg, I believe.
Yes, D., Ellsberg, the male Jane Fonda of the period.
myth buster
RE: “Not withholding sex from her husband, but rather waiting until marriage, or at least betrothal, before giving him sex. If he ain’t good enough to marry, you don’t want to chance having sex with him.”
I think you missed the pointed idiocy of blaming women for the ‘downfall’ of ‘society’ and the West as if the world’s oldest profession ever went out of style when women were ‘chaste’ and dumbed down. A man who uses prostitutes and then marries a ‘virgin’ is hardly noble or decent or moral (and gonorrhea/chlamydia/etc. ain’t no picnic for the new bride). The men who have the audacity to say prostitution keeps men from raping women are the most disgusting, vile cretins of them all (and, yes, some men actually say that on certain men’s rights blogs). How many women like my mother married and had children with men who later abused them and had to get a job in a “man’s world” and never got one cent of child-support?
Were people so much better than the “hippies” or were they just more ‘closeted’ about their perversions?
The intro on the documentary “51 Birch Street”:
“Married 54 years, Mike and Mina Block were the picture of if not wedded bliss then at least rock-solid stability — or so thought their son, documentary filmmaker Doug Block. But when his mother dies unexpectedly and his father swiftly marries his former secretary, Doug suddenly realizes there was more to his parents’ union than met his eye. Turning his lens on his own family, he discovers much he never knew about the people who raised him.”
Sometimes people gild the “Good Ol’ Days” a leetle too much.
‘Decline’ isn’t the fault of any one group of people and certain men who try to blame women for our ‘decline’ are just as moronic as 0bama & Co. blaming Bush for everything.
Personally, I think a majority of Americans are at fault for where we are at (myself included). How many of us didn’t vote when we should have? How many of us were too caught up in our own lives and stresses and survival when we should have been more concerned with the political winds of change? How many of us thought things could never get this bad? How many of us believed that the United States of America would always protect its citizens until 9/11 happened? How many of us lived in a middle-class bubble?
It’s easy to blame and point fingers and stagnate in self-pity. Actually doing something about our current situation is a much more daunting task but things only seem hopeless when we have truly given up. I’m not ready to give up and allow the final death-blow to our country happen. If we are not united and remain divided then what are we fighting for?
Dr. Hanson:
I would just like to say that I enjoy reading your work and always look forward to it. However, with that, I believe you have unfairly smeared those young people in our military who do the same work as Pfc. Manning in your first characterization of him — as somehow his youth and low rank made him somehow more likely to espionage, and by throwing in a certain amount of implied snark when you described “military analyst”. Might I remind you Dr. Hanson, that we have had more senior ranking and senior (in age) people who have leaked valuable state information, and might I also remind you that while regrettably the Pfc. Manning’s of this world do exist…there are also very many young people serving in our military in the exact same role and who have not leaked valuable information nor engaged in espionage.
I believe they are owed an apology by way of some qualification on your part.
Thank you.
PS. Yes, I know some young people who are in the same MOS (I have invited them to my house for holiday meals when they could not get home); they do their (rather important) jobs well and patriotically. I have seen far too disturbing a trend since these leaks became known to lump them into the same category as Pfc. Manning — I also know that there are many adults who are making broadbrush, generalized criticisms that probably couldn’t do as good a job as they do.
military mom…..I hope you’ll pardon me for intervening when your comment was addressed to Mr. Hanson!
I can appreciate your position and concerns of broad-brushing our young servicemen and women with assignment to sensitive MOS’s such as the broad field of intelligence.
However, that said, the evolutution creating a new military configuration has not proven to be fully advisable in some area’s to include intelligence assignments and task orientations.
The criteria for intelligence assignments of enlistee’s and ranks below career NCO and, the investigative procedures for security clearances above confidential have become far to laxed….in fact, nearly non existant, in comparison to previous criteria and standards.
Foregoing a long dissertation, my 30-year experience supports a previous era of criteria and standards. All enlisted with intelligence MOS’s and having less than a career rank or time in service should [not] be allowed access to central, archived intelligence data points….and certainly not State, NSA, DIA, CIA or any central commands. Until reaching career status, enlisted intelligence MOS’s should be referred to assignments of field operating units at the company, battalion and limited regimental levels of unit command.
I, in no way, am attempting to dimishish the reliability of your son or those you know in the intelligence fields. However, the intelligence field is a monumental calling with extreme consequential variables of responsible and potential enticement that a very young inexperienced man or woman warrior should not be called upon to bear…especially under many past and present circumstances.
Best regards to your son!
Semper Fi
“Vigilantia, Circumspectia et prudentia Cum trecenti
hos salhabimus”
wow!!!
thanks professor ether for pointing that out. hanson never gets it when it comes to
arcane digital speak. should have just been obvious to all that THAT is what the Mannig thing is about. your’e the smartest guy here!
thanks again dude
If the generation that fought WWII and survived the depression can be known as the greatest generation, then the boomers can be known as the least generation, an army of liliputians that still have yet to be housebroken
The reason for the age is adolescence is simple: all these boomers who crave power fried their brains long, long ago. That is the only reasonable explanation I can give for the incessant petulance and whining I constantly hear from irrational liberal boomers who interestingly never have to bear the burden of their supposed higher, sophisticated enlightenment. Of course, when that enlightenment originated in LSD and other drugs, what more could I expect? Heaven forbid enlightenment (and wisdom) come from sacrifice and a clean conscience, rather than the Madonna enlightenment that comes from demanding constant indulgence and self-gratification.
As a registered Independent, I can say without question, that anyone with an open mind can appreciate the common sense and valor that is written in this article. What I feel the “Liberal Left” fails to realize is the simple fact that wealth comes from the fact that the wealthy “do more”, thus DESERVE more. The 1960′s persona of “freedom” and “liberation” should, however be respected. If one wants to live a life by their own rules, (provided of course their own rules cause no harm to others) let them! But if they’re standing out on a street corner with their palms opened like a baby bird waiting to have it’s gizzard filled with regurgitated worms, to hell with them. That’s the price they pay for the lifestyle they have chosen, so have no business blaming OUR government for their shortcomings. What I feel makes this country great is it’s diversity. Being diverse, however, can at times be a double-edged sword; due mostly to the people who choose to not accept others for their differences. Regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, or lifestyle, there is a red, white and blue flag that protects the freedom we enjoy, no matter who we are. We need simply understood laws which we all need to follow and a clear explanation of what the government will do for their people given their situation. Only then will this be a “more perfect union.” Sadly, given our prejudices, that is simply asking too much.
Mr. Hanson….
One of a handfull of historical analysis on here I have enjoyed! It’s fresh to the relevancy of the current times and circumstances.
I think you would be one who would attempt to do factual justice in writing about the birth and evolution of the postWWII United nations and how America became world policement and interventionist of
Mr. Hanson….
This was one historical analysis that I enjoyed reading on here. A critical component, “fresh” in relevancy to the present.
I dare say, that you may be the one to attempt a factual analysis of the post WWII birth and evolution of the United Nation and how the U.S. become the predominate world policeman and interventionists into foreign regime change and nation bulding around the world….say [begining] in the late 40′s with the USSR, Korea, Vietnam, Iran, etc., each with their own strategic geo-political [motives].
Thanks again for a great read!
No, really, there are grownups. They don’t make flashy and exciting comments to reporters, for the most part. The best example I can find in print- Erica Jong making fun of the current crop of mothers who are so careful and solicitous towards their offspring and towards their spouse. She boasts of her adventures and of her accomplishments. Her daughter replies, very tenderly and carefully, about how her mother raised her, but then says ” yes, I am careful of my child and spouse.” Notice, she could have whined, or thrown a tantrum. She respected her mother, even if that erratic parenting pained her deeply.
And,well, it’s clever to cite someone from the Holocaust- Victor Frankl, but it isn’t clever to cite the catholic catechism- which stands in near direct opposition to Mr. Frankl. He might be liberating if you grew up with the catechism, and you were seeking to escape and live by your own lights, but what if you grew up with Mr Frankl, and only being told that reality comes out of your own belly button? That’s shutting out the light of 3,000 years of Western Civ’s conversation. What if, for your entire life, you’ve been asked to praise shoddy men with feet of clay, to excuse not just regular weakness, but criminal failings? What sort of compass can you find?
I know we bemoan the state of schools. But maybe, having left the fields of duty, honor, and history, and meaning and the classics fallow, they are now exciting and fresh and new. John Adams gets a biopic in this generation- not the greatest or the boomer. There’s a flourishing market in the “What happened at the American Revolution’? books. I’m curious. I know I’ve spent ten years trying to figure out how we didn’t end up Argentina or Bolivia. I talk to clerks at the coffee shop: they are desperately reading history, too, not b/c they have a history major, but because they don’t, and they feel awkward and poorly educated. One recited Queen Kaliana (the Hawaiian Queen)’s address to Congress, on her island being taken over. That was early in the morning, before both of us went to work. Anybody here know it? Me neither.
Let’s not kick the current crop of people being raised in the wake of that spectacular meltdown.
The adults are all over in India and China kicking our butts economically, and soon (at least China) militarily. They have their own problems but adolescent frivolity is not one of them.
For those who seem to dislike wikileaks. Stop being servile to the powers that be.
Lk 12:2-3 There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Essential vdh
It is amazing how much creditability idiots get when one PC, AA product gets elected president (POTUS). Blowing in the wind becomes something
profound. The only way to tell which end it came out of is the
smell. Sometimes.
On the topic of drugs and their effects on the polity…here’s a twist:
Accusations of drug use are commonly used to deny common Americans their place in governing bodies. Usually the demagog is an enbumbent candidate with a blue-blood veneer and capital letter after his name, and the accused is a middle class, “real-lifer” working-stiff with grease and nicotine stains on his fingers and an old Ford in the garage.
Yeah, when he was in High School he got a rap for blowing herb, or he stumbled into the rave scene for a year or two, but pulled out in his twenties. But now he wants to take his civic duties seriously, and his agenda is the Tea Party’s.
Is this person really persona non grata on a municipal board, a roads-committee, or a state legislature? Really? And, shouldn’t the agenda of the candidate be the focus of his opponents’ crticisms, instead of hurling ad hominens?
How can anyone from the working classes ever stand up to today’s venomous, scolding elites? Especially with the Elites’ brocades of scolds, taboos and prohibitions between the free born citizen and elected office?