tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post1556677747318113436..comments2024-03-26T10:26:51.288-04:00Comments on Jim Leff's Slog: Three Quick ReadsJim Leffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00007232702717055047noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post-83107213692304264502018-01-11T15:16:26.487-05:002018-01-11T15:16:26.487-05:00Thanks!
I'm a fan of oversimplification. I th...Thanks!<br /><br />I'm a fan of oversimplification. I think you can gloss over these streams by parsing it as rich kids (boomers) and very rich kids (post boomers). Increasingly less hold on reality, less clear-eyedness, more petty ideological squabbles and "isms". <br /><br />Meanwhile, the usual corrupting influences, e.g. Industrial/military complex, find creative ways to whip up emotion to suit the hawkish agenda, come what may. <br /><br />Remember that even the Greatest Generation had no interest in rescuing Europe until the war came to us. These guys are always beating some drum or other. Jim Leffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00007232702717055047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4640470443420164863.post-48470147302898030172018-01-11T14:43:27.071-05:002018-01-11T14:43:27.071-05:00The Good War is a great critique. I would say that...The Good War is a great critique. I would say that while it doesn't do so explicitly it touches on the moral bankruptcy of the older Baby Boom generation. From the outset the "Greatest Generation" cult was a way to paper over just how unprepared the baby boomers were for undertaking the responsibilities of government, just as they were in fact doing so. In the process one of the most salient aspects of what Tony Judt referred to as the postwar "Christian Democratic" consensus was covered up. After all the generation that grew up in the Depression and then served in World War II, actually had very little to do with the policy decisions that brought the remarkable prosperity and optimism of the 50s and 60s.<br /><br />One of the reasons for the collapse of Democratic dominance in Congress can be traced back to the fact that by the late 1970s the pragmatism that had guided the postwar Christian Democratic consensus had atrophied into ideological divisions with little vision. The social safety net became something one was either for or against, and ironically it was the rightwing critics that seemed to be looking forward because the Dems were in effect becoming the true conservative party doing their best to maintain existing social safety net by referring backwards to what had been before it existed. And the Baby Boomers picked up right where their parents left off.vhlivhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014847502010321186noreply@blogger.com