A Lost Generation?

[pennst8]

Yes and now we have found said war. It was always there, we just didn't want to see it until they decided to start flying planes into buildings.

I have a huge problem with the large percentage of my generation that gets its news and analysis off comedy central. This isn't some fvckin joke, its the real world, even if your world consists of unicorns and gumdrops and everyone getting along all the time.

Are we better or worse than any previous generation? No idea. Don't really care. Maybe yes, maybe no. But either way I think it shows how black and white the divisions between us are that we even feel like we need to have this conversation.

I blame the old timers for not beating enough hippies. More face punching, less live-and-let-live.

someone else take the mike, i'm done here. </rant>

 

[FlybyWired06]

Crack open a history book, and not some rah-rah piece like Band of Brothers. While neither of us have the benefit of living through another generations, trials and tribulations there is plenty out there that shows you history was not all hunky dorey.

A good example, do you have any idea how Senator Truman came to national prominence during WWII? Goes to show you that the 'greatest generation' had its flaws too. Same with the Founding Fathers, read up on them.

For someone who is just over a year out of college, especially one as restrictive as your alma mater, how the heck can you judge your generation against others? Reaching a bit?

You're right, I'm young and I went to a college that was extremely...focused...but implying that I believe all of history has been "hunky dory" is kind of insulting really. I don't believe I ever have put on any blinders as to the the foleys of each generation nor will I ever, but this is taking things out of context. I didn't begin this thread to compare generations at all, but to merely put Zumwalts question out there. Will this generation survive the pressures it now experiences to become another great generation?

 

[invertedflyer]

Honestly, I don't see mandatory military service as a solution to anything. You've all seen those people in your units that aren't interested in being there and could care less about what they're doing. They half-ass things and all around shitty. By forcing people to serve in the military, you'll be opening the flood gates to this kind of attitude. A lot of people don't have the same duty ethic that we do. The only result we'd get would be a larger military but a weaker one due to apathy and carelessness.

I agree with you on this. 'nuff said.

Today's youth are no better or worse than the youth from one, two or 10 generations ago. To lament that yoru contemporaries are lazy, indifferent or just apathetic about what is going on in the world may be true in your tiny little worldview but you have to think, have you really seen enough to make that kind of judgement?

I think that today's youth may not be better or worse, but are certainly different. I definitely agree that patriotism varies from region to region, hence my comments on culture with respect to location. However I think that the American culture was different to some extent in times past.

That being said, I'm not worried about the current situation. As I said before, for every skeptic out there I know someone with the fortitude to be progressive. Every time period has its challenges. I know many that are ready and willing to meet this challenge. Ofcourse that doesn't mean that my classmates' ineptitude doesn't strike a chord with me I still hold firm that, at least in my area of the country, the youth are fairly ambiguous and uniformed. Again, I'm not saying that this is the case everywhere or that it pertains to anyone else... just speaking to my observations.

 

[phrogpilot73]

I'm with Flash on this one. I personally read the article and was offended. Am I the "youth" he's talking about? Are the Marines that served under him the "youth" he's talking about? Are the kids that are currently in Iraq and Afghanistan the "youth" he's talking about?

Personally, I don't give a shit that colleges have liberal professors. Perhaps they spur intellectual discussion/debate with students who don't hold the same views they are. I also don't give a shit that some college kids don't understand that the Naval Academy is not your normal college.

In the end, young men and women are going to answer the call and serve. Others will want to but can't, and still others don't want to. It's what makes this country work. 233 Million people in the country, and how many are in the military? Maybe a million, 2 million? So we're going to say the other 231/232 Million are fucked up? Nope. We're here so they can operate under their own free will, not the will of some dictator.

 

[invertedflyer]

So we're going to say the other 231/232 Million are fucked up? Nope. We're here so they can operate under their own free will, not the will of some dictator.

I agree wholeheartedly. However, that doesn't mean that we have to like how they use that freedom. In the case of my school, putting up a large sign that said "Bush's War = Terrorism" and asking me "so you like bombing women and children then?" .... I'm ready to go back to Virginia!

 

[pennst8]

^ the key is to humor them... at least as long as there's not a video camera around... and you're not in uniform at the moment...

"Baby killer!"
"Oh man I wish! The senior guys hog all the fun jobs."
*stunned silence...*
"Fvck off hippie."

 

[invertedflyer]

^^ Amazingly thats exactly what I did.

retard: "So you like bombing women and children?"

me: "Actually yeah, I go for them first you know... those little kids are gonna grow up someday... gotta take 'em out."

retard: "stunned silence"

me: "Ofcourse we don't you ***** !@$!%@% !!! "

If you don't have a sense of humor these days all is lost.

 

[xj220]

The best is:
p1: Baby killer!
p2: Well yeah, how am I supposed to eat them if they're alive?
p1: (shocked)

 

[HH-60H]

233 Million people in the country, and how many are in the military? Maybe a million, 2 million?

Not that it is particularly material to this discussion, but we have over 300 million people in the country. We crossed the 300 million mark October 2006.

Interestingly, we had around 233 million within a few years of your being born. Is this you?

 

[MasterBates]

Cazungas!

 

[HeyJoe]

I think there are definitely a lot of issues with my generation but I don't think the examples in the article are relevant at all. The Middies getting booed at Rutgers? Come on, that kind of crap happens at every Rutgers game (not to mention most other games at any other school). Yeah, the students didn't give the Mids special treatment as a result of the commitment they made to this country but since when has that ever happened? The Ward Churchill thing? Assholes always have a pulpit, it's the great thing about this country even though it pisses me off to hear their drivel sometimes. Same with Ahmadinejad. He's a lunatic who needs several repeated stomps to the face but his being given a chance to demonstrate the true depth of his insanity is not really a reflection on a generation. It was definitely refreshing to hear Lee Bollinger tell him how much of a jackass he really is though. If Mr. Zumwalt really wants to see the root of the problem, I think he should take a look at why kids are being given all sorts of privelege and excessive protection from the world while being allowed to never personal responsibility for anything in their lives :icon_rage.

/end rant

I don't think Zumwalt even watched the Columbia event and yet bases his major premise on Columbia's invitation to Ahmadinejad to speak. Bollinger pulled no punches in telling this lunatic off so Zumwalt needs a better premise for his argument. I sincerely doubt the crowd at the Rutgers-Navy game could be equated to the Canary in the cage either. A raucous football game is hardly a litmus test of campus attitudes towards the military or the ongoing conflict nor is the Churchill "incident". I totally agree with Flash: a very clumsy article that fails to deliver on its original premise and based on shoddy research.