Lessons Of The Greatest Generation, Now Forgotten By Too Many (Part One)
First published July 2014
"The Greatest Generation" is the title of a book by NBC's Tom Brokaw from the late 1990s. For many, that title has come to be the perfect description for the generation which lived through two major events, the Great Depression and then World War Two. The Great Depression was such a devastating economic time, many Americans, and people elsewhere, were so traumatized, its effects on their psyche remained long after the economy had recovered; although most didn't have time to wallow in self pity, as there was a war to be fought and won against reactionary fascism. To combat both economic depression and reactionary fascism, Americans pulled together, except for our own reactionary fascists, a group which has remained with us and grown in number to this day (part of the "forgotten lessons"). I'd argue that not only did the Great Depression spawn an outburst of reactionary fascism, but in more modern times, the effects of an American middle class under pressure, and the loss of decent paying jobs, due both to technological changes and jobs sent overseas, which were sent there by choice by those suffering from a sickness I call "egotistical greed;" that is, "I can't get enough money, no matter how much I have, and don't tax me, regulate me, or expect me to give a shit about anyone else, or about those whom my actions have hurt, because I'm for me, and anything less means we don't have a free country, a free country where I can make workers grovel for wages and benefits."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was not perfect, but he became a beloved figure in the United States, because he tried to help people who were in desperate need and often shorn of dignity. Roosevelt didn't hate the overall American system, but he saw how its flaws could inflict pain and keep wealth (he was wealthy himself) from being more "fairly distributed." * These views brought some to call him "a traitor to his class," a term meant by some to be derogatory, but which he turned to his advantage, as many poor, middle class, and wealthy progressive Americans saw him as "betraying his class" for the good of the country. In a campaign speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 31, 1936, Roosevelt laid out how reactionaries wanted a return to the past. This speech could be given in today's America, a sad commentary on how we've forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression era:
"For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent... We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering... They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred." **
More in "Part Two"
* I've put "fairly distributed" in quotation marks, because I haven't defined it and it's a term where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One far side of the spectrum might argue that "fair" means everyone makes exactly the same, while the other far side of the spectrum might say that it's perfectly fair for a few people to control virtually everything. The fact of the matter for me personally is, I don't honestly know what the ideal proportions should be, only that things have gotten way out of hand in concentration of wealth in the hands of a small percentage in the last three and a half decades.
** These excerpts taken from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
WORD HISTORY:
Wold (Weald)-These now generally obsolete words, related to "wild," ^ have remained as part of place names in England. They "seem" to go back to a possible Indo European root like "wealt/welt," which would have had the notion, "grown over area, area covered in growth," which then produced offshoots that diverged into somewhat more specific meanings. If correct, this would also make it related to "wool" ("hair of certain animals"), as such a root seems to have provided the basis for words in other Indo European languages for the meaning "hair," and in others for "meadow" (a grass covered area), although for the latter see more below. Whatever the case, Old Germanic had "walthuz," which meant "forest" ("a tree covered area"). This then gave Old English "wald" and "weald," depending upon dialect, and both meaning "forest," with "wald" then becoming "wold," and "weald" remaining, although use of both words dwindled by the 1600s, but certain place names retained the usage. The meaning of "wold" changed from "forested area," to "meadow/grassland, deforested area/moor," "perhaps" due to the original area using "wold" in its name, but when it was later deforested, the "wold' name still stuck and the meaning then changed. "Weald" retained the "forest" meaning, but with the additional "open land" meaning, likely due to the same reason. The other Germanic languages have: German "Wald" (forest), Low German Saxon "Woold" (forest), West Frisian "wâld" (forest), Dutch "woud" (forest, and notice the lost "L"), Norwegian "voll" (field, meadow), Swedish "vall" (pasture land), Icelandic "völlur" (field).
^ Wild in the sense "out in the wild."
"The Greatest Generation" is the title of a book by NBC's Tom Brokaw from the late 1990s. For many, that title has come to be the perfect description for the generation which lived through two major events, the Great Depression and then World War Two. The Great Depression was such a devastating economic time, many Americans, and people elsewhere, were so traumatized, its effects on their psyche remained long after the economy had recovered; although most didn't have time to wallow in self pity, as there was a war to be fought and won against reactionary fascism. To combat both economic depression and reactionary fascism, Americans pulled together, except for our own reactionary fascists, a group which has remained with us and grown in number to this day (part of the "forgotten lessons"). I'd argue that not only did the Great Depression spawn an outburst of reactionary fascism, but in more modern times, the effects of an American middle class under pressure, and the loss of decent paying jobs, due both to technological changes and jobs sent overseas, which were sent there by choice by those suffering from a sickness I call "egotistical greed;" that is, "I can't get enough money, no matter how much I have, and don't tax me, regulate me, or expect me to give a shit about anyone else, or about those whom my actions have hurt, because I'm for me, and anything less means we don't have a free country, a free country where I can make workers grovel for wages and benefits."
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was not perfect, but he became a beloved figure in the United States, because he tried to help people who were in desperate need and often shorn of dignity. Roosevelt didn't hate the overall American system, but he saw how its flaws could inflict pain and keep wealth (he was wealthy himself) from being more "fairly distributed." * These views brought some to call him "a traitor to his class," a term meant by some to be derogatory, but which he turned to his advantage, as many poor, middle class, and wealthy progressive Americans saw him as "betraying his class" for the good of the country. In a campaign speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 31, 1936, Roosevelt laid out how reactionaries wanted a return to the past. This speech could be given in today's America, a sad commentary on how we've forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression era:
"For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent... We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering... They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred." **
More in "Part Two"
* I've put "fairly distributed" in quotation marks, because I haven't defined it and it's a term where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One far side of the spectrum might argue that "fair" means everyone makes exactly the same, while the other far side of the spectrum might say that it's perfectly fair for a few people to control virtually everything. The fact of the matter for me personally is, I don't honestly know what the ideal proportions should be, only that things have gotten way out of hand in concentration of wealth in the hands of a small percentage in the last three and a half decades.
** These excerpts taken from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
WORD HISTORY:
Wold (Weald)-These now generally obsolete words, related to "wild," ^ have remained as part of place names in England. They "seem" to go back to a possible Indo European root like "wealt/welt," which would have had the notion, "grown over area, area covered in growth," which then produced offshoots that diverged into somewhat more specific meanings. If correct, this would also make it related to "wool" ("hair of certain animals"), as such a root seems to have provided the basis for words in other Indo European languages for the meaning "hair," and in others for "meadow" (a grass covered area), although for the latter see more below. Whatever the case, Old Germanic had "walthuz," which meant "forest" ("a tree covered area"). This then gave Old English "wald" and "weald," depending upon dialect, and both meaning "forest," with "wald" then becoming "wold," and "weald" remaining, although use of both words dwindled by the 1600s, but certain place names retained the usage. The meaning of "wold" changed from "forested area," to "meadow/grassland, deforested area/moor," "perhaps" due to the original area using "wold" in its name, but when it was later deforested, the "wold' name still stuck and the meaning then changed. "Weald" retained the "forest" meaning, but with the additional "open land" meaning, likely due to the same reason. The other Germanic languages have: German "Wald" (forest), Low German Saxon "Woold" (forest), West Frisian "wâld" (forest), Dutch "woud" (forest, and notice the lost "L"), Norwegian "voll" (field, meadow), Swedish "vall" (pasture land), Icelandic "völlur" (field).
^ Wild in the sense "out in the wild."
Labels: English, etymology, Fascism, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Germanic languages, reactionaries, the Great Depression, the Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw, World War Two
posted by Randy at 8:50 AM
3 Comments:
FDR was THE best! He saved their system for them, but many of the greedy still hated him, because they wanted even more. Never enough for these types!
Yes, FDR was a great one. And we need more like Brokaw and others like John Chancellor and Cronkheit (sp?).
ou right seth, fdr the best, no doubt! Lincoln and teddy roosevet too, and they were repulicnas
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