Depression Darwinism

"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay as soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA left because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!"

When Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller, USMC, the Marine with whom all others who bear the title compare themselves, proclaimed the foregoing he was passing judgment on the precarious position of the American way of life TWO generations ago. If he were alive today, he would be amazed that our citizenry's hardiness has declined so dramatically and that we, and our women, have yet not fallen prey to an invading foreign army. If there is any good to come of the impending economic depression, it may be that it will give birth to a 21st century great generation to match the one that came of age in the crucible of depression and war in the 1930's and 40's.

The Greatest Generation's parents could be compared to the young generation bearing children today. They were enjoying unprecedented luxury and leisure in the wake of great technological and cultural advances that had ushered in their new century. Some of that generation had fought briefly in the First World War, but the vast majority were spared any hardship let alone military service. Yet, there was an unwarranted feeling throughout American society of having suffered and survived that war, and that feeling led, in part, to an attitude of deserving to party--the excesses of the "Roaring Twenties" ensued; the Great Depression-heralding "Crash of '29" resulted. Sound familiar?

No doubt anyone of my generation, and later, reading this will feel that I have "dissed" them. Yep, they'd be right. I'm listening to a growing chorus of whining and wimpering from an over-privileged generation and the politicians pandering to them, and I can't help but believe that they haven't seen nuthin' yet! Even if "H" and the lefties that will be in charge are able to take decisive action over the next few months, the cure is liable to be just as painful as the disease. Either way, a deflating depression or a hyper-inflated recovery, the spoiled simps thumb-texting their way through life are in for a very rude awakening. There will be great sacrifice required if our nation is to survive. Those that answer that call to greatness will gain self-respect, and mine.

The rest will never get either.