The Lost Generations: Today and Yesteryear

The Baby Boomer generation can be blamed for not relinquishing political power, for passing on massive problems (huge national debt, failing social security, etc.), and most importantly, for failing to instill their values in the next generations. Ronald Reagan said each generation has responsibility to the next:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Those coming of age today, Generation Z, along with the prior generation (Millennials), are lost souls. They have discarded God, country, and family. The Baby Boomers believed in these, had direction in their own lives, understood good from evil, understood right from wrong, and yet failed to emphasize all this in their offspring. What do the younger generations today believe in and where will they find meaning in their lives? The poll results below are alarming.

Gen Z does not value America, the most free and prosperous country that ever was. Can they find meaning in other Western nations which refuse to defend the freedom and values the West once promoted? Can they find meaning in Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, China, Cuba, or Russia, countries that have no freedom and certainly don’t believe in any American values–conservative or liberal? Where exactly, if not America, will they find a welcoming place to fulfill their eclectic, often bizarre desires? Where else can they fully express themselves?

Today’s youth also do not find meaning in family. They are so focused on finding their own identity, they cannot find their identity in anyone else. More importantly, how does our country survive if we stop having children or if we abandon children to the state? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57003722

The report also analyzed the total US fertility rate, which estimates how many babies a hypothetical group of 1,000 women would have over their lifetime based on actual birth rates. For a generation to exactly replace itself, this number must be at or above 2.1.

According to the CDC, this rate has generally been “below replacement” since 1971 and has consistently been below replacement since 2007. Today, the US total fertility rate sits at 1.6 – another record low.

Specifically, we surveyed a representative sample of just over 1,000 U.S. adults about their future family planning. Of those without children, about half (52%) do not want to have a child in the future, while 20% remain unsure.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birth-rate

Today’s youth don’t believe in God, so what do they place their hope in? How will they ever know themselves and their vocations in life without understanding God and His purpose for them?

God, country, family provided meaning not just for Baby Boomers, but for civilizations across multiple millennia. Where will youth today find hope, meaning, and purpose to their lives? Colleges and universities, along with our lying one-channel media, relentlessly push them towards many unfulfilling shiny objects: poison-ivy-spreads).

We once had the secret formula, but did not pass it along. We must find those values again or our civilization will all be lost.

The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemmingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, depicted the “Lost Generation”, the generation which came of age during World War I. It was once the war to end all wars; an estimated 40 million died. In the aftermath, Europeans became disillusioned with themselves and Western values. Unfortunately, it was not the war to end all wars as Europe was engulfed in a second great war twenty years later, one even worse than the first, one that involved more nations and killed eighty million. WWII brought incalculable evil such as the Holocaust. It was perhaps the beginning of the end of Western Civilization. Europeans concluded Western, Judeo-Christian values had utterly failed and over time have simply abandoned those former bedrock values. Europe today is a shadow of the formidable civilization it once was, not so much because of the awful wars it suffered, but because of its unwillingness to defend the good it once believed in.

Youth today remind me of the characters in Hemmingway’s book: lost and disillusioned. American youth have arrived at the same conclusions as the Lost Generation of the 1920s. They would rather surrender to despair than struggle to repair the damage.

Several of Hemmingway’s characters are struggling expatriate writers like he himself was. The one significant female character is Lady Brett Ashley. All of them were deeply impacted by the war that ended a few years earlier, impacted in ways they never acknowledge directly.

The scenes in the book are often night clubs in Paris and conversations are over drinks, settings which highlight the emptiness of the characters’ lives. The drinking seems a means to forget the war and their disillusionment. The characters both love and hate Paris as well, perhaps blaming it also for their plight.

Throughout, the male characters are drawn to the beautiful Lady Ashley; she unites this coterie as each of them seeks her love and attention. Perhaps, we are led to believe in the first half of the book, true love and friendship will eventually prevail among this band of friends.

The characters never speak of disillusionment, but they seem to understand their plight. They plan a trip to Spain, something to add a spark to their lives. In Spain, a fishing trip brings them back to nature and the beauty and allure of life. During the Festival of San Fermin and the bullfighting they once again experience the thrill of life and take part in its struggle. Still, these excursions are not enough to heal them. Furthermore, none of the men can contain Lady Ashley and she runs off with the young, handsome bullfighter, leaving all of them behind. Without her to hold them together, the group bickers and eventually falls apart.

Hemmingway makes Lady Ashley a very likeable character, but she is a decadent figure, living life on her own terms, unable to commit to anything or anyone. She does not realize her youth and beauty will not sustain her much longer, and is unable to commit to her true soulmate, the one she consistently relies on, the one who should she should spend her waning days with. She has multiple opportunities to commit to Jake, but never grasps a chance for lasting happiness. One finishes the novel believing there must be more to life. Something should keep us from continually falling off the beaten path. Of course, we have such a guide, but when these characters stumble across it, they discard it without understanding its value.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of choice pearls. Finding one of great value, they went and sold everything they had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46

Similarly, Generation Z diligently searches for meaning in the wrong places. They commit themselves whole-heartedly to seemingly worthy causes, but these causes are not what they believe them to be.

Music, drugs, free love (make love, not war) were themes from the 1960s that still hold appeal, but you can’t sustain a life on these. Many find meaning in political movements; socialism increasingly appeals to them, but political parties and causes are designed and maintained for ambitious, venal politicians, most of whom don’t give a damn for voters concerns. Our youth especially have no idea they are being manipulated.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, human rights, climate, and tolerance are all popular causes that sound noble and good (we should all be for them, right?), but they are also undermined by political parties; they are smokescreens designed to further mostly unjust causes which would not otherwise be tolerated.

Abortion rights, gay rights, transgender rights, women’s rights, are other causes that purport to champion the underdog and make proponents feel righteous (and superior to those who disagree with them), but in the end, they destroy far more lives than they repair because they are designed to achieve political goals, not moral goals.

These causes are deceptively attractive; they are derived from the source of all good (God), but have been distorted–as all good things have from the beginning of time. They eventually disillusion proponents who dig below the surface. Of course, many never dig any deeper, and so remain committed to lost causes.

“He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

Yes, we are to be good stewards of the earth, but that doesn’t mean declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant or pretending materials required for solar panels and EV batteries are actually renewable. It doesn’t mean inventing meaningless terms like “environmental justice” and blaming all of society’s ills on climate.

Yes, we are to love our neighbors and defend their rights, but we should not tolerate behavior harmful to themselves and the culture as a whole. We should be for equality of opportunity, not for equity, the equality of all outcomes, which comes at the expense of equal opportunity. We should celebrate diversity but not by granting special protection for a special few and not by pretending the successful received their gains illegitimately. We should celebrate all diversity, not just diversity which is politically expedient, and we should not pretend diversity alone improves quality.

We are to defend freedom to choose life, not the freedom to end it. We should not place our own convenience and our accumulated (or future) wealth above our children’s lives.

Perhaps youth today wonder why they feel lost. Whoopi might tell them to simply ignore this feeling and that they should feel no shame.

The problem is there are too many paths to choose from, too many wrong paths. Life was simpler in the past because the few good paths stood out and were not so easily overlooked. Today, the few good paths, the less traveled paths, are lost in the shuffle; they are often treated as if they were morally equivalent with the countless other morally deficient paths invented in the last few years.

Where is God?

Where do we find direction in life? From Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Thomas Malthus, or from the dictates of the Bible? What is the ethical standard we follow: virtue as Aristotle suggested or the grand historical struggle per Marx?

Both Brett and Jake in the Sun Also Rises make clear God and religion are not for them. Jake registers an odd longing for a return to faith, but ultimately he cannot commit to it.

I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a little while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious.

Brett, Lady Ashley, also spoke of God. She is even more dismissive than Jake.

“It’s the sort of thing we have instead of God.”

“Some people have God,” I said. “Quite a lot.”

“He never worked very well with me.”

The two considered God for a fleeting moment only. It seems they at least believed in God, but didn’t see Him as a solution. Hemmingway himself converted to Catholicism, but his cynicism and lack of concern here makes one wonder how committed he ever was. Hemmingway too served during the war and perhaps he is asking through his characters why would God allow so many to die needlessly in the great war? Should we believe in a God that allows such suffering or should we instead give into the cynicism there is nothing we used to believe worth defending?

1920s Europe abandoned God and Western culture–long before Americans, the ascendant culture of the 20th Century. However, a century later, new American generations are also struggling with the value of God and Western Civilization. Just one in four of Generation Z believe in God. Rather than put faith in a good God, concluding Western and Judeo-Christian values have failed us and are not worth defending.

When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything. G.K. Chesterton

Of course, something must replace God for our youth. Many of them are earnestly committed to fixing the world’s problems and overcoming human nature. A great many believe we can evolve into that Utopian society Marx said could be found. While we can each overcome problems in our individual lives, this world’s problems and the failings of human nature will always be with us. Marxism is no solution. The idealism of youth is not all bad, but it often overlooks reality.

God promises a better life in the next world, but He does not free us from suffering and pain in this one. Only God can help us put the world in its proper perspective. The Lost Generation of the 1920’s couldn’t find their way out and neither will today’s generation on their current path.

We all want a better world today, but it is not what is promised us. We also do not want to be told that we need to do better. Still, we need to feel some guilt and shame at times, and we must repent for our sins. Human nature is basically not good and must be overcome by each individual. Self-denial and loving God and others more than ourselves are strange concepts to the world, but fulfillment is often found there. These are hard messages for those who live their lives like Lady Brett Ashley did. The world is lying to us, but we too often wish to believe its sweet lies.

Those disillusioned by the world, may eventually come back to God. Those who dig a bit deeper under the surface may realize the world’s causes are not true. Those who simply reflect on life and on God, may come to the right conclusion as well. It takes time and a bit of effort, something we are not always willing to give.

If we live by God’s standards and dictates, we can find a meaningful life. The West founded an entire civilization on Judeo-Christian standards. It was far from perfect (and failed quite often), but it was the most free, most prosperous, most enduring, and the most blessed by God of any that proceeded or coincided with it. Still, Europeans in the 20th Century and Americans in the 21st have abandoned Western Civilization for chaos. They blame God for our problems, yet they do not realize He has not abandoned us, but rather we have abandoned Him.

The Struggle

This short video clip perhaps explains the problem in a nutshell: https://youtube.com/shorts/-fLwLUw08YE?si=uHCFYqI0KPC7cuTB

Easy times create weak men. Weak men create tough times. My grandfather walked ten miles to work every day. My father walked five. I’m driving a Cadillac. My son is in a Mercedes, and my grandson will be in a Ferrari. “But,” he said, “my great-grandson will walking again.”

So, I asked him: “Why is that?”

He said to me: “Tough times create strong men. Strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men. Weak men create tough times. Many will not understand, but you have to raise warriors.”

America knew tough times during the depression of the 1930’s. It knew tough times again during WWII, a war that called for incredible sacrifice from all Americans, home and abroad. Strong men were created during those tough times. These strong men literally saved the entire world from tyranny, and they ran the country the years that followed. The generations that followed them grew up in progressively easier times. Tough times will come again, and the cycle will begin anew. Are we prepared for those tough times? They are no doubt on the horizon.

What do we know about tough times today? Not so much, I think. Moronic politicians, like Hillary Clinton redefine the meaning of bravery. Simply doing basic things has somehow become synonymous with being brave.

No, ma’am. We cannot compare the simple act of voting with the bravery of the men who stormed the Normandy beach, many of them sacrificed their lives so that those who lived after them could have easier times. Yes, voting is important, but it is not an act of bravery–at least, not yet. Too many basic things today have been re-defined as brave.

Bravery also means to risk something valuable and to sacrifice for a higher good. Some say coming out of the closet is brave. It might have been brave fifty years ago, but everyone is out of the closet these days. There is no risk whatsoever. Furthermore, there is no longer shame in any perverse belief. Shame has been outlawed. Those who come out of the closet are still portrayed as victims. In fact, they are lauded. Any who dare criticize is taking the far bigger risk. Still, I push back.

The LGBTQ boom is clearly a fad. The trend has exploded in recent years as if it were following the stock market. Certainly, the LGBTQ have always been with us, but Gen Z has ten times more LGBTQ than the Baby Boomer Generation. Bill Maher says in a few more years, we will all be LGBTQ.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMBzfUj5zsg Since when is following the latest fad been risky?

Furthermore, bravery should lead to a higher purpose. Folks join the LGBTQ ranks seeking new meaning in their lives. Many look to gender or sexual identity only because they have lost the identities that defined earlier generations.

We are all unhappy with ourselves in some way. We all seek change to improve our quality of life. Sure, that is understandable, but can a new gender or sexual identity improve the quality of your life? This is especially doubtful if you simply follow the fad. Will you be happy if you fail to find your correct identity and have to experiment with a dozen more? Will the change help you find your vocation, your mission in life? Will it bring fulfillment? I know better many other ways to improve yourself. Like all fads, the LGBTQ market will crash someday.

Consider this: this talk of change is designed to make you a victim. You then join the coalition of victims, and that coalition elects politicians who champion the causes of all victims like you. Politicians need your anger, so they push you in this direction and then rush in to defend you. They say they alone support you and fight against your victimizers, white Christian males especially. They vilify people like me who seek a return to the more meaningful values. So instead of God, family, or country, many seek their identity in the new fangled, unproven fad becoming the mark in a grift designed to obtain votes. It is a productive and nefarious scheme.

Perhaps you are satisfied with your new identity or perhaps you will once again wonder what is missing from your life. God, country, and family kept us grounded in truth. The new values of today have little basis in truth.

If you consider voting for Chase Oliver, the 2024 Libertarian candidate for president, a Millennial, relatable to lost souls of Gen Z, then perhaps you are ensnared by this grift. I pray not, but if so, take the time to seek the truth once again.

Dave https://seek-the-truth.com/about/
https://seek-the-truth.com
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