Tom Hoffman at American Thinker writes about the wussy men of our day – the ones that glide along in their Gucci loafers, french cuffs, manicured nails and name brand gentleman’s wear. Tom observes that the days of manly men ended with the Boomer generation.
“The baby boom generation was the last to be taught the values of rugged individualism, risk-taking, courage, bravery, loyalty, and reverence for tradition. John Wayne epitomized the rugged individual who was committed to fighting “the bad guy,” but he was only one of a whole host of competing figures cut out of the same cloth. What happened?”
and this…
Edward Gibbon chronicles the increasing femininity of the Roman Empire in his six-volume work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He catalogues the progressive decadence that rendered the once-proud republic into spoils for barbarian hordes. The consuls in the early republic, who were warrior-generals adhering to a strict code of honor, gradually gave way to the backroom emperors who were no more than brazen criminals and thugs. It is the same script in all noble human enterprise: The fabric which bred success is torn apart by the complacency of the successful. When warfare is demonized as violence and negotiation is raised to an art, the end is near. Today, we are there.”
Hoffman’s piece “When Masculine Virtues Go Out of Fashion” is worth a read, if for no other reason than to understand how histoire is being repeated. Don’t miss the comment section either.
I’ve pointed out before…
We Boomers were, to large extent, raised by men who had gone to war to fight an enemy they KNEW would subjugate us if they weren’t successful. The men that first hit Omaha beach surely knew their odds were not good, yet they flooded out of landing craft, tried, then died in great numbers. Why? Because failing was unthinkable.
Kids today are being raised by Moms and Dads whose parents grew up in the “Viet Nam” generation. They think war solves nothing.
We Boomers knew different, because the living history lesson at our dinner table told us so.
The current occupant of the White House is a prime example of what the artcle decribes. Zero credability, suspect past and an overall whoosiness, makes one wonder if all the homo rumors about “BARRY” are true.
Bowing down to 3rd rate thugs, re-nigging on agreements to protect weaker countries, and apologising for AMERICAN exceptionalism makes the acusations of a
massive FRAUD plausible
The country needs a “bloodletting” to purge her of the growing impotency. The current state of affairs has me wonder when and not IF the carnage will begin. Americans have been pitted against fanatics following a “cult of personality”
there is a well known sequence of words that describe the progression of a society… can’t recall them, but it’s something like–
oppression to rebellion
rebellion to freedom
freedom to luxury
Luxury to apathy
apathy to chaos
chaos to oppression
Romans didn’t really do that cycle, because they formed a new society out of dregs of other societies and started from scratch. But we, America, certainly are doing that. We are almost to chaos, and oppression is visible on the horizon.
There is also something about a generational cycle of achievement. The grandfather, born into lack, makes something of himself, out of desire to improve his life. The father, inheriting his own father’s wealth, squanders it, having never experienced want and never had his character sharpened by that experience. The son, though, with a small remnant, experiences want and builds again the empire of his grandfather.
We are in the phase, collectively, of squandering the wealth left to us by others, never knowing the want that drove them to accomplish it all. I exempt, of course, the young people who sign up for military service, who obviously understand exactly what they are doing and what they are fighting for. But the rest of us, an unfortunately large number of us anyway, are in full squander mode, abandoning principles, ignoring traditions… with the luxury to do everything WRONG. For now, anyway.
Alexander Tytler (Lord Woodhousley):
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence from:
…bondage to spiritual faith …spiritual faith to great courage …great courage to liberty …liberty to abundance …abundance to selfishness …selfishness to complacency …complacency to apathy …apathy to dependency …dependency back into bondage
We have seen this coming for several years. Today on Glenn beck’s radio program, Joel Rosenberg (author of several books, among them “Epicenter”), when asked by Glenn if he though we were approaching Armageddon, replied, “yes”.
yeah, I knew it was something like that. :-))
I didn’t realize he had incorporated also that old Roman adage about the public treasury. I think it was cicero, but I also think I’ll google stuff more carefully from now on. 🙂
clarifying, I meant that America formed its society out of oppressed people on purpose, while the origins of Rome are less clear cut and more random.
Hi, Andrea. I had some difficulty finding a contact email for you regarding the mystery quote in today’s WND column, but found your blogsite just down the road from mine, and this post seems like a relevant place to put a reply. “Life is tough, but it’s tougher if you’re stupid,” is from (quiz answer witheld by ASK))
Thanks fro another good column, as well as the exercise of my searching muscles.
Tom Cox
Charlotte, TN
“Center of Mass”
tomcox.wordpress.com
Arrrgh… “fro” should be “for.” — TC