Theory

I had spouted something crazy, or maybe it was amazing… I don’t know… but it is a new theory.

There are very few people left in America who remember when America wasn’t a superpower. When we were just one of many powerful nations, but not the dominate economy or military. That would be the World War II generation, and they are passing away quickly, and so is the last living memory that America. I think this explains why we are in the crisis we are in.

We are the decedents of the people that built America into a superpower, and being that we have no idea of what the pre-superpower world is like, we have become greedy and selfish, just like spoiled children do.

The Post World War II ethic was to create organizations and treaties that would stop another devastating war from happening again. And to a certain degree, it has worked. For 73 years that has not been a major full-scale war between industrialized nations. There hasn’t been a war that killed 70 million people, or 3% of the population of the planet. The tradeoff has been, what? America hasn’t made enough money? We haven’t won enough wars? We have to listen to other countries because we believe in diplomacy?

I think a lot of the anger that has come up in the last 20 years has to do with the generational shift from WWII people to Baby Boomers, and now to Gen X to Millennials.

There is something to this thought. It should be explored.