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Rather than a "fault" of young Americans I would just point out that they have never experienced a significant militaristic national security threat nor witness

by ip26 5y ago

Rather than a "fault" of young Americans I would just point out that they have never experienced a significant militaristic national security threat nor witnessed a great power competition, and old-fashioned tanks-and-bombs conquest has been rare from the first & second world countries for their entire lives.

lolinder 5y ago
The last 70 years of (relative) peace are the exception, not the norm. Remaining ambivalent when a great power makes it clear they are intent on upsetting the balance on which peace hangs is clearly a "fault". It doesn't matter if that fault is the result of ignorance of history, it's still a problem.
01100011 5y ago
This is an example of the quip 'Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.' The younger generations have grown up in a bubble. The Soviet empire was no more. They were probably too young to remember or not even alive for 9/11. The modern wars the US was involved in could mostly be ignored. The economy was, for the most part, booming and full of distracting consumer goods and excess capacity leading to a full table of innovative goods and services. I'm a late gen X. My wife is a late millennial. I try to relate to her how the world used to be when I was young(less wealth, less choices, more uncertainty) but until you've lived it you can't understand it.
- whymauri 5y ago
  The current generation is just barely eaking out of a nearly three year long 'once in a century' pandemic with broad impacts on education, employment, and housing costs... and yet, they apparently haven't suffered through enough 'hard times.' OK. Notwithstanding the constant ongoing war in the Middle East and that anyone born before 99' definitely remembers 9/11. I know people who still haven't adequately processed the trauma of the Great Recession -- and they weren't old enough to make the massive gains from the economy, either.
specialp 5y ago
This is a "fault" of almost everyone living in Europe and USA at the moment. Europe for a while neglected military spending because the great evil Soviet Union was gone. In the USA we got to the mode where Russia isn't exactly our friend but they are contained to their vast land and nobody cares. Our focus too was on the Middle East. But now, I am not really old enough to know what it was like living under the threat from Russia, but I am old enough to know from 1 generation of separation family and friends what it was like. And 2 generations was WWII. So Russian aggression has me worried. Now Gen Z is another generation forward. I have found that Gen Z as a whole seems to be more empathetic, and very anti violence. The thought of someone coming in and flattening your neighborhood is the last thing they would think of. The things they more empathize with at the moment are the issues in the USA with social justice. And seeing Russian minorities in Ukraine persecuted from Russian sources resonates with them more than the narrative from the USA that Russia is an imperialistic country. They are also deeply skeptical of that narrative from our government as reflections on the USA's own history in the middle east, and central/South America

by ip26 5y ago

lolinder 5y ago

The last 70 years of (relative) peace are the exception, not the norm. Remaining ambivalent when a great power makes it clear they are intent on upsetting the balance on which peace hangs is clearly a "fault". It doesn't matter if that fault is the result of ignorance of history, it's still a problem.

01100011 5y ago

This is an example of the quip 'Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.' The younger generations have grown up in a bubble. The Soviet empire was no more. They were probably too young to remember or not even alive for 9/11. The modern wars the US was involved in could mostly be ignored. The economy was, for the most part, booming and full of distracting consumer goods and excess capacity leading to a full table of innovative goods and services. I'm a late gen X. My wife is a late millennial. I try to relate to her how the world used to be when I was young(less wealth, less choices, more uncertainty) but until you've lived it you can't understand it.

whymauri 5y ago
The current generation is just barely eaking out of a nearly three year long 'once in a century' pandemic with broad impacts on education, employment, and housing costs... and yet, they apparently haven't suffered through enough 'hard times.' OK. Notwithstanding the constant ongoing war in the Middle East and that anyone born before 99' definitely remembers 9/11. I know people who still haven't adequately processed the trauma of the Great Recession -- and they weren't old enough to make the massive gains from the economy, either.

specialp 5y ago

This is a "fault" of almost everyone living in Europe and USA at the moment. Europe for a while neglected military spending because the great evil Soviet Union was gone. In the USA we got to the mode where Russia isn't exactly our friend but they are contained to their vast land and nobody cares. Our focus too was on the Middle East. But now, I am not really old enough to know what it was like living under the threat from Russia, but I am old enough to know from 1 generation of separation family and friends what it was like. And 2 generations was WWII. So Russian aggression has me worried. Now Gen Z is another generation forward. I have found that Gen Z as a whole seems to be more empathetic, and very anti violence. The thought of someone coming in and flattening your neighborhood is the last thing they would think of. The things they more empathize with at the moment are the issues in the USA with social justice. And seeing Russian minorities in Ukraine persecuted from Russian sources resonates with them more than the narrative from the USA that Russia is an imperialistic country. They are also deeply skeptical of that narrative from our government as reflections on the USA's own history in the middle east, and central/South America