tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post611392327522681785..comments2024-03-28T18:56:40.762-04:00Comments on Waddy Is Right: Could South Africa Syndrome Afflict the USA?Nicholas Waddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-63091494985264688172019-05-24T13:56:21.120-04:002019-05-24T13:56:21.120-04:00Jack, you're right that the boomers played a m...Jack, you're right that the boomers played a major role in the collapse of our noble efforts in Vietnam, BUT I would argue that the media played an even bigger role. And who were the journalists covering Vietnam in the late 60s-early 70s? Not boomers. I suppose you could say it was an alliance of the gullible whippersnappers and the once-marginalized older and middle-aged pinkos that brought America to the brink?Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-31822092477831592512019-05-22T17:05:55.262-04:002019-05-22T17:05:55.262-04:00Dr. Waddy:Strong points on your part also. But tho...Dr. Waddy:Strong points on your part also. But though the boomers did not hold office in the '60's, they did wield much power. They drove LBJ out of office with their excoriation of him. He took that very hard; he had courageously stood up to the good ole boys of whom he was one but whose resistance to the extension of civil rights he creditably knew he had to fight.And civil rights were something the liberal boomers appeared to think very important.<br /><br /> The"anti war" boomers stand very suspect to this day of simply being unwilling to risk the long and promising lives promised by their protected childhoods, to fight for their country's just resistance to the most inhumane doctrine ever. You should have seen the Lenin, Stalin, Mao,Ho and "Che" posters casually displayed in the dorm room just down the hall in so many boomer dorms. What terrible ignorance! Ironically, they opened the door for Nixon, who exited Vietnam but in a manner which helped convince the war wise Soviets that we were not to be trifled with and, eventually, that they could not best us militarily, no matter how hard, at the expense of their long suffering populace, they tried. The result? 1991. Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-38388475458252993082019-05-21T22:59:11.729-04:002019-05-21T22:59:11.729-04:00You make strong points here, as always, Jack. I&#...You make strong points here, as always, Jack. I'm not sure it will be very fruitful for us to debate which generation doomed America, though. It's rather like asking what year was the turning point for the decline of Western Civilization. One would be spoiled for choice, and in the end a civilizational denouement is a long-running process anyway. If, though, as we've said many times, the 60s were ground zero for the Left's power play for America's soul, then surely it wasn't the Boomers IN POWER in the 60s. In other words, yes, the Boomers may have dropped the ball when it was their turn at the helm, but before then it was their parents' turn, and they too made grave mistakes...Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-22208881735172198832019-05-21T18:15:17.679-04:002019-05-21T18:15:17.679-04:00Dr. Waddy: Forgive my assertiveness in saying this...Dr. Waddy: Forgive my assertiveness in saying this: I don't think anyone could have had a more favorable childhood than we boomers had. The country was miraculously prosperous a mere 15 years after the deadly Depression (in which children were advertised for sale). We enjoyed perhaps the last true childhood afforded to American children." Leave it to Beaver"was realistic.<br /><br />But in our very painfully awarded prosperity we attended college, twenty years before the province of "swells" only, and after WWII, financed by Tarawa, Omaha Beach, Okinawa and the Bulge; prices we were blessedly shielded from paying.<br /><br />There we were shamefully seduced by leftists, advocates of a system fully as murderous as that which our fathers had defeated. <br /><br />Perhaps a majority of us grew out of this but there were so many of us that the cynical and manipulative left retains, to this day, through us, destructive power. <br /><br /> Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-8754601521163814802019-05-21T17:43:44.661-04:002019-05-21T17:43:44.661-04:00Dr. Waddy: But I must add: my generation's pow...Dr. Waddy: But I must add: my generation's power to exert the continuing influence it has manifested (and there is the difference; there was plenty of sillyness and youthful naivete shown by most 20th century youngsters. But there were so danged and unprecedented many of us boomers that we had a completely new and inordinate effect on American politics, culture and society. Far too many of us thought that meant we had pioneered a new and irrefutably enlightened standard. Nah! Its just that our parents made understandable whoopy in the late '40's and thats all there is to it. We are human and remarkably fallible, as far too many of us have proved to be in savaging a land which gave the best of lives. Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-52232920851885406262019-05-19T17:41:31.844-04:002019-05-19T17:41:31.844-04:00Dr.Waddy: My willful device would not let me read ...Dr.Waddy: My willful device would not let me read the article you cited. I trust your conclusion on it.<br /><br />Your opinion on the empirical data is well argued. You didn't ruin my day; I value creditable counterargument. I may well be in error in my view on my generation. Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-39732482105924700522019-05-16T21:46:32.395-04:002019-05-16T21:46:32.395-04:00Jack, all that you say about the Boomers is true. ...Jack, all that you say about the Boomers is true. Many of them are the worst of the worst. Many of them, though, are not. Check out an exit poll from 2016:<br /><br />https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls<br /><br />You'll see that, indeed, the Boomers were more likely to vote for Trump than those 45 and under. The most enamored with Clinton were the youngest voters of all. To me, that means, as bad as the Boomers were, worse may be coming. Sorry -- I don't mean to ruin your day!Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-14792196455078403252019-05-16T10:30:57.558-04:002019-05-16T10:30:57.558-04:00Dr. Waddy: But consider those ads for medications ...Dr. Waddy: But consider those ads for medications for aging people in which spry boomers declare "I'll go my OWN way" or narrators praise them for being an ever rebellious generation. Many boomers are far too eager to pat themselves on the back for their perceived Promethean effect, eg in civil rights. The really hard work was done by Dr. King and his soldiers, who predated the boomers. My generation turned it into affirmative action, contempt for the police, the Attica riot and a widespread perception that the US is still an essentially racially oppressive country. Boomers have turned the US academy into a disgraceful swamp of antiintellectualism and leftist bigotry and intolerance. They have captured many of the law schools for the "Critical Legal Studies" school which dismisses the accumulated wisdom and consequently mostly benevolent evolution of American law. They celebrate Bob Dylan's ascension to the Nobel pantheon; Dylan , their sage, who bade the Greatest Generation "please get out of the new world if you can't lend a hand". Of course, after WWII, some of the Greatest didn't have hands anymore. <br /><br />I've been told by leftists that they do not consider the Clintons to be politically correct. That shameful couple is both the symbol and to some extent the substance of boomer presumptuousness and self congratulatory humbug. Maybe that explains leftist pleasure at our departure - "liberal parents, radical children". Of course perhaps even the majority of the boomers do not deserve to be excoriated; they did their duty in the '60's and/or have led positive lives since then. But the danged generation was so huge that the dreamy lala types yet had an inordinate and negative influence. Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-64680790510495812232019-05-15T22:33:47.213-04:002019-05-15T22:33:47.213-04:00Jack, the Left is celebrating the imminent departu...Jack, the Left is celebrating the imminent departure of the Boomers too -- because it (rightly) assumes oldsters are more likely to vote Republican. The values of the Boomers are indeed highly questionable, but most of them have migrated into the conservative camp over time. My guess is that every generation grows more conservative with age, though.<br /><br />Anonymous, you're right about the reparations, but in South Africa it was on a tiny scale. Very few people received the money, and it wasn't much money. What the Dems have in mind for the USA is infinitely grander -- and probably for that reason pie in the sky.Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-72400296561042578822019-05-15T16:37:17.713-04:002019-05-15T16:37:17.713-04:00Dr.Waddy: Additionally, for the last 50 years you ...Dr.Waddy: Additionally, for the last 50 years you cited, my historically discredited boomer generation has concentrated its, on balance, baleful, ponderous and presumptuous mass on our polity but NOW Father Time beckons. Of all things we face the ultimate and unbeatable opponent - age - and it heralds our departure, thank God, from the scene. That we may leave an undeniable and uneraseable influence may be but at least our baleful personal presence will be absent. We have so much to answer for in our ingratious attack on a nation and culture which blessed us so abundantly. Let it be answered in our historical relegation to a bizarre interlude and to our disconnection from American decision making.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-62872596873274211332019-05-15T16:09:32.542-04:002019-05-15T16:09:32.542-04:00Anonymous: A very good point, which could serve as...Anonymous: A very good point, which could serve as a case study of the efficacy of historical racial reparations today.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-80402524890618306112019-05-14T21:27:15.020-04:002019-05-14T21:27:15.020-04:00I believe that Mandela instituted some kind of rep...I believe that Mandela instituted some kind of reparations. If so, it didn't really heal or help anything or anybody.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-63624501380468886392019-05-14T19:09:16.062-04:002019-05-14T19:09:16.062-04:00Dr. Waddy: Right back at ya; "whoever wants t...Dr. Waddy: Right back at ya; "whoever wants the soul of America. . . " sums it up very well. It all comes down to no less than that.Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-43585514244923061412019-05-13T17:39:15.140-04:002019-05-13T17:39:15.140-04:00Hear hear! In the end, it will come down to a con...Hear hear! In the end, it will come down to a contest of belief, of faith. Whoever wants the soul of America more will have it. For the last 50 years, honestly I would say that advantage has belonged to the Left. Conservatives have reacted to liberal power grabs, and they have advanced their own agenda timidly, but time and again they've given ground. We need to be a lot more stout of heart if we're to prevail.Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-19421706377187488082019-05-11T20:45:34.793-04:002019-05-11T20:45:34.793-04:00Dr. Waddy: The real America must resolutely and r...Dr. Waddy: The real America must resolutely and realistically face that threat, which is, we must fully acknowledge, to everything we cherish. That it is such an existential danger is confirmed in the history of the left in power, in the present dictatorial actions of American trailblazers like the dominantly empowered Cuomo and in the ever more freely and blithely expressed intentions of leftist pretenders to executive power(some of them yet very junior "legislators"). <br /><br />The time for doubt is over, including enervating doubt in our own proven right. Action, unrestrained by fear of the consequences of "political incorrectness - a purely leftist screed ,is now all. <br /><br />We have been graced by the incalculably fortuitous, all unlooked for advent of a truly democratic leader for whom such assumptions are personally essential. God forbid that we lose the moment; we may never regain it. <br /><br />Frankly, we must tell "such people", ie. we must throw it in their arrogant faces, that they are "full of it" and that we know they know we know it. Further, we need give them to understand that we are not afraid of them and that we know them for the destructive dreamers, bigots and incipient and wishful totalitarians they have proven themselves to be.<br /><br />Our superior numbers mobilized, our faith in our proven positive modus vivendi, our culture and , on balance (let the left attempt that) our creditable history, we will, as we should and as humanity must yearn, prevail! Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-30205287152258856292019-05-11T13:23:40.427-04:002019-05-11T13:23:40.427-04:00Jack, there are some fascinating tomes to be writt...Jack, there are some fascinating tomes to be written on the modern ideological concoction that mixes equal parts good, old-fashioned Marxism and newfangled, but essentially tribal, identity politics. In America, I would say the direct appeal to race hatred is exceedingly dangerous and irresponsible, especially given the demographic sea change that's washing over us. The future is NOT bright, as long as such people are accorded political respectability.Nicholas Waddyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14650770835328089297noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8511148187940933062.post-54070192596715244162019-05-10T17:25:29.950-04:002019-05-10T17:25:29.950-04:00Dr. Waddy: Incalculable dittos are due you. Your c...Dr. Waddy: Incalculable dittos are due you. Your conclusion is especially compelling; its true, the Dems, captured as they are by the proven anarchic left, are a fundamental, existential threat to the real America. The absurd ascension of such as well, ehhh, "inexperienced" AOC and antiSemitic "Rep" (of what, pray?) Omar, should be "red",flags for all who wish not to see a reprise of murderous Marxist idealism in our country (of, all places; we have been Communism's insolent bete noire, to the tune of 120,000 combat deaths). <br /><br />In promoting racial conflict by insisting that racial oppression persists unabated in our country, the left which dominates the Dem party seeks to exacerbate unreconcileable conflict leading to a chaotic dissolution of our economy, society, polity and legal system paving the way for their totalitarian takeover. Jackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11685137896038330527noreply@blogger.com