I have an interesting story about the declining commitment of generations over my lifetime – when I say lifetime I am 10 years younger than Bill Whittle so I am still… a young fella.
Both of my grandfathers were in the New Zealand Army during World War 2. 
My uncle lied about his age so he could join World War 2, however his father stopped him joining the army so he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force instead and fort in the Pacific under General Douglas McArthur at 15 year of age.
My father was in the New Zealand Army in the Vietnam era (sadly I have no photos of him in the army and we all know why!).
My Beautiful Jennifer’s grandfather was in the German Army and fort on the Russian Front and survived! Her Father joined the Australian Army Reserves because his eyesight was not good enough to be a regular. None of these men were drafted into the military, they all volunteered, or wanted to volunteer.
This is my point – They were driven by a strong sense of service to the country, and family with parents and grandparents having fort in wars. It seemed the normal thing, the right thing and the honourable thing to do.
Their motivation to go to war was partially through a sense of adventure but mostly through a commitment to serve their country, (in our case to the King and later the Queen) and defend our families from the evils of tyranny.
I remember talking with my Grandfather, he never told me what happened in the war but he would give me advice. It always started with “Now remember when you go to war” followed by some good advice. The one I recall vividly was “Now remember when you go to war, put your head in the sand and your helmet on your bum” The old chaps had quite a realistic yet strong sense of humour.
After he died someone told me he was lifting a stretcher to carry a wounded soldier from the battlefield. This was during in the second battle of El Alamein (genuinely hell on earth). He was strafed by an MG42 leaving one of the bullets lodged in his spin which caused him discomfort for the rest of his life.
The interesting thing was his statement of fact “Now remember when you go to war”. In his mind, his father went to war, he went to war, my father went to war – soon it would be my turn. This did not phase me in the least as I had a duty to serve my country and defend my family.
I want you to imagine suggesting to your average teenager that they may be required to join the military and serve their country. I know there are some brave young people still doing this to make us safe and for this I am eternally grateful.
I am not talking about them I am talking about the latest entitled “selfie” generation whose biggest challenge is looking good on social media. The next time you talk to a young person ask them the question. “When you go to war which branch of the military will you join?” You will be amused by the answer.
As I write this we are perched to go into a kinetic war with two countries. One in Europe and one in the Pacific Hmm…. This sounds familiar. I am currently based in Australia and I can tell you we are at war with China it is just the shooting has not started yet.
In Europe they have taken sides, Germany is backing Russia, Britain is backing Ukraine. The Biden family has already been paid by Ukraine, so this is settled. The Chinese will likely do a surprise attack on Taiwan at the same time to take advantage of the chaos.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” Mark Twain
If Mark Twain is right – well – Germany has never been on the winning side!
I would argue that since the fall of the Berlin wall the wars have been limited and somewhat unnecessary. If this escalates how will the entitled generation go when they have to serve something bigger than their online profile? I guess we may see soon.
Perhaps it is my turn to say “Now remember when you go to war – put your phone in your pocket and have your gun in your hands”
8 replies on “The Entitled Generation”
Children’s natural propensity is to be brats. If you as a parent do not counter that natural proclivity your children will become spoiled brats. This is very nearly universal to human beings everywhere on the planet and due to a thing called “neoteny”.
There are children at various locations on the planet where the environment has as much influence as the parents in preventing them from becoming brats. Kids wracked by poverty, hunger and disease do not have the opportunity to become brats … and survive. I’m not talking about them.
However, if you take that same child and move him to the US, there’s a near certainty that his/her children and grandchildren will become brats if their parents do not actively intervene to prevent that.
This is in the nature of human beings. Either you train up your child in the way he should go or you don’t and he doesn’t. This has been known for many thousands of years. There’s even a verse in the Bible (Proverbs 22:6) about that which dates back to around 2,700 years ago. This fact is nothing new.
This is also something most parents know. They know too that if they do not train up their children to become responsible human beings not just human shaped animals that they are not doing what’s right by their kids.
Parents who love their kids see that they’re raised well because they know it’s in the best interests of the child to do that. Note, a child’s best interests and a child’s wants have little to do with each other.
Recently some parents have abandoned that knowledge, or they know it and do not act on it. This is usually because the parents were brats themselves and were not raised to believe that there’s anything more important than their own wants. This is a juvenile commonality to immature human beings called “egocentricity”. People who do not outgrow egocentricity do not fully develop into mature human beings and remain human shaped animals bereft of the higher purposes lauded and achieved by humanity.
I think, but do not have any statistical evidence, that this type of congenital bratty-ness is in the minority. It is a self defeating position because the egocentric brats must eventually take themselves down simply because they’re not doing what is best for the outcome of their children’s lives.
One of the downsides to modern life with modern technology is that minority has a louder voice than is proportional to its demographic scope.
The question is not “Will the majority of kids do what’s right?” It’s “Will we allow the world to be run by egocentric, self-serving, callous, careless children who never managed to become true adult human beings rather than human shaped animals?”
I feel calmer after reading that – it is like listening to the wisdom from my older sister (she is very wise too). Firstly I can see we are victims of our own success – that is a good thing – because success is alway good. I was brought up in a much poorer country and you are right the harshness of scrambling from pay check to pay cheque shapes you differently through necessity.
Your comment about the minority having a disproportional voice I think is the problem – Grayson’s comment below restores my faith in humanities ability to recover from any situation and that you are correct – who will we let shape the world? Hopefully wise young gentlemen like him.
I wonder when the “Truth Social” finally comes out and we get some more contrast between the left wing media and the new uncensored right wing social media will this change the balance or will the new media just be a platform for the right wing egocentric brats?
Thank you for reading my post and for you wise words.
Great article, I completely agree that the young are entitled. I want to put in my two cents since I am one of those young people (24 at the time of writing). The biggest obstacle for me is that I have enough to fight for in my own backyard before I even want to consider fighting on behalf of another nation. My liberties are being threatened domestically and that is a higher priority than anything happening abroad. I know that sounds selfish (and it is to a point) but I need to ensure future liberty for my nephew before I can help to someone across an ocean.
The second biggest obstacle is the simple fact that people like me (young patriotic Americans) are not particularly loyal towards the government of the United States, we are loyal to her people and the ideas for which she used to stand. It is really hard to justify many foreign wars when when my loyalty is not to the government pushing them in order to advance evil ideas that I hate (think CRT, rainbow jihad, destroying American ideas abroad, etc.)
Third and finally for this post is that the US military is not the patriotic outfit that it used to be, case and point being marines forced to wear heals. Men used to get a sense of brotherhood in joining the military, that is sadly much rarer in the current bureaucratic model. It has become a humiliation ritual for many of the men who join up to serve their country.
Let me be clear. I am not disparaging anyone who chooses to join the military today, God bless you for your service and sacrifice. I am just trying to lay out some of the reasons young people might not want to join the military in today’s climate.
Grayson that is an outstanding response – I am impressed and I completely agree. There is some good news – Politics is a pendulum (in a representative republic and in a democracy) it swings left then it swings right driven by the people when the vote. The pendulum has gone way left – next it will go way right – just wait. The only risk is ensuring that the elections are representative (not cheated!!!!!).
This is as you suggest your first fight – to protect the US – you need fair elections. My prediction – the midterms will be a massive red swing – Brandon will leave sighting health so he doesn’t get impeached. The US will go from worst President in history to the diversity hire whose ego wants the big title. This will be interesting.
Then in 3 year there will be a Trump DeSantas presidency and the pendulum will swing right. The good news is you are getting to experience socialism. In 1984 my country went bankrupt after the national socialist politics failed. (I have a post on here if you are interested – “learning’s from the upside down world” I think that is what it was called).
But always remember what socialism is like – you go to the supermarket and buy what they have – not want you want – this is normal under socialism. Socialism ends with people revolting against the system – I am getting unnaturally excited about the Canadian truckers – as clearly is Bill Whittle is too – I love trucks, I love convoys, I even love the song, but more than anything I love the message.
Bring on the US truckers convoy – this is people fighting back against the tyrannical government. The next one is you – you need to get involved to ensure the elections are fair – the people will do the rest.
Interestingly I don’t think the US should be involved in Ukraine at all it is a European problem and it is complicated (look up the Azov Battalion on you tube – that is who Brandon is backing – funded by George Soros – see if you can see a problem there!).
My point – poor leadership and personal vested interests could drag us into wars we don’t need – however China is a significant concern – they will take Taiwan and shouldn’t be allowed to do so – however it would appear that the Biden family appear to have been paid for this already.
My concern is Taiwan is just the start – China want western Australia – for the iron ore, uranium etc. Like the Japanese in 1940 that wont stop at Taiwan.
So finally – Brandon will make the mess and it will be left to the people to fix it – I really hope I am wrong because war is horrific especially when you win. Grayson “when you go to war make sure you win” whether that is the war to take back your country from the socialists, or God forbid you have to clean up Brandon’s mess – it is your turn – make us proud!
Thank you for reading my post – and thank you for you wonderful reply – great work!
Both my Father and Uncle my dad’s younger brother Bubba served in the Army Aircorps in WWII and both served in Italy. When I joined the Navy in 1973 my Dad tried to talk me out of it. It was not until a few years later that he would start to open up with stories about his time in service.
Firstly thank you for your service and to you family for their efforts to make us all safe. Your family will have fort beside the British 8th army that one of my Grandfathers was in (they are the ones that used their artillery to destroy the monastery at Monte Casino – Oops..) it is amazing how small the world is. This is for another blog post but we still don’t do enough to assist veterans and their war demons. In the US there is an average of 9 veterans who commit suicide a day. The strong ones just bottle it all up. Thank you for reading my post.
Thanks Jay – I hate to sound old – I am sure things were said about us when we were young too – however this specific issues is a significant change in young people attitude. I saw that picture and couldn’t help myself – I didn’t need to add the words!!
Great thumbnail!
Very accurate.