This was written by a Facebook friend of mine of a couple of years, Bruce Powell; he's much older than I am, and has 'been around the block' as you could
say.
I share this in its entirety because it basically articulates every point I try to make with each and every one of my posts in a way that only someone who has 'been there and done that' could possibly do.
I know y'all get tired of me waxing political and philosophical on Facebook.
I know it's depressing. But folks this shit is getting serious.
Take it as you will, but I think his summation is spot on.
Thanks, Bruce.
-Mason Harris
I am 60 (years old).
My parents were born in 1918 and 1920, and grew up in the Depression in families that retained employment.
My dad served in the Pacific in WWII as a surgeon on an aircraft carrier while my mom waited at home with two kids, living carefully with her husband's parents.
They went on to have six kids and a rich life because they both were smart, worked hard, and cooperated.
They educated all of us well. They taught us to be honest and good. They were kind to us and loved us.
They were the "Best Generation", as Tom Brokaw titled his book, which I have never read.
But, at 18 years of age, I stood at Point du Hoc on Normandy, on a high-school graduation-present trip from my parents in lieu of attending the ceremony back home, and looked to my left, then looked to my right, unable to take in the vast extent of the invasion any other way.
The only other time I remembered doing such a look was at the Grand Canyon, where one is also unable to see it entirely without sweeping one's eyes in a panorama: the Normandy invasion struck me as a massive historical phenomenon, a societal Grand Canyon of epic effort.
It changed my view of war in 30 seconds, after driving through WWI and WWII cemeteries of geometrical acres of crosses and headstones on the way to reach it; a whole fuck of a lot of people must have believed this was necessary, or unavoidable.
Prior to this, growing up the the Sixties, I was aware of Woodstock after it happened, had a draft card and a pretty-safe number, never took part in a protest, excelled in sports, and was fashionably anti-military.
I was 'fired' from being captain of the soccer team because I refused to get in the middle of the warm-up circle and shout commands for jumping jacks.
"Too much like basic training", I told the coach.
I lettered in four sports, was captain of three, and went to state in track, but, I refused to buy a letter jacket, and thought about sewing my letter upside down on the back of an olive-drab bomber jacket as a social distress signal.
I thought Joni
Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Simon and Garfunkel were cool and had it right,
and that Easy Rider and The Graduate were awesome statements.
I was always on the high-honor roll. I wrote poetry, even though a guy.
But, Normandy changed my perception of war and society, added a layer of sophistication to my superficial, fashionable 18-year old views.
And since then, after decades of studying and reading history, economics, sociology, psychology, literature, religion, political science, etc., living abroad, living in the US East, West, South, and North--I have been around the existential block.
I can see that our parents' generation, the ones who fought through Europe without raping and looting and torturing, were something very special historically, were indeed the naive and honest progeny of the farm, the small town, and of the big city with real neighborhoods, a new kind of world and society.
They were a "best" kind of people, with the "best" idea of what "America" could mean. But, of course, they had their peers back home.
And, many of those powerful peers were busy building or strengthening the military-industrial complex, the Federal Reserve financial scheme, and the multi-national oil industry, whose eyes were already greedily fixed on the Middle East oil fields the Brits were losing to the Afrika Korp.
And, we got'em, Baby, those oil fields.
And we know what followed; Vietnam murder for profit and ideology.
Mass protest. US soldiers killing unarmed US college students. National revulsion. Crisis. Nixon the Crook.
Total political corruption. Murder of reformers. Violent riot.
The "Sixties" were cool? About as cool as imagining the Civil War with pot, free love, and rock and roll, I guess.
But, it seemed like The Good had won, in the end: the war was ended, Nixon kicked out, civil rights amended, nature protected, violence rejected, foreign cultures respected.
As if the Good Children of the Best Generation had also arisen, and fought the good fight, this time in our own land rather than abroad at Normandy and Iwo Jima.
But, we had our peers. The group of guys who were on all the teams with me, in the honors classes, at the same cool-people parties, and just as smart and fast.
But they wanted something different: they wanted it all. And all for themselves.
They were brought up differently, or warped that way. And they were keeping quiet, 'til the Wimp Times went. They had dreams of wealth on Wall Street and girls galore. And that's where they went.
They have become The Worst Generation, Generation Greed.
Generation, "Greed is Good", "everyone for himself", "dog eat dog", "piss with the Big Doggies or shut the fuck up".
Tranche upon tranche of fraudulent "profit" heaped into the trillions of fantasy money that doesn't exist but controls the world.
They are, and were, insane, unfortunately, and completely destructive and all too effective.
It began with Reagan.
Seven years older than my dad, he was somewhat the sneaky elder brother of the Best Generation, an acting wolf in disguise, the evil step-father to the Worst Generation that we have now.
There came the movie Wall Street, Greed is Good, there began the roll back of the moral accomplishment achieved in the Sixties.
The guys' hair was shorn.
The corporation returned as career. Money became again the object of life. And remilitirization began anew, and all for profit.
So fast, the Good Children were swept aside, so fast, our society went back to violence, selfishness, and "profit."
So fast, and so sad, and so unbelievable, to watch and witness, if you share my perspective.
But not all of you do. I have my peers.
You are selfish individuals, the Worst Generation, the inflictors of pain, those pathological business-ill, people with no ability to feel empathy, the merchants of death, destroyers of the environment, those who endanger their grandchildren blindly, the familacides for profit now, the many "Christian" hypocrites.
It's
time to just say it: a a small proportion of our peers who are involved
with running entities like the US government, major corporations,
financial centers, the federal courts--are the Worst Generation.
You are Greed and Corruption personified, and you arms merchants walk the planet as Death.
You are the evil side of human nature, no matter what country, state, or town.
You control mass media. You market politicians. You rig elections. You give false speeches. You steal our treasury.
You do it because you can and want to. So what do we do?
We fight back. We fight to the death, at our age; we fight until we die. To do otherwise is to be tacit members of the "Worst" Generation:
(not yet in any order; feel free to add/comment)
1. Demilitarize US childhood and society, including "riot police"; remove sports-stupidity from prominence.
2. Amend Constitution to end corporate personhood.
3. Fund elections publicly, and force free TV time for all candidates (airwaves belong to Commons).
4. Strip congress of personal benefits and wages after service, make them pay into Social Security and draw it as retirement.
5. Revise SS tax upward to insure solvency after 2034 (it's fine until then as is : a media Big Lie that there is a current crisis).
6. Reenstate FCC media laws on market share and media-type ownership in markets, and the Fairness Doctrine (another Reagan hatchet blow).
7. Reenstate Glass-Steegal and other financial regulations.
8. Repeal the Patriot Act, and the recent NDAA: restore the Bill of Rights.
9. Restore the Rule of Law : prosecute bank/mortgage fraud, indict Bush-Cheney-Obama, if not prosecute, prosecute authors/enablers of torture.
10. Cut subsidies to oil and ethanol, switch to real alternative energy.
11. Take direct control of the monetary system: end the Federal Reserve system.
12. Break up too-big-to-fail entities in any sector.
13.Cut Defense, close bases, redeploy.
14.Let Europe run itself.
To be continued..."
-Bruce Powell
I share this in its entirety because it basically articulates every point I try to make with each and every one of my posts in a way that only someone who has 'been there and done that' could possibly do.
I know y'all get tired of me waxing political and philosophical on Facebook.
I know it's depressing. But folks this shit is getting serious.
Take it as you will, but I think his summation is spot on.
Thanks, Bruce.
-Mason Harris
"The Worst Generation
January 13, 2012 at 6:38am |
| WWII surgeon operates on patient. TAGS: Aunt Mary South Pacific |
My parents were born in 1918 and 1920, and grew up in the Depression in families that retained employment.
My dad served in the Pacific in WWII as a surgeon on an aircraft carrier while my mom waited at home with two kids, living carefully with her husband's parents.
They went on to have six kids and a rich life because they both were smart, worked hard, and cooperated.
They educated all of us well. They taught us to be honest and good. They were kind to us and loved us.
They were the "Best Generation", as Tom Brokaw titled his book, which I have never read.
But, at 18 years of age, I stood at Point du Hoc on Normandy, on a high-school graduation-present trip from my parents in lieu of attending the ceremony back home, and looked to my left, then looked to my right, unable to take in the vast extent of the invasion any other way.
The only other time I remembered doing such a look was at the Grand Canyon, where one is also unable to see it entirely without sweeping one's eyes in a panorama: the Normandy invasion struck me as a massive historical phenomenon, a societal Grand Canyon of epic effort.
It changed my view of war in 30 seconds, after driving through WWI and WWII cemeteries of geometrical acres of crosses and headstones on the way to reach it; a whole fuck of a lot of people must have believed this was necessary, or unavoidable.
Prior to this, growing up the the Sixties, I was aware of Woodstock after it happened, had a draft card and a pretty-safe number, never took part in a protest, excelled in sports, and was fashionably anti-military.
I was 'fired' from being captain of the soccer team because I refused to get in the middle of the warm-up circle and shout commands for jumping jacks.
"Too much like basic training", I told the coach.
I lettered in four sports, was captain of three, and went to state in track, but, I refused to buy a letter jacket, and thought about sewing my letter upside down on the back of an olive-drab bomber jacket as a social distress signal.
 |
| Woodstock, the original music protest festival against war. |
I was always on the high-honor roll. I wrote poetry, even though a guy.
But, Normandy changed my perception of war and society, added a layer of sophistication to my superficial, fashionable 18-year old views.
And since then, after decades of studying and reading history, economics, sociology, psychology, literature, religion, political science, etc., living abroad, living in the US East, West, South, and North--I have been around the existential block.
I can see that our parents' generation, the ones who fought through Europe without raping and looting and torturing, were something very special historically, were indeed the naive and honest progeny of the farm, the small town, and of the big city with real neighborhoods, a new kind of world and society.
They were a "best" kind of people, with the "best" idea of what "America" could mean. But, of course, they had their peers back home.
And, many of those powerful peers were busy building or strengthening the military-industrial complex, the Federal Reserve financial scheme, and the multi-national oil industry, whose eyes were already greedily fixed on the Middle East oil fields the Brits were losing to the Afrika Korp.
And, we got'em, Baby, those oil fields.
And we know what followed; Vietnam murder for profit and ideology.
Mass protest. US soldiers killing unarmed US college students. National revulsion. Crisis. Nixon the Crook.
Total political corruption. Murder of reformers. Violent riot.
The "Sixties" were cool? About as cool as imagining the Civil War with pot, free love, and rock and roll, I guess.
But, it seemed like The Good had won, in the end: the war was ended, Nixon kicked out, civil rights amended, nature protected, violence rejected, foreign cultures respected.
As if the Good Children of the Best Generation had also arisen, and fought the good fight, this time in our own land rather than abroad at Normandy and Iwo Jima.
But, we had our peers. The group of guys who were on all the teams with me, in the honors classes, at the same cool-people parties, and just as smart and fast.
But they wanted something different: they wanted it all. And all for themselves.
They were brought up differently, or warped that way. And they were keeping quiet, 'til the Wimp Times went. They had dreams of wealth on Wall Street and girls galore. And that's where they went.
 |
| TIME Magazine laments. |
Generation, "Greed is Good", "everyone for himself", "dog eat dog", "piss with the Big Doggies or shut the fuck up".
Tranche upon tranche of fraudulent "profit" heaped into the trillions of fantasy money that doesn't exist but controls the world.
They are, and were, insane, unfortunately, and completely destructive and all too effective.
It began with Reagan.
Seven years older than my dad, he was somewhat the sneaky elder brother of the Best Generation, an acting wolf in disguise, the evil step-father to the Worst Generation that we have now.
There came the movie Wall Street, Greed is Good, there began the roll back of the moral accomplishment achieved in the Sixties.
The guys' hair was shorn.
The corporation returned as career. Money became again the object of life. And remilitirization began anew, and all for profit.
So fast, the Good Children were swept aside, so fast, our society went back to violence, selfishness, and "profit."
So fast, and so sad, and so unbelievable, to watch and witness, if you share my perspective.
But not all of you do. I have my peers.
You are selfish individuals, the Worst Generation, the inflictors of pain, those pathological business-ill, people with no ability to feel empathy, the merchants of death, destroyers of the environment, those who endanger their grandchildren blindly, the familacides for profit now, the many "Christian" hypocrites.
 |
| Greed is BAD, mmkayyy? |
You are Greed and Corruption personified, and you arms merchants walk the planet as Death.
You are the evil side of human nature, no matter what country, state, or town.
You control mass media. You market politicians. You rig elections. You give false speeches. You steal our treasury.
You do it because you can and want to. So what do we do?
We fight back. We fight to the death, at our age; we fight until we die. To do otherwise is to be tacit members of the "Worst" Generation:
(not yet in any order; feel free to add/comment)
1. Demilitarize US childhood and society, including "riot police"; remove sports-stupidity from prominence.
2. Amend Constitution to end corporate personhood.
3. Fund elections publicly, and force free TV time for all candidates (airwaves belong to Commons).
4. Strip congress of personal benefits and wages after service, make them pay into Social Security and draw it as retirement.
5. Revise SS tax upward to insure solvency after 2034 (it's fine until then as is : a media Big Lie that there is a current crisis).
6. Reenstate FCC media laws on market share and media-type ownership in markets, and the Fairness Doctrine (another Reagan hatchet blow).
7. Reenstate Glass-Steegal and other financial regulations.
8. Repeal the Patriot Act, and the recent NDAA: restore the Bill of Rights.
9. Restore the Rule of Law : prosecute bank/mortgage fraud, indict Bush-Cheney-Obama, if not prosecute, prosecute authors/enablers of torture.
10. Cut subsidies to oil and ethanol, switch to real alternative energy.
11. Take direct control of the monetary system: end the Federal Reserve system.
12. Break up too-big-to-fail entities in any sector.
13.Cut Defense, close bases, redeploy.
14.Let Europe run itself.
To be continued..."
-Bruce Powell
