October 10, 2019

Members of previous generations now seem like giants — When did we become so small?

Dana Mathewson

Here's a sobering Victor Davis Hanson article. Talk about something being "food for thought!" This is a veritable banquet, and yet it leaves -- or should leave -- a bitter taste in one's mouth. Hanson compares us to previous generations and finds us wanting.

Many of the stories about the gods and heroes of Greek mythology were compiled during Greek Dark Ages. Impoverished tribes passed down oral traditions that originated after the fall of the lost palatial civilizations of the Mycenaean Greeks.

Dark Age Greeks tried to make sense of the massive ruins of their forgotten forbearers’ monumental palaces that were still standing around. As illiterates, they were curious about occasional clay tablets they plowed up in their fields with incomprehensible ancient Linear B inscriptions.

We of the 21st century are beginning to look back at our own lost epic times and wonder about these now-nameless giants who left behind monuments that we cannot replicate, but instead merely use or even mock.

Does anyone believe that contemporary Americans could build another transcontinental railroad in six years?

Californians tried to build a high-speed rail line. But after more than a decade of government incompetence, lawsuits, cost overruns and constant bureaucratic squabbling, they have all but given up. The result is a half-built overpass over the skyline of Fresno — and not yet a foot of track laid.

Who were those giants of the 1960s responsible for building our interstate highway system?

California’s roads now are mostly the same as we inherited them, although the state population has tripled. We have added little to our freeway network, either because we forgot how to build good roads or would prefer to spend the money on redistributive entitlements.

When California had to replace a quarter section of the earthquake-damaged San Francisco Bay Bridge, it turned into a near-disaster, with 11 years of acrimony, fighting, cost overruns — and a commentary on our decline into Dark Ages primitivism. Yet 82 years ago, our ancestors built four times the length of our singe replacement span in less than four years. It took them just two years to design the entire Bay Bridge and award the contracts.

Our generation required five years just to plan to replace a single section. In inflation-adjusted dollars, we spent six times the money on one-quarter of the length of the bridge and required 13 agencies to grant approval. In 1936, just one agency oversaw the entire bridge project.

You can see what he's getting at. As with every VDH article, you'll want to read the entire thing, and it's found here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/victor-davis-hanson-generations-giants

He doesn't say so in so many words, but it's obvious that we have arrived at the present state of affairs by giving governments too much power over our lives. Prove me wrong!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:03 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 481 words, total size 4 kb.

1 "...by giving governments too much power over our lives."
I think that oversimplifies and, in fact, is only a small part of the problem. Today's generations suffer from moral, mental, and physical laziness. They believe in the proposition of the "participation trophy." They favor socialism because they think it means that no one has to work for a living. They think that they should not have to learn how to make change because the cash register will do that for them. That think that information comes from Twitter. A pox on them.

Posted by: Bill H at October 10, 2019 12:20 PM (vMiSr)

2 Bill, I think it's all part of the same problem. When we got lazy, we said "Let the government do it." We didn't use to think that way. Not all of us, anyhow.

In my youth, which was back when Nash cars were becoming AMC products and before the Edsel was born, the capsule definition of a conservative was "one who believed the government existed to do for the people those things the people could not do for themselves: provide armed forces, police services, fire departments, and things like that." A liberal was one who believed that the government should provide things they could do more easily than the people could do for themselves: which included the above plus schools, "health care," eventually leading to all the wondrous things they are doing now which include control over city zoning, what kind of light bulbs we can and cannot buy, and... well, you name it and I know you can. Back in my day control over much of that was not considered except by a few people, but they dreamed their dreams and now here we are.
In my youth the Interstate Highway system was being built little over a mile away from my home. And we also had high-speed rail: the New York Central Railroad had steam-driven freight highballing over 80 mph a dozen times a day both east and west, and it wasn't unusual for the Nickel Plate RR to have one blasting one way or the other at the same time. The sound was wonderful. But as Hanson says, what do we build now?

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at October 10, 2019 10:08 PM (mAEZo)

3 Hanson's right. Look at anything we do and it is inferior to the past. Music? What notable music has America produced in the last twenty, thirty, fifty years? Art? The only thing we do nowadays is science, but even that is now often fraudulent and politically motivated aka global warming.

It was why Trump's proposal to buy Greenland was such a breath of fresh air; at least HE is still thinking about expanding, growing, doing something. Of course it would never happen because Congress would never fund it, and the People would never approve of spending money on something tangible when they could be given it in some sort of subsidy. Our nation has become sclerotic, an ossified society.

I trace this back directly to the decline of Christianity in America; we no longer have something that transcends our personal desires, and are unwilling to discommode ourselves for a greater cause.

Speaking of Trump, he is rather like the Emperor Diocletian, the last gasp of the old order trying to stop the decline. I fear he is destined to fail.

Look at Imperial China; it was as ossified as America, and the world passed it by. It was ripe for Communism, as the Chinese People had lost their moorings. Drug use - particularly opium - was rampant (sort of like our Opioid epidemic), there was a huge wealth gap between rich and poor, the imperial government regulated everything it did not ban, and everyone had lost their faith in the old belief systems, Confucianism, Janism, Buddhism. Now China is a powerful country, but does anybody want to live there? And how long will this spurt of creative energy last?  I believe China is like a dandelion, here today and gone tomorrow. We are much the same.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at October 11, 2019 06:30 AM (ofNd2)

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