I was spending time with friends the other day when one of them got to talking about his great uncles who were pilots in their 20’s during WWII. He told some amazing stories about their air battles, one of which involved a bullet ripping through fuselage and sheering off half of one poor uncle’s thumb. He kept fighting of course, not even thinking of landing his plane before the last Japanese Zero was struck down.
Was he brave and tenacious for doing this? Well yes, but he was also doing what seemed to come natural to people of that era; gritting through what must have been an incredibly fearsome situation to get the job done. He was part of the Greatest Generation that fought in WWII and what they went through and sacrificed should never be forgotten.
This got me thinking about today’s young men and women and on what would happen if, God forbid, the nation entered in to another world war and had to enact an involuntary draft. Hundreds of thousands of Millennials and Generations Z’s would be jettisoned from their comfortable lives to do battle for their country and this worries me more than just a little.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many in this age group who wouldn’t hesitate to step up to the plate and fight with the same valor, grit and sense of duty as the uncles mentioned above did. I know (and am related to) many.
We live in a different world though, one filled with safe spaces and trigger warnings to protect against so called hate speech, where the “wrong” Halloween costume or prom dress can spark a frenzied outrage of condemnation and where even eating a taco can cause offense because of the vastly shallow and meaningless term, cultural appropriation.
While we shouldn’t paint all young adults with this wide brush of nonsense, the very vocal and perpetually aggrieved ones screaming their heads off about stuff like this (and the older people that enable them) has me wondering if we have what it takes to rally and defeat another Hitler.
As my friend with the great uncles said to me, “I look at what they went through during WWII and compare it to now where kids were given time off from school to deal with the “trauma” of Donald Trump’s election and I just think we’re screwed.”
Who knows really what would happen during a time of war, but if we continue down this path of coddling students, trying to protect them from icky feelings then yes, our future looks bleak.
Kids need to learn from a young age that things won’t always go their way, that getting a trophy for just showing up means nothing and that conflict is a natural part of life. The sooner they learn how to deal with it in healthy ways, the easier it will be for them to navigate the world as adults and live respectfully with others who think and act differently from them. College is all about getting your worldview challenged and feeling more than a bit uncomfortable should be the norm.
Gosh, what a different world we would have if schools actually promoted this type of environment and students embraced it. Where debate on tough subjects is encouraged and those who try to shout down differing opinions are ridiculed as the whiny babies they really are.
Feeling uncomfortable and hurt can be hard, but hardship builds character and character wins wars. Let’s stop pretending that smothering our kids and young adults to protect against any possible harm doesn’t have negative effects on this.
What a refreshing message. All of my meaningful growth came out of discomfort.
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Well thank you. I agree, you can’t have deep growth without discomfort.
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I have no time for those espousing ‘safe spaces,’ ‘micro aggression,’ and similar nonsense. Sorry, Tricia -I’m just not up to the discussion. Draft all their asses, and send them off to kick ass or get kicked! No time!
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Ha ha Mike, that sounds like a good plan to me!
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Cool post, Tricia! I’ve been thinking of something similar, of our safe spaces in the church, our comfort zones,and how badly we need to come out of that mindset, both as individuals, and as the church. Not picking on anyone here, but our faith should scare us a little,at least in the way falling in love might scare us. It is supposed to be a bit outside of our comfort zone.
The modern Western world is really unhealthy for us in a myriad of ways. Too much comfort will actually make us sick physically, no exercise, plenty of food, little effort required,and we soon begin to die far too early of heart disease.
We do the same thing spiritually, comfortable in our faith and our ways, so no need to ever level up the game…
And war too, praying we never go there again, but without training and some practiced resilience, we become unable to defend ourselves too.
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Well what an interesting perspective IB on how our faith should not be so safe. I’d never really thought about it but you’re absolutely right, it should scare us a little!
We really do have a comfort sickness in the Western World. It’s not just the craving and purchasing of goods either, but this desire to not feel bad at all costs is warping our society in really messed up ways. Materially comfortable but spiritually parched.
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Reblogged this on Truth in Palmyra and commented:
I have been complaining to my poor wife for days on this very topic, and have had trouble articulating exactly what I was trying to say; thus, I have been accused of being a crabby old man. This, here, is what I mean. Thanks Tricia.
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Lol Wally and thanks for the reblog!
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No sweat, Tricia. I owe you, actually. Now I don’t look like such a curmudgeon.
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You don’t owe me Wally but I do appreciate it. Careful now, you don’t want to be accused of being a softy now. 😉
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Word on the street is that I was actually born a curmudegeon; that I emerged from the womb, slapped the doctor, and told him to stop being silly.
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Lol!
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There are some safe spaces that should be brought back, bathrooms, and locker rooms, changing rooms are examples of appropriate safe spaces that have been taken away from us. For many people, it is terrifying to go into something that should be a ladies room, only to find a man in there, especially if you have ever been the victim of a sexual assault. Unfortunately, that is the kind of safe space liberals don’t want us to have.
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I hadn’t thought of those kinds of safe spaces wzippler and I so agree! Those are good examples of very appropriate and real safe spaces!
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@Tricia
Great post!
Thanks to wzippler I do have an observation you and wzippler may find interesting.
When wzippler mentioned justifiable safe spaces, it occurred to me that once again we have been fooled into accepting the perverted language of Liberal Democrats. What Liberal Democrats want us to call “safe spaces” are in reality just contrivances, lame excuses for censorship. Instead of calling these places “safe spaces”, we need to start calling them what they are, “Liberal Democrat censorship zones”. Such should be illegal, especially on university campuses.
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Tom, you are definitely on to something with that because that’s exactly what it is, Liberal Democrat Censorship! Honestly I don’t know why we put up with even half the crap progressives push down on us, but our society does for some reason and here we are.
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I’m with Mike Hohmann. These pampered little snowflakes need the teddy bear jerked out of their soft little hands and a machine gun slammed into them and yell, march! Maybe then they’ll learn what the real world is like. Loved the article so punched the follow. 🙂 Blessings to you as you “spew” the truth.
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Lol Sue, great comment! Sorry you got stuck in my spam folder for awhile.
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Reblogged this on quotes and notes and opinions.
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Thanks for the re blog!
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YW! Great post!
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Excellent! Love this: “Feeling uncomfortable and hurt can be hard, but hardship builds character and character wins wars.” My dad was a part of the “greatest generation ever”. He was a character for sure. 🙂
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Thanks Michael. And I bet your dad was a part of that greatest generation Michael and I’m sure the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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Excellent Tricia. My feelings, fears and thoughts exactly!
And might I say this is a great come back from your self-imposed exile into the ostrich hole 🙂 and boy I’m glad you’re on a role!
I’ve stated this little observation before but it puts into a nutshell how we’ve gotten to where we are…
When I was in high school in the early 70’s we had a cheerleading squad that consisted of about 7 or 8 girls, I can’t remember the exact number. There were tryouts of course and if you made the squad, you were a cheerlearder for all sports throughout the year…that being both football and basketball. But there was a pep squad that was open to anyone…and it was basically a collective fan group…unbeknownst to anyone, this was a small step into where things were headed. You didn’t make the cheerleading squad??? well just join the pep club…. and you simply become an extension…
Then the following decade, when I actually became a teacher myself, an odd occurance was taking place. The numbers of girls chosen as cheerleaders had grown exponentially…squads doubled in size, and for some schools, tripled. One squad was chosen for football season only and another massive squad was chosen for Basketball…the ides was that of spreading the love…spreading by including more and more girls with less and less hurt feelings of who made it and who didn’t.
I can remember our football coach exasperatingly complianing that maybe we ought to just let every girl in the school be a cheerleader.
And so slowly we’ve become the all-inclusive, non-hurt feelings society. And that is not a society that I want defending me…
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“And so slowly we’ve become the all-inclusive, non-hurt feelings society. And that is not a society that I want defending me…” That last sentence of yours is a real kicker Julie and I think explains so much of the problems we have today of entitlement and lack of character. And wow, your personal experience as both a student and teacher really adds some good perspective to my post. Thank you!
I’m thinking all the ice cream, I’ve consumed while on this mini self exile has been the secret sauce, at least I like to convince myself of that. 😉 Thanks for the kind words!
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Ooo ice cream— I’ll remember that 🤩
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Reblogged this on Ad Infinite-item and commented:
My dad was in the Army Air Corps in England and Europe during WWII. He went in at the D-Day invasion to the end of the war. He once told me when, I was in my teens, that I “should choose to get religion real quick now” because I was too wild to survive life for very long without Divine help. I enlisted in the Army at eighteen in time to be shipped to VietNam after advanced infantry training. At the time he was sorry for that or ever saying such a thing to me. But it was the best advice he ever gave me. And I drew close to the Lord very quickly in that experience and depend on Him everyday since then to this very day.
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He g.w., thanks for dropping by and for the re blog. You and your dad sound like very smart men.
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Dad passed back in 1995 and I still miss his wisdom and stories. And smart? well I guess that’s a matter of differing opinions, but I truly depend on the Lords leading me, even now. I dearly liked your post here. It brought back many memories. Many Blessings to you too, Tricia!
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Pingback: Time to Get Rid of Safe Spaces – Ad Infinite-item
Thanks for the link up!
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I’m an older member of the Millennial Generation and I agree 100 percent.
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Well that’s heartening Slim!
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👍
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Of course the men and women who fought the Second World War had been toughened by growing up during the Great Depression. I don’t wish that experience upon our nation or its young people (or myself for that matter), but the generational difference is explained by more than coddling today. J.
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Good point Salvageable. The growth of wealth in this country has been a double edged sword, where the benefits of less poverty, starvation, etc…are undoubtedly good, but flip side brings with it entitlement issues and lack of character building. I believe safe spaces to protect against speech and people freaking out over tacos, prom dresses and Halloween costumes speaks to coddling way beyond the norm you expect with material well being.
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Good topic Tricia (as always)!
Me thinks you worry too much.
During the Viet Nam war I spent three years as a Navy Recruiter. We (2 of us) never missed our quota and in fact I “gave” applicants to a recruiter that was in a horrible area so he could make goal.
These young folks acting out are in it for the attention and some get paid. They will be moving to Canada or wash out of the entrance exam for physical or mental problems. Most for mental I think. A lot of young folks are like Hollywood republicans. they won’t admit their real patriotism to their peers but would join the call to arms and do very well indeed.
Your in the epicenter of the “movement” so your outlook may be a bit jaded. Not your fault dear.
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Well what would I do if I didn’t have something to worry about now Dennis? 😉
I agree that many young people have a lot of strong character and good qualities and said as much in my post. I don’t think I agree that the entitlement and fraidy cat issues are not to be concerned with though. We live in such a different era than even 20 years ago, where infantilism and victimhood are encouraged for political ends and people are being manipulated in to a learned helplessness. I do worry about it, just not too much. Not yet anyway. 🙂
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SAFE spaces are just an acronym for “Snowflake and Fraidycat Environment.”
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Perfect Al! I have to remember that.
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Pingback: HOW DO WE RECOGNIZE A BAD IDEA? – Citizen Tom
Exactly! I’m sick of all the fragility of my generation!
https://aladyofreason.wordpress.com/
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