Rags to Rags in Three Generations
By Anabella
There's an old saying, "rags to rags in three generations." To illustrate the meaning of the phrase, I'll use an analogy. The first generation builds a business. The second-generation contributes to the company and continues its charter. But when the company is bequeathed to the third generation, the messaging and mission gets lost. The third generation, detached from the hard-learned experience and wisdom of the first, squanders its endowment and runs the business into the ground. This storyline represents a real and unfortunate political trend paralyzing America today. As my generation becomes more involved in the political landscape, it is ignoring the lessons of previous generations and repackaging progressive solutions to already solved problems. With perhaps good intentions, the heirs to our republic are undoing years of carefully poured foundation.
Not many members of the "Greatest Generation" remain today. But history remembers this generation as that special league of troopers and American heroes that triumphed over adversity and made ultimate sacrifices during the 20th century's most tumultuous episodes. From the Great Depression to World War II, conflict and turmoil built the character of this generation and fostered in it invaluable qualities like integrity and grit. This group embodied the phrase, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Its members expressed gratitude for their blessings, lived simple lives of self-sufficiency and financial independence, and believed that success was just a function of hard work and elbow grease. The descendants of the "greatest generation," the second generation in our extended metaphor, witnessed their parents' struggles and how they [their parents] prospered despite it. While this generation supported and improved the legacy left to them, they also committed themselves to creating a more peaceful, diplomatic, and orderly world while minimizing future suffering like that experienced by the former generation. After them came the third generation— my generation. Disconnected by many years from the hardships its ancestors overcame, this generation has become notorious for its entitlement mentality, thin skin, and little sense of the value of the things for which the Greatest Generation fought.
Perhaps nowhere is America's devolution at the hands of my generation more evident than in the state of race relations today. From the antebellum period through the Jim Crow era, older generations of African Americans fought hard battles to debunk and dismantle the "separate but equal" court ruling and eliminate racial prejudice from federal and state law. The Declaration of Independence's words, "all men are created equal," finally rang true when segregation and discrimination on the basis of race were officially declared unconstitutional and illegal. But today, our society is seemingly resegregating. Columbia University recently announced that it will host six separate graduation ceremonies for various minority groups. A bizarre policy that seems to contradict the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. In defiance of Brown v. The Board of Education, New York University has allowed the first racially segregated resident floor in student housing planned for 2021.
Alternative speech is now suppressed and actively canceled at universities nationwide, a significant departure from the intellectual diversity academia once promoted. Decades ago, colleges like UC Berkeley started the free speech movement to protect their students' first amendment rights on campus. Now, they designate special confined zones for free speech to protect their students from "offensive ideas" that could cause "emotional distress." Feminist leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton dedicated their lives to securing women's full incorporation into society and women's right to vote. Now, 'feminists' advocate for the inclusion of transgender individuals in women's sporting spaces, disenfranchising women from fair participation and competition in the athletic arena. Many Latin-American immigrants escaped the clutches of oppressive authoritarian regimes under Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, seeking haven in the free United States. In their new home, American refugees of communism again confront the terrifying trends they once escaped, such as socialist rhetoric and the erosion of liberty and the rule of law. My generation has all but erased the groundwork of its predecessors.
Forty years ago, the American spirit lifted itself from the toils of social unrest following a controversial Vietnam war and prolonged economic destitution. Thirty years ago, Americans and the world at large rejoiced at the fall of the Berlin wall and extended a hand of peace to a world it saw as a dire enemy. Just 20 years ago, the United States rebuilt a patriotic morale from the ashes of a soul-crushing attack on US soil. Yet, with all of our advances in science, medicine, and technology, America as a nation has never been unhappier and is a husk of its former self. In more ways than one, America has reached the destination of a century-long journey but forgotten the lessons learned along the road.
Many of the issues we see as dire aren't new in concept but simply modern iterations of past struggle. How could we so easily forget that our grandparents already tackled discrimination and tyranny in the past? How can we forget the steep hill they climbed and the burden they carried to rid the world of these ills? It was our grandparents and great grandparents who faced racism, fled dictatorships, fought world wars, and lost loved ones in the process. It was our grandparents who, through sacrifice and perseverance, stood against these injustices and made the United States a better place for all Americans. Facing legitimate threats to their lives and livelihoods, this first generation fearlessly paved the way for a more free, tolerant nation.
We owe it to this greatest generation, to our parents, and to ourselves to remember the lessons already learned and build upon a vision of America that works. Ignorant to history, our generation is bound to repeat its evils. We need to embrace the American vision of hard work, self-sacrifice, and community. While it's important to enjoy our success, it's also important to remember that our work is never fully done. When a society gets lazy and entitled, it starts to fall apart. In the same way that Rome wasn't built in a day, it also didn't fall in a day. It only takes a few decades for people to forget the will and testament of their forefathers and tear down their life's work. In just three generations, we have indeed been nearly reduced to the rags our grandparents started with.
A Ronald Reagan quote sums it up nicely: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
Photo via Levan Ramishvilli Flickr
