Essay On The Greatest Generation

America having war on both sides and a fear of another deadly continuation of WWI, which some people still felt the effects of, did not want to get involved. However, President Franklin Roosevelt made sure that the United States prepared to defend our country or going to all-out war. To become prepared, the U.S. enlarged the military, strengthened certain allies such as Great Britain, and most importantly converted civilian industries to produce armaments and other war material needed (Tassava, 3). During the 1930’s, there was a “peace time” war draft, men ages 21-30 were selected into protecting the U.S. and their colonized countries. Men of the Greatest Generation were barely coming upon the age for the draft and enlistments for the military. President Roosevelt proclaimed, “This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny” (Brokaw). Soon the Greatest Generation would have its moment to shine.

Millennials are considered anyone who was born between the years of 1980-2000. Most other generations such as the Baby Boomers and Generation X look down upon millennials because of how the world reacts to millennials qualities. Baby Boomers was anyone born between the years 1946-1964, after World War II. They grew up in a time of radical changes within the world that destroyed the people’s trust in

Theodor Roosevelt, our 26th president, was a gruff politician who had a huge impact on America. He is known for his accomplishments in the political, social, and business world during the Progressive Era. His accomplishments helped shape America, and because of this influence, he is one of the faces found on Mount Rushmore.

In the article “The Beat Up Generation,” Abby Ellin claims that the negative way other generations view the millennials may all be wrong; instead, the millennials are preparing for the world most generations are opposing. Ellin declares in her article that the millennials are shown to be the most disliked generation; their ideas collide with those in the Baby Boomers and the Gen-Xers causing confusion. Constantly, Articles are being thrown out about the millennials “incompetence” and their “self-absorbed” behavior which only causes more hatred according to Ellin. However, she continues to state that millennials are no more selfish than the previous generations; in fact, millennials are only trying to discover new ways for “communication and

“The Greatest Generation” is a term used to describe the generation who were the children of the Great Depression and who became the adults of the Second World War (Brokaw). There may be strong reasons why other generations may be considered great. The generation born during the war undertook the task of putting a man on the moon. This is perhaps the most important of all human endeavors. They are certainly worthy of being considered great but not the greatest. In fifteen years America and indeed the world endured the crushing poverty of the Great Depression and the costliest war in all of human history. The enormous struggles and accomplishments of this generation is what makes it the greatest.

Mark Bauerlein-- english professor at Emory University, senior editor, and author of “The Dumbest Generation” states that this generation is dumber than the previous generation. I disagree with Bauerlein because millennials have improved their intellectual aspects and writing abilities over the years. Technology has been a huge advantage for this generation because not only do millennials depend on it but also learn to be self taught as well. This generation is constantly being accused of being “ the dumber generation”.

In the decades since World War II, there have been many attempts to glorify this generation through the media. Myth and the Greatest Generation: A Social History of Americans in World War II by Kenneth D. Rose, attempts to pare back the delusions of grandeur that often characterize histories of the World War II generation to show society as it was rather than how we have come to perceive it. Rose claims that often times when commentators focus on wars, they choose stories that are meant to make the population feel good as opposed to showing the realities. As a result, in retrospect wars seem to generate heightened patriotism and national unity (1). In this book, Rose hopes to give true honor to the Americans of this generation, not by glorifying their contributions, but by presenting a picture more in line with the historical record, hoping that in doing so his work will deliver a more accurate portrayal of “Americans at war” (3). Rose chooses not to rely heavily on secondary source material, but rather to highlight the first-hand accounts of individuals who experienced the war. He does so in order to give them proper credit but also to show that the so-called Greatest Generation was not without flaws, and was indeed an ordinary generation that lived through traumatic events that tested their character (7).

The stories of 47 Americans and their contribution to World War II as well as the struggles they faced were written down and shared through this book. Tom Brokaw, the author, shared some of their memories, dreams they had, their jobs, and how the war affected each of them personally. This book exposed this generation's remarkable bravery, their patriotism, and their accomplishments. Along with that, similar personal values, goals (both spoken and unspoken), and personality traits were shared between many of them. This particular group of Americans were modest people who often put the needs of others before their own.

Some critics may condemn the contemporary generation’s efforts by claiming that the previous generation’s issues were far more severe than the present ones. Certainly, there are several situations that occurred in the United States in the 1900s that can be construed as incredibly horrific and drastic, such as the Vietnam War, which resulted in the loss of a great number of men. However, these critics clearly fail to realize and acknowledge that more than 2.5 million U.S. troops left their families to fight in Iraq and an estimated 4,500 died, hence making the exact same sacrifices as the soldiers in Vietnam did. Thus, the claim that the earlier American generation faced far greater challenges is not quite accurate.

When I was watching the documentary “the 13th and seeing everybody view on the War on Drugs a movement, had me questing if the War on Drugs law were Racially Motivated by President Nixon? Many people believe that the War on Drugs was literally a war on Blacks. In 1865 the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was pass. The amendment made it unconstitutional for someone to be held as a slave. AKA it grants freedom for all Americans. Except criminals, but here the problem after slave was ended African Americans had nowhere to go and could not get jobs because they was uneducated. African Americans were arrested in masse, they were for extremely minor crimes like loitering or vagrancy. People who were arrested was treated like slave ever after the

Unfortunately these are all terms and stereotypes that this generation is not. It has been said that other generations have labeled them as such because they are seeing Generation Xers through their own eyes and haven’t tried to look at it from their perspective.

Millennials tend to be technologically advanced and eager to learn. They also value social responsibility and team-work. They are often seen as impatient and quick to express opinions without having all of the data. Millennials are quick to jump-ship if they do not feel if they are progressing fast enough, often at speeds that might be seen as unreasonable. Dayan (2005) says that about 5.6 million Millennials are about to enter the employment market. Millennials are said to be the most challenging generation for employers.

Millennials, a group of people who were born in the year 1984 and after. There are millions of them and they are our future. According to Simon Sinek, millennials “are accused of being entitled and narcissistic, self interested, unfocused and lazy.” Even though Millennials lack in some aspects, he believes that parenting, technology, impatience and environment is to blame. As a millennial, I totally agree with Sinek’s point because I am affected by all the variables that he listed ever since birth. Millennials did not do anything wrong but, the way they were raised affected their attitudes.

In Simon Sinek speech “Millennials in the workplace interview” Simon humorously explains using past and personal experiences that millennials are a great and fantastic generation. They have become an addictive generation because of bad parenting, technology, impatience, and the environment and the only way to change this generation is if they are given help to balance physical and social lives. I would agree with this because I too suffer from an unbalanced physical and social life. At the start of his speech, Simon states that the generation of the millennials is everyone born from approximately 1984 and after. Then he describes the millennials as being entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, unfocused and lazy. Then he explains that

Across the nation, people are talking about the Millennial generation and how different they are compared to others, but are they really that different? Millennials are lazy, entitled, and selfish, or as you may have heard may be essential to the modern workplace, either way, they are being talked about whether it is good or bad. To put it in other words, past generations are concerned for what the future will look like with this technology-dependent generation, but is that a bad thing if the technology is only going to advance from here on out? The older generation is being too harsh or are they just genuinely concerned about the future? Joel Stein (2013) has written an article about the Millennials, it is titled Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation he argues for them being a selfish generation but by saying that it is not a bad thing. The second article is by Liz Zarka (2017) Generation Me: The Millennial Generation’s obsession with being unique, she argues that they are the generation that needs to be concerned for. After reading both of these articles I agree with some of the points that both of these authors make, however, there are also some sections that I disagree with. My perception of the situation is that millennials may have all these negative characteristics but use them to an advantage that no other generation can has; along with the advancement of technology and the use of social media may have increased the narcissistic trait in them, but they use these traits to get what they want, however, being narcissistic isn’t always good there can certainly be some disadvantages.