Tom Friedman, us today, and the future

I've been thinking a lot about the thoughts churned up by my post "Reflections on the EU.". A great deal of what's been preocciupying me was well expressed today by Tom Friedman in the NYT. Of the many things that rang true was his statement (I paraphrase because it's very hard to toggle back and forth on a Blackberry) "we are no longer the country we think we are." The more you travel, the more you realize that our self-image is decades out of date. It doesn't accord with any current reality. We aren't as good, as strong, as rich or as free as many peoples in the developed world. Friedman's central thesis is that we need, and likely will not choose, a president who will tell us the truth, who will inspire us to make great efforts to great purposes. As the campaign drags on and on, like some sort of idiot reflex, the perceived truth-tellers, like McCain and Obama, are willing participants in the death of their promises.

I've thought a lot about what Tom Brokaw calls "the greatest generation." This generation was forged by depression and war; but it was formed and given its chance for greatness by an older generation that showed astonishing wisdom, grace and shrewdness in the creation of low-cost mortgage programs for young veterans and the GI Bill, which opened the horizons for a generation that had seen much and dreamed big dreams.

Oh yes, really great generation, the ones who legislated the GI Bill, etc., also gave the gift of the Marshall Plan. A gift to Europe and the world (not to mention ourselves--this was the quintessence of enlightened self-interest).

Who among our "leaders" would be capable of such vision, such taming of narrow self-interest today?

(Pause. Long pause.)

These are my ruminatipns on the seaside at Maiori on the Amalfi coast.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Comments

[David J]

Strange serendipity, I had a ruminating train of thought about the Marshall Plan (about which I know precious little) going a few days back on how it was the most astute, practical mechanism for making the transition from high-paced 'war economy' to the budding, burgeoning consumer society...I keep thinking back to all the Noir movies of the late '40's & into the '50's that I cherish so deeply, with unstinting portraits of displaced men, some of them vets...the 'Femme Fatale' as cautionary tale to put women back in their place after the empowering experience of becoming 'Rosie the Riveter'...but excuse me, I *do*ramble...
ciao, djr

[TH]

Rambling is good. It's how you discover things.

Interesting that Bob Herbert of the NY Times wrote a piece about veterans of the recent wars and how they aren't going to receive anything like the educational benefits that the WW II and Korean War vets got. At moderate cost and enormous benefits for the vets, their families and the entire nation.

The politics of selfishness and exclusion is so entrenched that we'd need a lot more than the audacity of hope to break the evil (and very stupid) spell of the Reagan Devolution. Even John McCain, the poster boy for fair dealing and straight talk, wants to toss no more than a half-gnawed bone at the vets. Then again, like W, he is an arrogant son of privilege.