10-16-2022, 01:21 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2022, 01:22 AM by JasonBlack.)
I think there's a tendency to assume that Idealists are all overly spoiled and age into aggressive demagogues or closed-minded zealots. If anything, "idealist" also implies a level of sensitivity and a curious mind, which often takes the form of a sage or intellectual rather than someone fixated on forcefully controlling reality or ruthlessly extracting resources for its own sake. For instance, a lot of millennials don't realize that most of the boomers had stricter upbringings than they did with more corporal punishment and fatherly discipline. Keep in mind that, so far at least, it has been GIs who forced young boomers into the draft, while boomers have yet to do the same to their own children. With the exception of George W. Bush, boomer presidents have resided over smaller and smaller numbers of troops stationed overseas.
For example, most of y'all here are boomers. How would you respond if there was an eminent call for a draft and your son called you up asking if you knew a way to dodge it? Now how would your parents have responded if you said the same thing to them? I spoke with my own parents about this a few weeks ago, and asked if the test that showed I suffer minor hearing impairment could be used to disqualify me from the draft. They laughed, and I then continued "imagine how your parents would have reacted if you had said this to them". They could not stop laughing. I hate to say this, but...I'm glad my paternal grandfather died before geopolitical tensions rose to this level. He volunteered during WWII (a cook for the marines in the Pacific Theater), and quite likely would have disowned me as a traitor for speaking so openly about fleeing from duty to country. As much as I admired him for his firm-yet-kind demeanor and quiet heir of dignity, this would not have changed my decision. Most of the GIs would have seen me as a traitor and a coward, while most boomers would respond with something like "good on you son!", or start talking about how it's a good thing to evade conscription into useless wars and mass violence.
For example, most of y'all here are boomers. How would you respond if there was an eminent call for a draft and your son called you up asking if you knew a way to dodge it? Now how would your parents have responded if you said the same thing to them? I spoke with my own parents about this a few weeks ago, and asked if the test that showed I suffer minor hearing impairment could be used to disqualify me from the draft. They laughed, and I then continued "imagine how your parents would have reacted if you had said this to them". They could not stop laughing. I hate to say this, but...I'm glad my paternal grandfather died before geopolitical tensions rose to this level. He volunteered during WWII (a cook for the marines in the Pacific Theater), and quite likely would have disowned me as a traitor for speaking so openly about fleeing from duty to country. As much as I admired him for his firm-yet-kind demeanor and quiet heir of dignity, this would not have changed my decision. Most of the GIs would have seen me as a traitor and a coward, while most boomers would respond with something like "good on you son!", or start talking about how it's a good thing to evade conscription into useless wars and mass violence.
ammosexual
reluctant millennial
reluctant millennial