Dealing with decline

Only Wonder Understands :: American Decline

In the mid 1960?s of my childhood, America experienced great turmoil as both the movement for Civil Rights and the Vietnam war laid bare the myths of American esteem so prevalent during the Cold War years following World War II. And yet, within the institutions of society — the public schools that I attended at least — there was still education on civic responsibility, the belief demonstrated in the Muskateer legend in “…all for one and one for all!” In those years there was still a vague memory of personal sacrifice for the well being of the whole, sacrifice lived out by our grandparents in scrap metal drives, food and gas rationing, and New Deal programs like the Civilian Conservation Core designed to build individual esteem while contributing to the well being of all through road construction, development of public parks, and even the building of schools. It was the influence of the baby boomers, the post sacrifice generation (of which I am at the tail end) in their search for autonomy, in the call to “do your own thing,” and the desire to redefine themselves as different from their forebears that locked on to the American myth of independence and self reliance which has, over time, morphed into the triumph of the individual, and the decline of communal responsibility.