GUEST AUTHOR

The other day, I was making my usual rounds across the blogosphere when I was introduced to the concept of a "guest author" courtesy of one of my regular haunts - GO ZACK blog http://gozack.blogspot.com/. Being a rookie in the blog world, I had not heard of this before, but was impressed with the idea. In a world where our egos tend to do the driving, it seems to me that some humility, magnanimity, and basic generosity are traits we should all explore now and then. Having someone else take the wheel of something you put personal effort into seems to be a great way to that.
Though technically the following is not a an article by a guest author, it is actually a short essay I lifted from the comment box of my last blog. Written by "JMK" at Working Class Conservative blog http://workingclassconservative.blogspot.com/, it seemed to be too well written and too relevant to the subject to be relegated to the comment box of my blog. I offer JMK's comments as the perfect followup to my previous article.

JMK Wrote the following in response to my article "Break Over":
This is part of an incrementally increasing problem in my view.It's generational and it's generational because we are seeing the generational impact of the loss of our national "rugged individualism" and our respect for self reliance and Liberty with each passing decade. I can see the trajectory very clearly in my own family, my grandparents were incredibly self reliant. They not only "never asked for anything, " they never expected much" from their fellow citizens, whom they knew were as busy as they were, nor their government.
My Dad's generation was reared in the Great Depression, he fought in WW II and Korea and then came out and worked 38 years in the FDNY during the "riot years" in some of the busiest firehouses in NYC.That guy never had an easy day in his life and never expected less. While he wasn't quite as self-sufficient as my grandfather, who built his own house with a single friend, he was self reliant enough. It was that generation that made the first mis-step and they made it out of the best of intentions.
After WW II America's was the only economy left standing and times were good....real good. The GI Bill allowed millions of men who'd never been able to get into to College in the past, get in and go. In turn, they sought to make their kid's lives as easy as possible. Yes, there was discipline and chores and expectations, but they were the first generation to give more and expect less from their kids. After that, the flood gates opened. The generation that grew up in the sick 1960s saw "discipline as punishment" and saw "tolerance" and "not judging" as the highest moral dictates....and THEY raised a generation of, while not entirely, overwhelmingly spoiled, self-centered brats...and now some of those lost souls are breeding yet another generation that seems the least connected, the least self-motivated and most dependent and entitled YET!
The question is, where do we go from here? Will the coming economic tsunami intensify beyond our wildest imaginings - there are some DOPES who think the current economy is "the worst since the Great Depression", when it actually pales in comparison to the Carter years - taking into account how limited those imaginings are? And if it does, will it refocus us on the things that made America great - that self reliance, private property rights, individualism....OR will it result in a weakened generation simply surrendering and giving in to total dependency?
If it's the former, we may reclaim our greatness.
If it's the latter, we may well wind up serfs to a growing and avaricious Chinese empire...and deservedly so.