"Kids Today!!"

I'm an old guy. I lived when we had the best bands, the best music, the most admirable heros, the most freedom and the most opportunity. As I come to the end of my days, I think, more and more, that these are also the last really good days of our country and our world. Ok. I swore I'd never sound like my mother; But...Today's generation is a complete disaster. "Kids today!"

How did we lose our national masculinity? How did we lose so many of our youth to the God of Big Government? They all seem to WANT to be told what to do and to be taken care of "from womb to tomb" by others. It seems as if todays' youth are more likely to ask for handouts and freebies than for a job. And the ones with whom I've worked on jobs have abysmal work ethics.

There are lots of political and societal issues about which I disagree with most of our younger people but those aren't my real point here. For one thing, most of the younger people with whom I'm acquainted have little to no interest in politics or substantive issues. The activities of their sports/Movie/Music stars seem to be their primary focus. Most of the time, any comment they make about todays' issues are just parroting the more popular Main Stream Media and whatever they may have seen on Facebook or Twitter. Engaging in critical thinking of their own is almost unheard of. They "Go along to get along" on almost any subject.

Why? I (as usual) have a theory.

So, everyone who knows me at all knows that I reserve my top respect for those with a DD214.

Don't know what that is? Thank you for supporting my position. Anyway, I then tend to look at what a person has done, what lifes experience they might have and especially, what kind of public service have they performed. Peace Corps, Boy Scouts, Big Brother/Big Sister, volunteer fire or EMS...anything where they have given of themselves and their time to help others. Have they seen some hard times? Worked for a living? Provided for others? Even those who have always "had it all" can have a positive influence, just by making those payrolls and supporting employees. So.

Also, people of my generation experienced a World War and the Great Depression or were raised by families who did.  Our celebrities had that DD214 I talk about.  Many of those celebrities added decorations to that.  The Social Programs that were enacted back in those days, that today's liberals point to with pride, were based on the experiences gained from national and world events that would cause todays' youth to cower in their Safe Zone!  Here's the kind of thing I mean: https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/g19546612/15-famous-people-didnt-know-were-in-military/

So, I went to my handy, dandy internet and looked up the top media influencers of the day. I used https://today.yougov.com/ratings/entertainment/fame/people/all, listing what they consider the twenty most famous people and https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-top-50-influencers-across-social-media-platforms/, showing who they think are the most influential. I took the time to look up the bios of several of them and they all seemed about the same. Some college but mostly just living off of others while they developed their "craft" as actors/actresses or musicians. Even the politicians spent their youth working on being a politician, going to the "right" schools and supporting the best causes.

Of the twenty most famous, I saw three that I know have that DD214 thing. A couple approach the "giving of self" standard. Most...Nooottt so much. The majority of those people who garner the respect of our youth are do-nothing, done nothing celebrities. Even the parts the actors played could have been filled by other actors. Go back in time and remove that top 50 list and come back to a world little changed by their absence.

These are the people our youth look up to. These are the ones who influence the next generation of leaders. No wonder it seems as if our country and even our world is slowly circling the drain for one last time.