12-14-2022, 05:05 AM
(12-14-2022, 12:40 AM)JasonBlack Wrote: One thing that is sure to go: the divide over whether to have more vs less involvement overseas is a generation one, not a left/right one. Silents and boomers want more "spreading democracy", nation building, being the world police, etc. Millennials and zoomers want us to leave the rest of the world alone and focus on ourselves. One of my biggest gripes with Idealist generations is their tendency to want to project universalist ideologies as far as possible, and they expect other generations to foot the bill and make the sacrifices necessary for this to happen. The Civil War is probably the most extreme example, but this trait is still definitely present in boomers.
In the event that they are opposing rather than complimentary priorities, the question is what is best for America, not what is best for the rest of the world. Many boomers (and likely a few in here) will object to this, but frankly...most of y'all gon' be dead by the 1T, and the younger generations simply don't care about that. We care about rebuilding, not making sacrifices for causes primarily aimed at benefitting foreign parties.
Is this why the US is moving slowly on climate change so far & appears to not care as much as other places on this topic? Slowing down the phenomenon will also benefit the US in addition to everywhere else, but it seems even my (Millennial) generation & the Xers I know don't seem to care enough about it to push industry to change. Do we just think we won't be around to see whatever the outcome will be? (Xers will be 70+/'twilight years' in 2050, Millennials 50+/'leaving prime age', etc) Millennials are in the 'raising kids/family' phase and likely just don't have the time to pursue a lot of protesting for something far down the pike when we have plenty on our plate now that is troublesome.