Signs of a Dying Empire

[pbrower2a]

(05-07-2022, 11:57 AM)beechnut79 Wrote:

(05-06-2022, 02:25 PM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(05-06-2022, 06:57 AM)David Horn Wrote: Charlton Heston was the epidiemy of Hollywood bravado.  On the other hand, Jimmie Stewart was actually a hero.  Ronald Reagan spent WW-II making propaganda inspirational movies.  On the other hand, soft and meek George McGovern won a Distinguished Flying Cross.

Bravado is neither bravery nor strength.  Most of the bravest and strongest were humble, and not all were men.

The dose makes the poison. A little bit of bravado is inspiring, energizing, gives you that "kick" to take on something courageous or face adversity. You'll notice in his interviews (and tbh, most of his movies) that Charlton Heston's default state is not one of bravado, but of paternal calm, respectful frankness, nothing like the histrionics nonsense which has been tearing our society apart since the beginning of the last 2T.

I know you're probably not a fan of the bravado of your late elders, but unfortunately, we need some of that now.

GI generation was primarily known for its bravado, especially among its male members. According to the authors, Millennials are supposed to be of the same archetype, but most of you here have pointed out that for the most part that bravado has been missing. The Occupy movement of a decade or so ago proved to be weak, I do believe. But it did get us talking about our society's massive inequality even if so far efforts to rectify it have fallen way short of what's needed. On another thread I pointed out that the tearing apart which you have indicated began about half a century ago became much  more acute in the past 7 years ago resulting in a malaise that we can't seem to pull out of. I suggested that the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade may provide the spark. Could abortion prohibition be to the 2020s what liquor prohibition was to the 1920s?

Millennial adults have fully left childhood (unless you are to figure that the Millennial generation has been born as late as 2005 or so) and they have had no remarkable role of unqualified heroism as in the American Revolution, the Civil War (the Gilded took on Civic characteristics although raised as a Reactive generation), or World War II. That may make hubris far less. 

Still, Millennial politics seem fully entrenched, at least to the extent that Millennial adults on the whole will be decidedly liberal until at least the next Awakening, when the next adult Idealist generation comes of age and gives at the least to Millennial culture and mores. 

An abortion ban in the 2020's will be very different in effect from Prohibition in the 1920's. We are not in an Unraveling as were the 1920's, and abortion will not be the big illicit business that illegal booze was. The Hard Right has more that it wants to ban -- including contraception, homosexuality, and organized labor. (Don't fool yourself on the latter. Cheap labor that has no recourse but to work as demanded for as little as possible, and off the clock if necessary for the greed of the elites, will be great for maximal profits until it wears out the workers). A right-wing, repressive America would be more analogous in style to Franco's Spain than to the corporate welfare state in America during the 1920's. 

I see Trump ideology on the fade for demographic reasons alone. It skews old in appeal, and it is not winning enough new young supporters to compensate for those dying off.   

An abortion ban is likely to result in extensive demonstrations and civil disobedience. The Hard Right rejects pragmatism in favor of its concept of moral absolutes.