What Lies Ahead?

Posted by Lorren on October 23, 2008

I just finished reading Amity Schlaes’ book, The Forgotten Man. Although it’s more than a year old, it’s a very hot item at our local library right now. I had to request that the library hold a copy for me, and I couldn’t renew it, because there were other people requesting to read it after me. It seems to me that a lot of people are concerned about the days ahead, and want to know more about what went on during the Great Depression, just like I do.

Unfortunately, I think that Obama is a lot like Roosevelt, and unless the Bradley Effect takes away a lot of votes away from him or if something happens, he’ll probably win. I think that people would still vote for him even if it was discovered that he was bombing buildings with Bill Ayers at age 8 and then they discovered he was born in Kenya and wasn’t a citizen. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to lose all hope and refrain from voting.

As I finished this book… thinking that history is about to repeat itself, I began to think about our future. The world parallels that of the 1930s so much, it’s scary. Not only are we repeating the economic mistakes of our past, but the promise of ugly dictators bent on reenacting the Holocaust also loom. The US took a position of neutrality… as we most likely would do if Obama was president.

All my grandparents that were alive when I was born are still alive, but a lot of people my age don’t have as many living grandparents as I do. These were people that lived through the depression… they were children, but they still have memories of what went on. These people are becoming scarcer as time marches on, as well as the wisdom that they bring to this situation. While they may have taught some of what they learned to their children and grandchildren, the wisdom of experience is fading away.

While the Depression was a dark period in our history that was full of suffering… there was one glimmer of light that emerged from it… also known as The Greatest Generation. These people that emerged from the sufferings of the Depression to become heroes of World War II were made stronger by what they had to endure. They were less selfless. They gave of themselves so that others might have liberty. The country was united. The excesses and flagrant immorality of the Roaring 20’s was replaced on the other side of the Depression and the War with the conservatism of the 1950’s. Prayer was still in schools. “Under God” was added to our Pledge of Allegiance.

Being well off can bring an entitlement mentality. I know, I’ve been there. While I was never “rich” or anything, I was well off and could afford whatever I wanted, within reason. Not having money makes you feel a lot less entitled. When I left the career world to become a mom and homeschool teacher, I left the big bucks too. While they might return again someday, when the money dried up, so did the entitlement mentality.

Americans have an entitlement mentality. We deserve a trophy for placing second-to-last. We feel entitled to praises for our mediocrity. Some people feel entitled to jobs, to the point where if their employer doesn’t see things their way, they’ll walk and find a boss that will let them get their way.

In hard economic times, you don’t just walk away from a job because someone won’t let you take 3 hour lunches so you can go get your hair done. You feel thankful for a job at all. Already in this downturn, people are spending more time with things that matter, like their families.

I don’t want to see tough times. I also am one of the 75% of people who are fearful about the outcome of this election. But no matter what happens, God is in control. Nobody wanted to go through the Great Depression in the 1930s either… but if it wasn’t for the Great Depression, the generation of emerging young adults that was later called “The Greatest Generation” wouldn’t have been so great. I pray that if we’re not in the final decade of history before Jesus takes away the church and the Rapture occurs, that the economic difficulties that lie ahead will turn our country from the selfish, whiny, entitled generations of people that we have become, into the next “Greatest Generation.”