Senator Mitch McConnell’s parents were the same generation as Biden’s parents. Joe Biden’s parents were a bit younger, born during the Great War. Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. This is incredible, given that their grandparents were born in the 19th century. It is the third generation that is in charge now. They at least understood the enormous cost to their ancestors and appreciated it. Their children inherited the empire, but many paid a price while it was being forged. That founding period was made by tough men who had to endure great hardship while forging the empire. Spengler’s observation about the life cycle of a civilization becomes clear. The point here is that when we put aside the pedantry of the generational lines, we see the old adage comes into focus. Reagan was the first leader of the empire who had not worn the uniform.
Of course, Eisenhower was the last man of the founding generation to serve as President. Then as now, avoiding war was the instinct of the politically inclined, but they needed to have at least worn the uniform. When the next generation took over for the founding generation of the empire, they were mostly men who fought in the war. Hull is a bit of an outlier, but most of the people in that regime were tough guys who earned their position. He was a rising man of his community at 16, when he gave his first political speech. The best example of the distance between the generation that created the empire and the present is in the biography of Cordell Hull, FDR’s Secretary of State. The point here is the generation that created the American empire were not the “greatest generation”, but their grandparents. Roosevelt’s Secretary of War was Henry Stimson and he was born in 1867. His Secretary of State during the war was born in 1871 so he was even older than his boss. Roosevelt was born in 1882 so he was an old man during the war. The concept still works and is closer to the old adage.Įven if we place the start of the empire in the middle of that last century, the men who founded it were men of the prior age. On the other hand, some argue the Second World War is the founding of the empire, so that mean the third generation is in charge. That would mean the current generation of rulers is the fifth or sixth generation. One theory of American history says the empire was founded at Gettysburg. It is not exactly a three generation cycle, but the basics are right. We are witnessing the end phase with the Global American Empire. A civilization rises, accomplishes what it can and then falls into decline. This is Spengler’s argument in a nutshell. This describes the inability of grandchildren to manage the wealth passed down to them from their grandparents and parents. Of course, we have the old adage, “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”. Oswald Spengler relied upon a form of generational politics to put forth his theory of history. That said, there is something useful to thinking generationally. It is an effective way of keeping a natural majority from forming up in opposition to the ruling elite. This is why it has been encouraged among the majority populations in the West. Every generation strains against its parents and every generation strains to teach its children. It is hard to attack people about whom you know little, but it is easy to find fault with those you know well. For the most part, generational politics are a self-defeating enterprise, because you end up attacking your allies.
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