What does the Greatest Generation think of us?

Question

The stock market swoons, people rush to stores to buy face masks and non-perishable provisions, and all because of  fears of a coronavirus epidemic that may never materialize.

A little over 100 years ago, about when the Greatest Generation was being born, the Spanish flu killed about 40 million worldwide.

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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-did-1918-flu-kill-so-many-otherwise-healthy-young-adults-180967178/

Then that generation faced the Great Depression, WW2 and the Cold War, and overcame them all.

I'm ashamed of what wusses we've become.

Answer 1

Tink, your post makes me remember...my father died in 1980, but in the 1970's the folks came to visit me in Seattle and we went to the movie EASY RIDER. The hippie idea of 'finding yourself;' that was incomprehensible to Dad. 

In his life that would have been a ridiculous luxury, akin to contemplating your navel or something. Born a few years before the Spanish flu, they had come through the Great Depression then put their all into prevailing in the war -- their belief in American democracy was total.

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Yes, as I grow older myself, I think about my parents often, their all-out commitment to our country, and I am secretly glad they did not see where the USA is now.

Comments

I think your Dad probably would have thought that anyone who needs to 'find themself' has too much idle time on their hands, and too few challenges.

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You nailed it, Tink...just as if you had known my father.

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Yes, Virginia, I know that generation, and have boundless respect and love for them.

Answer 2

Corona virus is nothing compare with WWII and WWII.

Answer 3

I have to agree! My Grandparents would laugh at all of this now. Doesn't seem to be much panic up here.

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Comments

Yes, the panic seems to be more common in urban areas.

Answer 4

I could just hear my old man bitching about some of the stuff these younger ones cry about nowadays!

Comments

I think just about anyone from your Dad's generation would agree with him.

Answer 5

I can see people around the world are in a panic. But no one got panic in my town in India, only the Chicken price has gone down. Since people think here that Coronavirus may spread from eating Chicken. No one is wearing a mask here (or) rushing to stores.

I also don't think it will reach here anytime soon. I hope this virus will disappear soon.

Comments

I think the chances are good that it will disappear soon, and will have caused far fewer deaths than an ordinary seasonal flu outbreak.