The Greatest Generation

This morning, I watched a video honoring those who fought in World War II. Those heroes are sometimes described as The Greatest Generation, but Matthew Griffin, whose father was a member of that generation, had some interesting thoughts about that label:

I know, personally, that if I were to tell my grandfather "You're the greatest generation," he would roll his eyes at me and go "You're gonna take that as a statement? Not as a challenge?" and I think that's what it should be. It should be a challenge. Like, we should be the greatest generation. We need to be the ones saving the environment. We need to be the ones ending the wars. We need to fix our problems. We just can't look back at some guys and they have the label and we're never going to aspire to that.

It is self-limiting to call any generation of people, as great as they are, The Greatest Generation Ever. Rather, it can be just as respectful, but still empowering, to call them The Greatest Generation Yet. We can, and should try to, meet their level of greatness. If we fight our battles especially hard and well, we may even surpass them.

The youth in this church are, generation by generation, told that they were among the most valiant spirits in the war in heaven, and that they were chosen to come to Earth at this time because they were the ones that were strong enough to face the challenges of today. When I first realized that each generation is told that they were among the most valiant spirits, I thought that seemed contradictory. We can't all be the greatest. However, we can all be among the greatest, and we can each try to match and surpass the generation who came before us.

Naturally, we have a lot to live up to. The Greatest Generation set the bar very high. But still, I'm hopeful. We are their descendants. Their greatness flows through our veins. Using our modern resources and our own spiritual strength, we can build on the foundation they laid for us and raise a generation greater than they could have hoped. If we all build on what our forefathers created, we can build a world where each generation is greater than the last.

Granted, that's not what's happening. Many members of the current and rising generation fail to recognize what made the previous generations great. Instead, they fixate on the problems that that generation hadn't solved yet and use those problems as examples to claim that that generation wasn't great at all. Doubtless, future generations will one day look down on us for being as "backward" as we are now, even as we strive to push ourselves and each succeeding generation forward.

What I worry about is that the current and rising generations may fail to build on what the previous generations made possible and will instead destroy what the past generations accomplished and try to build something better from scratch. If they're foolish enough to try that, I hope, for everyone's sake, that they succeed, but moreso I hope they're wise enough not to try. Sure, past generations of Americans weren't perfect, but they did some good, and they built good things. If we continually build on those good things and find ways to make them even better, we will make a lot more progress than if we tear down what they've built and try to build something else from scratch.

But that's probably enough politics for me for now.

I hope that people acknowledge the greatness in others, recognize what made them great, and then use that knowledge to try to become ever greater. If we do that, if each generation builds on and improves on the greatness of the last, then it is possible for each succeeding generation to be The Greatest Generation Yet.