Joel Fuhrmann’s 6/7/04 blog “More thoughts on Ronald Reagan” reflects the experience of many of us of the Baby Boom generation, in that we despised Reagan when young, but now, having matured -- we revere him.
How to account for this?
I was in my 30s when Reagan was President. He appeared to me as a lousy actor: an obvious con, a melodramatic and embarrassing “front man” for his millionaire handlers. Like an old vaudeville performer with bad makeup and a cheap toupee, Reagan’s delivery and quick humor couldn’t pass him off as anything other than a political Roy Rogers of cheap sentimentality and rightwing kitsch. He was an “idiot,” on top of it. I used to think, “How could anyone support him?”
In those days, I believed that those who had an intellectual appreciation for complexity, and a scathing dose of cynicism: owned wisdom. College-educated and supposedly sophisticated, I decided that everything about the USA and its traditions was inauthentic. My mockery of “straight” values was a sign of my superiority. I thought social reality was something I could see through.
Frederick Turner, in an article at the web site Tech Central Station on 6/9/04 -- “Growing Up With Ronald Reagan” -- said:
“It is a weak child's way to blame his parents when someone bullies him, to run to them tearfully and rage against them when they tell him to fight his own battles. The rage should rightly be directed against the injurer, but the weak child respects only the one he fears. And since he dare not rage against the injurer, he rages against his authority figures, whom he does not fear because he knows they love him, and whom he does not respect because they will not harm him. This is the pathology of our ‘baby boomers’ -- or that part of them who yearn for and can never grow out of the Summer of Love, the happy time when the parents were indulgent enough to give them everything they wanted, but fuddy-duddy enough to be dismissed as competitors. Those who never grow up in our society always blame our own responsible officials when something goes wrong. Reagan taught us to place the blame where it belonged, on the enemy, and to make peace with them as our enemies -- without firing a shot, as Margaret Thatcher put it. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
By probing “beneath the obvious” and seeing “for real” the ironic and sour truths of life (which we were thrilled to find) -- by accusing the American culture of horrible crimes without, ourselves, ever having to do any work to create alternatives (all we had to do was deride “the system”) -- we Baby Boomers were able to obtain what we really wanted: the realization that we must be the enlightened ones. We confused the passive activity of seeing through surfaces -- with the hard work of wisdom. In fact, the two have almost nothing in common.
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is the ability to discern the value of what is in front of our eyes. It is not discovered, but earned through the difficult experience of realizing costs.
Once we understand the meaning of death -- and that it will cost us everything we hold dear -- we appreciate the value of life. When young, we haven’t been tested by years and hardship -- so we really don’t know what is worthy. Socialism is our dream because it promises that everyone can have everything they want without struggle; that only those businesspeople and property-owners are keeping us from utopia. Revolution is our ideal because it’s easy to break down what has taken so many years to build up. To immature minds, costs never have to be considered -- because everything is free.
Once we understand the cost of making decisions, of making a living, of growing food, of protecting the innocent, of creating institutions, of building something new, of living responsibly, of suffering through wars to defend our way of life -- we understanding the value of growing up.
That’s what Ronald Reagan stood for. He challenged us to be as grown up as Ronald Reagan.