OK, I'll admit it. I'm not in my 20's anymore, and I'm not even in my 30's. No, I'm into my 40's and tomorrow is my birthday. I do not look forward to this day anymore like I used to. Ask my ankle and my hip and they will tell you why.
I say all of this because I read an article in my local paper and repeated in the Enquirer (yes I know, great news source but they did crack the OJ case now didn't they?). The article was titled "Clint Eastwood trashes wimpy America." In the article there is a picture of him standing there holding a gun as usual, looking VERY angry and very vengeful and fierce. The expression on his face seems to say...."do not even THINK about letting your obnoxious dog pee on my lawn kid". In the article he speaks of the state of this country and he theorizes as to why we are (according to him) a "wussy generation".
He talks about how he grew up during the depression and how hard things were and how he followed his father while he chased work all over northern California during this tough time in our nations history. He says that Americans are spineless jellyfish who run home to Mama, hire a lawyer and point the finger of blame at others instead of fighting their own battles. When asked about the depression he states that "people were tougher then, we live in more of a wussy generation now where everybodies become used to saying...how do we handle this psychologically? In those days you just punched the bully back and defended yourself." He also remembered that in slugging it out even if the bully was bigger or stronger that you that "even if you lost you were respected for fighting back and you'd be left alone from then on."
He said that he wasn't really sure when "the wussy generation started, maybe when people started asking about the meaning of life". He said that he was reminded of this countries "blame others" mentality while visiting a glacier in Iceland. He was shocked to see a simple cable preventing people from falling off a ledge that provided a breathtaking view of the natural wonder. He said "I said to myself "In the states, they'd have that hurricane fenced off because they're afraid somebodies gonna fall and some lawyers going to appear. There, the mentality was like in America in the old days: if you fall, you're stupid. "
He also wondered what will happen the next time America gets it's nose bloodied because a lot of people have already forgotten 9/11 after just seven years. He stated that "maybe you remember if you lost a relative or loved one but the public can get pretty blase about stuff like that, Nobody got blase about Pearl Harbor". End of interview.
Here is the scary part in all of this. I am whispering here but.........I really agree with a lot of what this man is saying. I do not think I would have agreed when I was younger but age and life experience has made me see enough to know that there is a lot of truth in what he is saying. When I was in my 20's I would have thought he was an old crab who didn't understand how evolved we've become as human beings. Of course there is a lot wrong here and he really oversimplifies things but the core of what he is saying is really quite true. Maybe it signifies I am an old curmudgeon like him but I too am totally sick of all the annoying ,litigious people out there and I have had it to the nth degree with no one wanting to own their behaviors and always blaming someone else for their problems. There are a lot of really dumb people out there who don't even try to be anything other than dumb because they know they can blame everyone else for whatever doesn't work out in their lives or whatever goes wrong for them. I know so many people like this. Well I should say I knew because I do not really deal with them anymore but it truly amazes me at the lack of substance out there. I am not a political person at all, I have my views and all but I do not like to debate things with people because it annoys and frustrates me. I do think that a lot of what this man is saying is at the root of the huge mess this country is in right now in a lot of ways which I'm not going to proselytize about here.
I must say that reading his comments really did crack me up, I laughed out loud at a lot of it because I have had these thoughts but never really put them into words. What I really like is that this is a person who does not give a flip about what you think, he is not trying to impress anyone, he has a hot young wife and has had a very long successful career and is pretty much coming to the end of the road. Being politically correct (a phrase that annoys me in itself, happy "holidays" anyone?)is the very farthest thing from his mind. I do not agree with everything he says but a lot of it is really on point. I do not condone beating people up and I do not think being introspective about your life is a sign of weakness but I see what he is saying and I give major props to Dirty Harry on this one.
That's all for now! :)
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