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A recent article in USA Today captures the essence of present discontent in the United States. It laments: "In poll after poll, two-thirds or more of Americans say the country is on the wrong track. Oil prices are near an all-time high. The president's popularity hovers near record lows over a deeply unpopular war. Millions of homeowners are in danger of losing their houses to foreclosure. And many more Americans fear the loss of their jobs" (Thomas Hine, "How to Tackle America's Familiar Funk," Jan. 17, 2008).
The article goes on to compare the country's plight today with its tumultuous national picture in the 1970s: "Americans were shocked by the '70s. We seemed to be running out of everything: oil, beef, even toilet paper. Prices were rising, and so was unemployment. Both the president and vice president resigned from office. The long struggle in Vietnam ended in a desperate retreat from Saigon by helicopter."
Comparisons with recent history can be very instructive, but we should not ignore ancient times. The biblical "song of Moses" also invites historical perspective. It reaches down through the generations and suggests meaningful comparisons with the past: "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you" (Deuteronomy 32:7, emphasis added throughout).
If young and middle-aged Americans were to ask the country's "greatest generation" of World War II what they thought of our current cultural behavior, what would the answer be?
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