Memorial Day: Great Wars and the Fourth Turning
A short take
My daughter was born on Memorial Day in 1998, so I always think of her when the holiday rolls around. Memorial Day has only fallen on May 25th a few times since it was named a Federal holiday back in 1971. This year, it falls on her birthday and Memorial Day once again.
Driving across the country, however, reminds me of the wars we’ve fought in the past. World War II has especially been on my mind since I’ve been searching for my mother’s biological father. There is no trace of him anywhere. All we know is that she was born in 1942, a year after America went to war. Her mother married another soldier instead, a decent man who raised her as his own. I am starting to think that her biological father probably died in the war.
Over 8,000 men from Missouri died in World War II. 400,000 American soldiers in all lost their lives. It’s controversial now to say it, but had Truman not dropped the nukes, it’s like many more hundreds of thousands would have died.
If 8,000 men died from Missouri, and most able-bodied men were sent to fight in the war, it makes sense that my mother’s biological father went off to war and never came back. That could explain why she didn’t marry him instead.
I’ll be talking more about my mother’s family in Missouri in my next travel dispatch, but for now, I’ll just say I hadn’t really thought about those numbers before. 8,000 from Missouri alone. 400,000 in all. Over 600,000 in the Civil War. There are very few Americans alive today who would understand that kind of sacrifice.
Obviously, the Revolutionary War was the biggest Fourth Turning that made America what it is. But the next two also left the biggest mark on the country, especially in their aftermath, once things were settled and America could be rebuilt, like the late 1880s after the Civil War and Eisenhower’s 1950s America after World War II.
There are more buildings, interstates, railroads, and highways from these two eras than from any other. You can see it as you drive from state to state. At least, that’s how it looks to me, but perhaps I’m focused on those eras more, so I notice it.
Our Fourth Turning now, I figure, is doing something similar, but probably it’s less about cities, buildings, and travel and more about the virtual world — with AI dragging us into the future kicking and screaming. The chaos and turmoil are meant to ultimately bring us together as a country, if past Fourth Turnings are any indication.
Evidence of a transforming world is everywhere, with goods shipped to our doorsteps via Amazon. Freight trains and warehouses emblazoned with the Amazon logo. We took a leap forward in 2020 and never went back.
It’s already apparent if you look at the emptying out of towns and cities, with more and more people doing everything online, from shopping to dating. Just as with previous Fourth Turnings, once you cross over, there is no going back.
We have to learn how to survive the internet, artificial intelligence, and everything that comes with it. Who will be in control of it, and how will it be used? Do we become part of a global world order, as in Orwell’s 1984? Or do we try hard to escape it and fight to preserve the America we know?
We still don’t know if there will be a great war this time around. We seem to step closer to it, but then it doesn’t happen. Trump has so far prevented a boots-on-the-ground war in Iran, and if he hadn’t, by now, we’d be looking at Memorial Day a little differently.
No matter what he does, however, Trump can’t seem to win. Too many people want to see him fail, even when it comes to fighting a war against America’s enemies. None of those 400,000 who died in World War II would understand that kind of disloyalty to the Commander in Chief.
That’s why he’s the Gray Champion. He’s the guy they said was Hitler who holds the line and protects Israel. But he’s also the guy who doesn’t want to see high numbers of American casualties while trying to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. All we know for sure is that those who prevail will write the history books.
We should all know the number of those who gave their lives in war. We should remember their sacrifice. We should also remember that the highest body count came not from fighting foreign wars, but from fighting each other.
From Statista:
We might not be fighting each other with guns, but we are more polarized now than we were during the Civil War. The Democrats are still attempting to topple the Trump administration. They’re just doing it virtually, with relentless attacks every day on social media, through the legacy press, and an assassin or two here or there.
Here is Elise Slotkin:
If the Democrats retake control of government, they will treat Trump and his supporters like the second Confederacy and the Nazis all rolled in one. I can only hope the truth finds its way out and that the better, more sane side prevails.
Perhaps we’ve evolved past fighting hot wars altogether, with boots on the ground and high casualties. Maybe our Fourth Turning, as we head into the virtual world, will be fought with AI—self-fighting warfare. No one in a Fourth Turning knows how it will turn out. We have to trust the process, as they say.
All I know is that it’s Memorial Day, a time to remember and give thanks. I send a crisp salute to my dearly departed father, my maybe biological grandfather, and the good man I knew as my grandfather, all of whom served this country well.
Happy Memorial Day, and to those in the military, thank you for your service to our country.
Loved what that 98 year old vet had to say yesterday. He said something like, "we gave up our yesterdays so that you could have your tomorrows". Man if that doesn't put it all in the proper perspective, I don't know what else does. He said he had been 16 when he went off to war. Do we even make men like that anymore? I hope so.
Brilliant.
Controversy over using the A-bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki is counter factual and using facts not in evidence at the time. First 100% of the soldiers, sailors, and marines preparing for Operation Olympic favored the use of Fat Man and Little Boy to end the war. Second, the US had just finished the Okinawa campaign. Okinawa devastation was cataclysmic. Civilian casualties would likely have been in the millions in any invasion of Kyushu or Honshu. 250000 in the two atomic bombs or >10,000,000 in a land campaign.
Truman did the job he was elected to do.