"It’s definitely a tokenization.”

September 2, 2017 10:10 AM

"Even after World War II, a conflict we typically characterize as an unambiguous moral necessity, veterans disrupted an emerging nationalist, anti-communist consensus. Robert Saxe, the author of Settling Down: World War II Veterans’ Challenge to the Post-War Consensus, told the New Republic, “A lot of World War II veterans came back and had some pretty significant critiques of America.” Those critiques ranged from dissatisfaction with the military itself, where the divide between officers and enlisted men reflected broader class tensions, and with civilians, who benefited from a wartime economic boom without risking their lives in battle." The Invisible Veterans Of The Left

Related : What A Hell Of A Way To Die a podcast by leftist veterans. Example episode : So What Does A Socialist Utopia Do With A Standing Army?

posted by The Whelk (6 comments total)

On the WWII issue, I always wondered why it didn't damage its veterans the way other wars did. WWI had the Lost Generation, Vietnam vets were profoundly scarred, and Iraq/Afghanistan has turned PTSD into a household term. Then it occurred to that it did, in fact, damage its veterans, and many of the social problems the country has faced since the war (with the obvious exception of civil rights) can be attributed to such a large percentage of the population serving in the military. I certainly think it's what created the baby boom generation's rabid individualism, which then both contributed to the Reagan libertarian revolution and inspired the conservative backlash.
posted by kevinbelt at 12:06 PM on September 2, 2017 [9 favorites]

Thanks for your comment. I'm always surprised at how often I hear the claim that WW2 vets didn't experience PTSD. One of those canards that seems to have everlasting life, no matter how thoroughly or frequently it's debunked.
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 1:12 PM on September 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

An interesting look at post-combat stress or PTSD like disorders, and the fears that returning soldiers inspired, can be found in Childers's book Soldier from the War Returning. Childers is a journalist, and as an academic researcher I would say its perhaps a little long on anecdote and short on analysis, but I think it provides a good overview.
posted by Charles_Swan at 1:18 PM on September 2, 2017

> I certainly think it's what created the baby boom generation's rabid individualism

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? As a baby boomer, I've known a lot of baby boomers, and I'm pretty sure collectively we are no more individualistic than anybody else. Can we knock it off with these cheap generalizations, which are rightly shouted down when applied to races and genders?
posted by languagehat at 5:48 PM on September 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure where this idea that WWII didn't mentally traumatize its soldiers came from, I've certainly never heard of it until tonight. I presumed that it did a number on them in the same way all wars do. What a strange contention.
posted by Alensin at 10:11 PM on September 2, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's also a huge major theme of a ton of post war art - most post war books are dripping in it, even just incentally, and THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES is practically kitchen sink realism about it - the whole cruel joke was that everyone wanted returning vets to shut up and move on. There's a reason adults of the time characterized the 50s as one of quiet crack up.

Anyway that odd mixture of praising vets as political tokens but shutting them down whenever they say anything inconvincent to the established order is still going on today.
posted by The Whelk at 10:16 PM on September 2, 2017 [6 favorites]