Noah Rothman's Generation Unready

Over at Commentary, Noah Rothman talks about coming of age as a Millennial:

Perhaps most troubling, the next generation is generally unacquainted with great power politics and the zero-sum game that has typified adversarial dynamics and alliance structures since the Peloponnesian Wars. This would be a happy tale of societal evolution if it were a permanent figure of human existence, but it probably isn’t. Prohibitive American hegemony ain’t what it used to be. We saw the old ways reassert themselves in microcosm in the Middle East amid the Obama administration’s effort to extricate the United States from this thorny region. Amid Iran’s resurgence, alliances shifted as part of a predictable balancing act. Remarkably, the Sunni states have found common cause with Israel. Egypt and the U.A.E. are projecting power outside their borders with little concern for American objections. The United States is actively deterring its “ally” Turkey from securing a buffer zone through military deployments in Syria.

Of course totalitarian dictators were the fundamental fact of the 20th century. They even became celebrities in a way. One could buy 'Khaddafy Duck' and 'Ayatollah-Assahola' shirts, we did.

Back in our old professorial days we taught the kids all about the Cold War, even going so far as to explain MAD and nuclear weapons. We liked to open with this scene.

Of course the Cold War meant stasis. The dictators were always there. So were the grand armies and navies and of course the nuclear weapons. Every child on both sides feared nuclear war. We always debated whether or not it was better to live inside or outside the zone of destruction. On a clear day from our town one could see down the Hudson into NYC.

Even our cartoons had a sense of impending doom. The Smurfs were always watching out for Gargamel after all and GI battles Cobra.

But in our youth we never had anything like the shock of 9/11. We would think that alone would scare strait a Millennial raised on Barney and the Teletubies.