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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 20-Jan-05
A look at President Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address

Web Log - January, 2005

A look at President Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address

On President Bush's inauguration day, it's well to remember that life is what happens while you're making other plans.

President George W. Bush will be making his second inaugural address later today. One of the best remembered inaugural addresses is that given by President John F. Kennedy on Friday, January 20, 1961. It began as follows:

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. ...

And here's how it ended:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

When reading President Kennedy's address, in which he describes how much the world had changed, it's well to remember how much the world has changed since then.

Kennedy was leading a nation that had beaten the Great Depression and had beaten the Nazis in World War II, a world which had tested both America's existence and America's way of life. For Kennedy, the world was a very dangerous place, and the hard-won peace following WW II could be destroyed at any time the Soviet Union and Communism, which he considered to be as evil and dangerous and Naziism.

Kennedy himself was a WW II hero, and like all heroes, his goal was to prevent anything like that from ever happening again, and that meant not appeasing the Communists the way that those in the West had initially appeased the Nazis. That led to the Vietnam War, which confounded Kennedy's words:

In fact, the 1960s were in a "generational awakening" period. During generational awakening periods, there's always a "generation gap," a major political clash between the hero generation from the previous crisis war, and the new generation born after the war, having no personal memories of the horrors of that war, and unwilling to support the austere compromises and rules that the hero generation has devised to prevent any such war from ever happening again. The result is that America was not willing to "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship," and America lost that war.

Today, the generational awakening period is long behind us, and we're in a new generational crisis period, approaching a new "clash of civilizations" world war that will be far worse than WW II. Ironically, Kennedy's words are much more relevant today than they were in 1961.

As we wait to hear what President Bush will say in his inaugural address, it's well to remember that things may not go according to Bush's plans, just as they didn't go according to Kennedy's plans.

It's also worthwhile to remember what I predicted last year. When polled on who the greatest Presidents have been, historians' top choices are from America's previous generational crisis periods: Abraham Lincoln from the Civil War, inaugurated in 1861, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt from WW II, inaugurated in 1933, 72 years later. Great events make great Presidents, not vice-versa. Today, in 2005, 72 years have passed again, and we're on the verge of many new great events. Last year I said that whoever won the election (Bush or Kerry) would be America's next great President, and I have no reason today to doubt that prediction. (20-Jan-05) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 20-Jan-05 A look at President Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 20-Jan-05
A look at President Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address