History doesn’t move in neat boxes of decades…it moves in ruptures, in shocks, in the behavioral choices of people and institutions. The 20th century wasn’t just a calendar flip; it was Roosevelt’s midnight ride, the leap from horses to airplanes, the sprint from powered flight to the moon in a single lifetime. It was also the century of industrialized cruelty: Holocaust, gulags, Khmer Rouge; proof that human ingenuity can be turned toward annihilation as easily as toward progress.
What matters is the behavioral pattern: every epoch is seeded by decisions made decades before. The “New Frontier” of Kennedy was built on the gravity of the 1950s. The protests of the late 60s spilled into the 70s.
The seeds are planted.
That’s why the comparison today is so damning. Roosevelt’s sons gave their lives in service; today’s dynasties give us corruption and spectacle. The hinge of history is always behavioral: courage versus cowardice, service versus self‑dealing, clarity versus lies.
The lesson is brutal but simple: epochs don’t begin with dates, they begin with choices. And the choices we’re making now: cruelty normalized, spectacle worshipped, corruption excused; are the seeds of disgrace we’ll harvest in the 21st century.
I’m working on an examination too..starting this week a multi-part series on this year and what it means for the future.
In most circles the deaths of Roosevelt's sons are lauded as you note because "they gave their lives in service", but their heroism in turn also tacitly accepts the unreality of war, which after so many centuries of the unnatural death, is to be tolerated as justifiable because the manner of death was honorable.
I suggest that they were needlessly sacrificed in service to unnamed older men who like those of today financially profit by investing in the tools of war. Arming the youth of the nation, some of whom will invariably die in ultimately useless struggles that are fomented by these same men, only adds wealth to their already overflowing coffers
These men, along with the politicians they help put in office and the citizenry throughout the world know that war accomplishes nothing of social value, that money spent on always wasted armaments would be more wisely used to feed, clothe, shelter and educate those in need.
I am concerned that this is where our leadership is taking our nation.
You’re exactly right, the way we “honor” deaths in war often disguises the deeper unreality: that these lives were sacrificed not for necessity, but for the profit and power of older men who never risk themselves. Heroism becomes the mask that makes cruelty tolerable.
The truth is brutal: war accomplishes nothing of social value. Every dollar spent on armaments is a dollar stolen from food, shelter, education, dignity. Yet the system keeps rewarding death because it enriches the few. That’s the real corruption, not just the loss of life, but the normalization of sacrifice as if it were inevitable.
Clara Barton founded one of the first free public schools in the United States in 1852. She said she was always willing to teach for free, but if she was to do a man’s work, she would do it for no less than a man is paid.
I worry about the legacy as a time of making women second class citizens.
I see the statements that things were better when women did not vote, or women called ugly or piggy, and I see particularly in the South the election of people who want women to stay in the kitchen — they say as much and they still win elections here.
I love your articles. I always learn something new about history. I really hope we will find our 21st century Teddy Roosevelt, FDR or JFK. We need someone like this more than ever to help guide us out of this cesspool that we put ourselves in
My personal belief is that this feeds his base red meat. They are rabid dogs just like him. And they are pretty much all he has left. If it was about drugs coming into the US there wouldn’t be pardons of drug lords.
We are in BIG BIG trouble and it is getting worse not better every day. With each and every Pro-Trump Anti-America ruling the Corrupt Roberts 6 Crime gang makes they are dismantling our Democracy and our Freedoms and our Rights one ruling at a time. The Executive branch, the Legislative branch, and the Roberts 6 are in the control of people who do NOT represent, support, or serve "the people"! Neoliberalism now has a major foothold and is taking over with the help of the Roberts 6, Trump and his corrupt regime, the neutered and complicit MAGA Republicans, the billionaires looting us all.........(A great book that lays it all out - "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison)
"With each and every Pro-Trump Anti-America ruling the Roberts 6 crime gang makes they are dismantling our Democracy and our Freedoms and our Rights one ruling at a time." Murray, How right you are.
"In a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court as a lawyer for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that represented three former military leaders," Pam Bondi wrote, “Military officers are required not to carry out unlawful orders.” She elaborated: “The military would not carry out a patently unlawful order from the president to kill nonmilitary targets." This was used to counter the answer Trump's lawyer, Mr. Sauer, gave when asked if a president, after leaving office w/o being impeached, could be prosecuted for ordering Navy Seal 6 to kill a political opponent. He said, "no," he could not. Thus reasoned Bondi, the military wouldn't obey the order so the question was irrelevant and purely hypothetical. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFPX8_cWjYkhDMs5TE3KsczLWYFtwYKqVhEWXRxvQ/edit?tab=t.0
Pam apparently thinks that whatever she says must be considered within light of her belief that Trump is divinely ordained to rule and hence unrestrained by works of men like the Constitution. She supports Trump's claim that Mark Kelly and five other Democrats who called upon the military to keep in mind their ethical responsibility to refuse to obey illegal and unconstitutional orders are guilty of SEDITION. Trump alluded to hanging them.
So in the eyes of Pam and all of Trump's lickspittles, honest men like Mark Kelly are criminals if they even suggest that while Dear Leader is in power, soldiers are ethically bound to disobey illegal or unconstitutional orders, however, Trump and company are free to say exactly that if Trump wants them to.
The law and its interpretation is whatever Trump says it is. Period. This is where we are at, largely due to 6 miscreants appointed by Republican presidents and sitting in control of the Supreme Court of The Unied States of America.
We can and we must survive these dark days. There is no other option. I am glad to hear Congress is pressing for the videos on the boat strikes. If we can rid this administration of Hegseth, that’s one down. With any luck we can bring a couple more with him, like Miller and Noem. Thanks for this post, Steve. And thank you for your service.
Thank you for the historical context that we’re up against and rhyming with. We need a rough-riding leader again. There’s so much we need to do ourselves, but leadership can’t be removed from the equation — George III vs. George Washington; the Adams family vs. Jackson; Lincoln, a relucant savior vs. Booth, whose racism latent for a bit now screams at us across two centuries; Napoleon vs. the Russian Winter; Marx vs. industrialized capitalism; Hitler vs. the Russian winter; the Roosevelt Presidents; Truman to Eisenhower; LBJ giving power to the GOP in exchange for equal rights long denied, at least til now; Obama giving us Trump his ownself, now twice. Prescient Ike got it right and warned us off the Military Industrial Complex, but we covered our ears, and we kept them covered so as to not properly hear the crashes, especially in ‘29 then in ‘08. Listen closely — AI can’t listen for you, but it can crash loud enough to wake us to the next FDR, at least I hope so.
Thank You Steve..Yes and burn it down they did. It will be historians like you that will help guide us as to how to rebuild the beautiful city on the hill. It will be the work and imagination of all of us to fix this smoldering mess. The way it is now cannot be sustained no matter what the Supreme Court does. I hope I am still here to see it started on the right path. lost in america
“When did the 21st century begin?” Arguably in 1971, with the Powell Memorandum. Subsequent Republican administrations, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, the latter two wholeheartedly embraced by John Roberts and his increasingly corrupt cohorts, have delivered us to the century where our fragile democracy hangs in the balance.
Teddy Roosevelt was definitely a mixed figure - who isn't? He didn't achieve all his imperialist goals and that's a good thing, as you say. But later presidents did their best to extend these - in the name of anti-communism - and millions died as a result. Democracies were overthrown and democratically elected leaders were killed in the name of "democracy" (as happened in Chile and most of Latin America before/during/after the Operation Condor years). In bipartisan fashion, we helped make many places in the world repressive and inhospitable. In a very real way, we created the very "migration problem" that maga-fascism exploits.
My hope remains. Theilhard de Chardin, Jesuit, paleontologist and mystic, wrote, “ After we have mastered the winds, the tides and gravity , we shall harness for God the energies of Love, and for the second time mankind (we) will have discovered fire .”
Seriously. Have you ever wondered why humans are unique in engaging in "speciecide" - mass killing of one another for no reason. From clubs and stone to axes, guns, ships, tanks, planes, and nuclear existential threats to all species. Weaponry consumes the majority of our shared public obligations. The trend line is not good.
History doesn’t move in neat boxes of decades…it moves in ruptures, in shocks, in the behavioral choices of people and institutions. The 20th century wasn’t just a calendar flip; it was Roosevelt’s midnight ride, the leap from horses to airplanes, the sprint from powered flight to the moon in a single lifetime. It was also the century of industrialized cruelty: Holocaust, gulags, Khmer Rouge; proof that human ingenuity can be turned toward annihilation as easily as toward progress.
What matters is the behavioral pattern: every epoch is seeded by decisions made decades before. The “New Frontier” of Kennedy was built on the gravity of the 1950s. The protests of the late 60s spilled into the 70s.
The seeds are planted.
That’s why the comparison today is so damning. Roosevelt’s sons gave their lives in service; today’s dynasties give us corruption and spectacle. The hinge of history is always behavioral: courage versus cowardice, service versus self‑dealing, clarity versus lies.
The lesson is brutal but simple: epochs don’t begin with dates, they begin with choices. And the choices we’re making now: cruelty normalized, spectacle worshipped, corruption excused; are the seeds of disgrace we’ll harvest in the 21st century.
I’m working on an examination too..starting this week a multi-part series on this year and what it means for the future.
Thank you for helping us think through this!
—Johan
In most circles the deaths of Roosevelt's sons are lauded as you note because "they gave their lives in service", but their heroism in turn also tacitly accepts the unreality of war, which after so many centuries of the unnatural death, is to be tolerated as justifiable because the manner of death was honorable.
I suggest that they were needlessly sacrificed in service to unnamed older men who like those of today financially profit by investing in the tools of war. Arming the youth of the nation, some of whom will invariably die in ultimately useless struggles that are fomented by these same men, only adds wealth to their already overflowing coffers
These men, along with the politicians they help put in office and the citizenry throughout the world know that war accomplishes nothing of social value, that money spent on always wasted armaments would be more wisely used to feed, clothe, shelter and educate those in need.
I am concerned that this is where our leadership is taking our nation.
You’re exactly right, the way we “honor” deaths in war often disguises the deeper unreality: that these lives were sacrificed not for necessity, but for the profit and power of older men who never risk themselves. Heroism becomes the mask that makes cruelty tolerable.
The truth is brutal: war accomplishes nothing of social value. Every dollar spent on armaments is a dollar stolen from food, shelter, education, dignity. Yet the system keeps rewarding death because it enriches the few. That’s the real corruption, not just the loss of life, but the normalization of sacrifice as if it were inevitable.
Clara Barton founded one of the first free public schools in the United States in 1852. She said she was always willing to teach for free, but if she was to do a man’s work, she would do it for no less than a man is paid.
I worry about the legacy as a time of making women second class citizens.
I see the statements that things were better when women did not vote, or women called ugly or piggy, and I see particularly in the South the election of people who want women to stay in the kitchen — they say as much and they still win elections here.
Troubling, very troubling.
I love your articles. I always learn something new about history. I really hope we will find our 21st century Teddy Roosevelt, FDR or JFK. We need someone like this more than ever to help guide us out of this cesspool that we put ourselves in
I think you nailed the zeitgeist of our age and made me cry, again.
Yes, you nailed it, Steve! Pure Powerful Excellence! 🥊💥I hope you write a book like this!
Same
Thanks for another great post, Steve. Employing the line - “Not even God himself could sink this ship” to describe our current situation is stunning !
Why does ICE think it has to be so damn cruel? Brutual?
My personal belief is that this feeds his base red meat. They are rabid dogs just like him. And they are pretty much all he has left. If it was about drugs coming into the US there wouldn’t be pardons of drug lords.
We are in BIG BIG trouble and it is getting worse not better every day. With each and every Pro-Trump Anti-America ruling the Corrupt Roberts 6 Crime gang makes they are dismantling our Democracy and our Freedoms and our Rights one ruling at a time. The Executive branch, the Legislative branch, and the Roberts 6 are in the control of people who do NOT represent, support, or serve "the people"! Neoliberalism now has a major foothold and is taking over with the help of the Roberts 6, Trump and his corrupt regime, the neutered and complicit MAGA Republicans, the billionaires looting us all.........(A great book that lays it all out - "Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism" by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison)
"With each and every Pro-Trump Anti-America ruling the Roberts 6 crime gang makes they are dismantling our Democracy and our Freedoms and our Rights one ruling at a time." Murray, How right you are.
"In a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court as a lawyer for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that represented three former military leaders," Pam Bondi wrote, “Military officers are required not to carry out unlawful orders.” She elaborated: “The military would not carry out a patently unlawful order from the president to kill nonmilitary targets." This was used to counter the answer Trump's lawyer, Mr. Sauer, gave when asked if a president, after leaving office w/o being impeached, could be prosecuted for ordering Navy Seal 6 to kill a political opponent. He said, "no," he could not. Thus reasoned Bondi, the military wouldn't obey the order so the question was irrelevant and purely hypothetical. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FFPX8_cWjYkhDMs5TE3KsczLWYFtwYKqVhEWXRxvQ/edit?tab=t.0
Pam apparently thinks that whatever she says must be considered within light of her belief that Trump is divinely ordained to rule and hence unrestrained by works of men like the Constitution. She supports Trump's claim that Mark Kelly and five other Democrats who called upon the military to keep in mind their ethical responsibility to refuse to obey illegal and unconstitutional orders are guilty of SEDITION. Trump alluded to hanging them.
So in the eyes of Pam and all of Trump's lickspittles, honest men like Mark Kelly are criminals if they even suggest that while Dear Leader is in power, soldiers are ethically bound to disobey illegal or unconstitutional orders, however, Trump and company are free to say exactly that if Trump wants them to.
The law and its interpretation is whatever Trump says it is. Period. This is where we are at, largely due to 6 miscreants appointed by Republican presidents and sitting in control of the Supreme Court of The Unied States of America.
We can and we must survive these dark days. There is no other option. I am glad to hear Congress is pressing for the videos on the boat strikes. If we can rid this administration of Hegseth, that’s one down. With any luck we can bring a couple more with him, like Miller and Noem. Thanks for this post, Steve. And thank you for your service.
Thank you for the historical context that we’re up against and rhyming with. We need a rough-riding leader again. There’s so much we need to do ourselves, but leadership can’t be removed from the equation — George III vs. George Washington; the Adams family vs. Jackson; Lincoln, a relucant savior vs. Booth, whose racism latent for a bit now screams at us across two centuries; Napoleon vs. the Russian Winter; Marx vs. industrialized capitalism; Hitler vs. the Russian winter; the Roosevelt Presidents; Truman to Eisenhower; LBJ giving power to the GOP in exchange for equal rights long denied, at least til now; Obama giving us Trump his ownself, now twice. Prescient Ike got it right and warned us off the Military Industrial Complex, but we covered our ears, and we kept them covered so as to not properly hear the crashes, especially in ‘29 then in ‘08. Listen closely — AI can’t listen for you, but it can crash loud enough to wake us to the next FDR, at least I hope so.
Thank You Steve..Yes and burn it down they did. It will be historians like you that will help guide us as to how to rebuild the beautiful city on the hill. It will be the work and imagination of all of us to fix this smoldering mess. The way it is now cannot be sustained no matter what the Supreme Court does. I hope I am still here to see it started on the right path. lost in america
“When did the 21st century begin?” Arguably in 1971, with the Powell Memorandum. Subsequent Republican administrations, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, the latter two wholeheartedly embraced by John Roberts and his increasingly corrupt cohorts, have delivered us to the century where our fragile democracy hangs in the balance.
Teddy Roosevelt was definitely a mixed figure - who isn't? He didn't achieve all his imperialist goals and that's a good thing, as you say. But later presidents did their best to extend these - in the name of anti-communism - and millions died as a result. Democracies were overthrown and democratically elected leaders were killed in the name of "democracy" (as happened in Chile and most of Latin America before/during/after the Operation Condor years). In bipartisan fashion, we helped make many places in the world repressive and inhospitable. In a very real way, we created the very "migration problem" that maga-fascism exploits.
Pure excellence Steve.
Today’s post should run as an op ed in every newspaper in the country.
And the nation slumbers on
My hope remains. Theilhard de Chardin, Jesuit, paleontologist and mystic, wrote, “ After we have mastered the winds, the tides and gravity , we shall harness for God the energies of Love, and for the second time mankind (we) will have discovered fire .”
You are such a gifted writer, Steve. This article was one of your best.
Seriously. Have you ever wondered why humans are unique in engaging in "speciecide" - mass killing of one another for no reason. From clubs and stone to axes, guns, ships, tanks, planes, and nuclear existential threats to all species. Weaponry consumes the majority of our shared public obligations. The trend line is not good.