Tyranny of the present

                                                                                                      U. S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (Bert Brandt / AP Photo)

Are we living in the most dangerous times in American history, and are the end times upon us?

Recent catastrophes witnessed by millions of Americans on live TV and repeatedly on TikTok and other social media outlets have forced the consideration of the concept pondered by Augustine and Jerome of ancient times and put forth by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in an email to a friend that was made public.

The concept sounds like it could be complicated higher theology, but boiled down to its essence, it simply means that this living generation can see, hear and feel imminent threats to our safety and security to the point it clouds our understanding of what has happened to our forebears in the past and what is to come in God’s Providence in the future.

In several conversations recently, sincere friends and thinkers have stated that we are living in the most discombobulated and dangerous times in American history. If that is their opinion, then our entire education system, both public and private, needs an entire overhaul from kindergarten to graduate schools, and we need a complete rewiring of how our nation came to be and where we are heading next.

For one thing, such a statement ignores that our very parents, grandparents and great-grandparents lived and suffered through the worst economic depression in the 1930s before they were plunged into the widest spread and bloodiest world war in human history. Many were financially devastated by both and mentally, emotionally and physically disfigured for the rest of their lives. But somehow they survived enough to cobble together the rest of their lives, provide for the boomer generation and set the stage for a free democratic capitalistic system enjoyed by generations ever since and the envy of the world at large.

If you never had the chance to speak with any of the veterans who served in World War II, you missed the chance to learn up close and personal about the courage it took to fight for American values so we could still have them today. But you would have very quickly understood that what they and their families had to work through is far worse than anything we are living through today, as bad and as horrible as we see every day on the news and on social media. There is almost no way to match up life in 2025 in America with life in the U.S. from 1928 to 1945.

The reason why it seems so bad today is that we all know and feel intuitively it could happen to us or any of our friends randomly, which makes it the tyranny of the present.

The Civil War and the slavery period that preceded it was not millennia ago, which would cloud anyone’s memory. Modern movies and television series tend to reduce the brutality of the existential threat our country and forebears experienced, which further distorts our perception of the tyranny and threats we face today.

One question a friend asked was whether our parents were part of “The Greatest Generation,” as coined by Tom Brokaw in the book of the same name.

“So far, they sure seem to be!” was the only retort I could come up with. Going through all of those trials and tribulations and coming out on the other end sure seems to qualify them as being the greatest generation since the Colonial days when that generation fought for American independence. That set up a governmental structure for us to figure out how to maintain and be able to gift it to our children and grandchildren in a form that will be as useful to them as it was when the Greatest Generation bequeathed it to us.