1930s: Systematic Thrashings
July 19, 2019
By AHNZ
Kiwi writer Kevin Ireland was born (18 July 1933) into the Silent Generation, as Strauss-Howe call it. Or, from the Theory of Moral Cultures perspective, the Friendly Road Victimhood Culture era.
I’ve written about Ireland before in connection to J.K.Baxter’s personal poem of warning to his friend not to praise the state. Ref. 1957: Only That Your Words Will Live.
Thanks to Kevin for being so generous to write the following in 1983. It offers much food for thought in figuring out our grandparents’ generation.
All quotes from One of The Boys?, Michael King (1983)
“How else are we to explain the brutalisation of our society except to understand that most of the men of my generation are the products of systematic thrashings?”
“Most of the men I had for teachers…gave me..nausea from proximity to violence. The stench of sadism gusted from them. Some whipped through ignorance, some from habit and some, I can now see clearly, to gratify their pleasure. Those pop eyes and red faces told it all.”
Most of the best New Zealand teachers, the heart of our communities, volunteered for the Great War and were wiped out. That eliminated a huge mainstream of K-selected men (Honour Culture, Dignity Culture) who Ireland would otherwise have been tutored by.
Having done that, The State followed up by making hundreds of special appointments promoting single women to teaching roles.¹ This also impacted the sociology of education, communities, and branded a generation.
When the Great Wrong War was over the State now flooded the market with teachers by placing returned veterans into these positions. One of the great challenges after a war is what to do with the disbanded army; Part of the reason wars are unending.
“The men had just come back from war service…and expected top jobs…The school was in the pits.”
One result of the Government’s market interference was quantity. There was now a glut in the supply of teachers thanks to the wrong signals having been sent.²
The other result was quality. The aggressive broken men functioning as Government School Teachers to Ireland’s generation had no qualms about hitting and yelling at children. Like today’s Generation Z under the onslaught of Victimhood Culture Millennials, the 1930s kids became a Silent Generation.
“The archetypal Kiwi males we all feared most..were the one-armed, one-legged survivors of Gallipoli or the Somme…We hid. Those old monsters took over the streets and the kids fled…you were asking for the end of a stick or a crutch. They would stagger home from their annual binge, like men from some calamity, swearing at the world and ready to strike out.”
This Generation grew up a Slave Culture. Thus, producing many great artists. Primarily, they were escape artists. Their creativity and life had to find another world to live in because the mainstream culture they met with in reality refused them expression.
Ref also
- Genesis of the Silent Generation- 1954: Fourth World
- 2000s: Generation Z
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1 Ref. A shortage of trained teachers; NZ History.gov
2 Ref. Unemployed Teachers; ODT
Image ref. Stage Door St. Lewis
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