Reading this book is EXACTLY like having an aging relative go on and on about Kids These Days. Tom Brokaw seems to have confused the natural values of old age (responsibility, morality, patriotism, etc.) with the generation that is currently that age.

I've noticed that most of the irresponsible immoral Woodstock types are getting pretty stodgy and conservative themselves as they get older, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to learn that The Greatest Generation did a little heel-kicking and elder-disrespecting in their time.

There's a popular "song" right now (I say "song" because there's music and it's played on the radio, but it's really more like a poem or a monologue) that contains these lyrics: "Accept these truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old---and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were moral, and young people respected their elders." I keep thinking of that as I read.