[April 25, 2022] Driving with my 15-year-old in the car and listening to the radio was great for our father-daughter relationship. We got to talk, relax, and see the countryside. I’d purposefully selected a radio station that played current music appealing to teenagers, or so I thought.
This car trip was in 2003, shortly after I’d been ordered overseas with my unit. Playing on the radio was a song by the Spice Girls, a famous British singing group. My daughter, Audrey, spoke up and said, “Hey dad, why are you playing oldies from the 90s?” I was about to get an introduction to Urban slang, popular music groups and discover several teenager fashions and fads and what young folks do to have a little fun. Most of what my daughter educated me on was innocent, and I’m thankful for that.
The Spice Girls’ music is fun to listen to. It’s harmless and mindless but rebellious in spirit. That is why it is so enticing. In my teenage years, The Beatles’ British singing group was popular, the pet rock was ‘The’ thing, and banana-seat bicycles were groovy. Harmless? Yes.
There were also several sinister fashions, fads, and promises of fun. Terrorism, usually self-styled revolutionary movements, has been in vogue since the 1950s. Today, many are still popular and heavily financed by rogue states worldwide, ignoring the great havoc their ‘soldiers’ wreck upon the innocent. Dangerous drugs continuously evolve with lavish promises of no-cost fun and enlightenment. Alcohol remains a great escape and destroyer of human lives. And many simple ideologies promise instant solutions to all our problems with devastating long-term results.
Many fashionable causes, fads, and promises of fun are enticing. They promise much and require little individual responsibility to accomplish anything other than voice your support. We are told that we are morally superior to those not with our cause. You can show your superiority through virtue signaling – a public expression of your opinion to show your moral correctness. This behavior is accomplished through social media, purchasing pre-approved products, affinity with historical victim groups, shaming non-believers, suppression of free speech, cultural appropriation, and groupthink.
The danger is evident to those who study history. The 20th century provides a stark lesson to how fashionable ideas turn out when in the hands of evil people.
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Please read my new book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).
This article by Gen. Satterfield is one of my favorites. I wrote him about it and he wrote back to say it was one of his most difficult to write and overall he wished he could have done better. I thanked him. You can find his email on the “about” tab or just click here: https://www.theleadermaker.com/about-doug-satterfield/
Thanks, Qassim. Appreciate the link. ✔
A special note of thanks to all the readers of this article. I had difficulty writing this post and originally I decided not to publish it. I changed my mind. All the feedback has been helpful.
Excellent article, best yet!
This article, like so many over the past couple of weeks are classic examples why I continue reading Gen. Satterfield’s daily leadership blog. What I have discovered, and I’m sure others have as well, is that this blog is not just about leadership but about being a better person, worthy member of your family, a positive influence on your community and nation. That is why I’m an American Patriot, just like Gen. Satterfield.
Very good article.
I’d say excellent article because it hits upon some important topics for parents and those of us learning more about leadership. We all need to be wary of fads, fashions, and promises of fun.
Excellent article. Too bad we are inclined to fall for these fashions (socialism), fads (ignoring the law), and promises of fun (drugs & alcohol). I’m no prude but laws are there for a reason. If you chose to violate the law, then be man enough to face the consequences.
Falling for fads and fashion at the national level (neo-Marxist ideologies, etc.) can have very bad consequences. Among those consequences is great death and destruction. AND, our political establishment in charge today is supporting that violence.
Excellent article, Gen. S. and I hope one day you expand upon this line of thinking.
I agree, RED, and good to see you back on Gen. Satterfield’s website for leaders. When are you going to write another article for us?
👍 Got that right LM.
Gen. Satterfield, I think you may have hit on a nerve. What you did not write, and I think you’ve pointed this out before is that all people have religion. Their religion may not be a belief in God but a belief in government. Still a religion.
Well written and to the point, thanks Gen. Satterfield. Let’s go further and say clearly that those who are in the grip of ideological fads are on their way to being crushed by their own future. They will inevitably fail. All the past rules of behavior have been rejected (very fashionable) in favor of accepting behavior that will damn their future and families and community.
Northeast, good point. But let’s be clear. The latest trend in the West is to “accept” ALL behavior as good because any standard you apply (implicitly judging) then you are a racist, homophobe, sexist, etc. And that, my friends, is an extremely stupid idea. Let’s get with it folks and reject the PC culture that is destroying our country.
Most folks who are WOKE will not wake up until their world crashes around them. Sad. I don’t even think they believe what they are saying.
That “we are morally superior to you,” is a very dangerous attitude but is being taught and used like a drug to entice young people in seeing themselves better than you and I and if we don’t conform, then you are to be shunned or killed or jailed or lose your job. Yeah, how’s that working out?
Fun facts. Alcohol is responsible for 88,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone. That’s more than the approximately 70,200 deaths caused by all prescription and illegal drugs combined in 2017. Those death tolls are dwarfed by cigarette smoking, which leads to more than 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S. But moderate drinking is actually celebrated, or at least tolerated, in many societies. And tobacco is much more socially accepted than cocaine or even cannabis.
Thanks for helping make the case that Gen. Satterfield is pointing out. It all hangs on avoiding responsibility. Why? It’s hard. Waaaayyyy harrrrd.
Those most satisfied with their lives are those with the most responsibility. No wonder your young folks have such a high suicide rate and alcoholics, drug users, and pimps. Go figure.
Yep! 👍👍👍👍👍
You guys make me laugh.
… and that lifestyle is encouraged by our politicians and pushed to legalize the craziness. It’s a Democrat Party thing. Only a nut would allow them anywhere near their children.
Our youth today don’t give one hoot about others. The proof is in their use of illegal drugs. The illegal drug pipeline causes great death and destruction and threatens our sovereignty. Yep, they happily take the drugs and see it as a victimless crime. Good thing stupidity is not a contagious disease.
Loved the article. Great series. ✔
Yeah, me too. Lately there has been an uptick in the thoroughness of this website. I also like the fact that there are fewer guest writers (those that are oversimple and too pandemic).
Oldies from the 90s. Great story, Gen. Satterfield, as you were only a few years beyond the 90s. I’m sure you had a great ride with your daughter, however. Keep up your fantastic writing.
I read the other day that those who are the youngest adults in our society are more and more rejecting the notion that they have ANY responsibility for anything. Why should we, as they say, we have government to give us everything and take care of us. 👎
True enough Bryan but what happens when the discover this is not the way to live?
Scary for them, not for us. Colourful people don’t often get things done, it’s us nubs that do.
Loved the article, a bit scary!
“Many fashionable causes, fads, and promises of fun are enticing. They promise much and require little individual responsibility to accomplish anything other than voice your support. ” best quote from Gen. Satterfield. Reminds me of socialism and communism, and the reason they are popular is that they play to the innate desire of people to have power over others — a survival mechanism that hurts us today when survival of the fittest – life or death – is no longer needed.
Max, good points and I think this is exactly one of the main points that Gen. Satterfield is making. When you don’t require responsibility, all sorts of hell is on your way.
Fun Fun Fun, I think there is a song by that name, if I’m not mistaken!
Yep, the Beach Boys, you can hear the song here on ScrewTube (oh, I mean YouTube):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDHErN3dOkc
Thanks Gen. Satterfield for another superb article.
Fun song, loved it but my sister is in love with all the songs from that era of music. Free wheeling and open cars on the beach. What a great time it was.
Good one, thanks for a little research Billy!! A few fun facts about the song
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun,_Fun,_Fun
Great song.