“The Greatest Generation” was raised during the Great Depression. The fact that they didn’t grow up and lead a socialist revolution is a testament to the idea that they did deserve a lot of the praise they received.
At the same time, they came of age in a world without a safety net and then received the greatest “big government” benefit ever in the GI Bill. So, make that what you will.
As for those who served, they were young men in their teens and early twenties who were in a life and death situation....and who also may have had money for the first time in their lives.
I knew a WWII vet who was everything the Greatest Generation was supposed to be. Raised kids that went to elite colleges. Volunteer Fire Chief. Rotary club. Volunteer. Deacon in the Church. All that jazz.
And if you got three beers in him, he would talk for hours about what French girls would do in a barn for some cigarettes and chocolate bars.
There’s something to what you said. With the WPA in the Depression, the War effort, the Marshall Plan, Civil Rights, the Great Society, the moon landing, maybe they started thinking that government done right really *could* really solve the world’s problems.