America Grows Up.

Every once in a while, an event comes along with the power to transform a culture, for better or for worse. The last time it happened in America was in 1963, with the assassination of President Kennedy, a loss-of-innocence kind of event that set the tone for the upheavals of the '60s and the '70s. The Kennedy assassination, seen in retrospect, was the inaugural event of the era in which we still live -- or lived, until September 11th. For in the national malaise that followed Kennedy's tragic death were born many of the motifs that those of us 40 and under have been familiar with all of our lives: revolt against the established order; rampant moral decay; the debasement of popular culture; the rise of pessimism; and a large segment of the American population obsessed with self-gratification, to name a few.

As the decades rolled past, the '60s and the '70s continued to dominate popular culture, even though the hippies, rock stars, and other counterculture figures of that time are now senior citizens. The feeling persisted that their time was our time, and with good reason: Their warped revolutionary assumptions, which turned America upside down in a few tumultuous years, still defined the national mood. Until a few weeks ago. Suddenly, those of us born after the Kennedy assassination are seeing things we used to assume were artifacts of a culture preserved only in black and white movies and scratchy old 78s. We're seeing public prayers and unblushing patriotism reborn. We're noticing courtesy and sobriety, tolerance and unity.

Since September 11th, cynicism is no longer chic. Worldly-wise and sassy are out. The voices of political correctness, only recently shrill and without shame, are suddenly muted. In a flash of jet fuel, the accumulated sophistries, attitudes, and tastes of several generations evaporated.

Everywhere are encouraging signs that our nation, mired in a decades-long tantrum of self-indulgence, may have finally decided to grow up. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the entertainment industry was flummoxed: what to do with all of the tawdry films, crass television fare, and jeering popular tunes that suddenly seemed obsolete? Nobody wants to watch shows about nothing, a la Seinfeld, when live TV is full of images of heroism and villainy, hope and despair, that no movie mogul could possibly conjure up. Fewer Americans want to hear a group of grunge-rock misfits bellyaching about social injustice or drug-besotted angst after thousands of Americans lost their lives in the worst one-day tragedy in American history. Moved by the emotional force of a calamity certain to be remembered for generations to come, large numbers of people are awakening to the fact that there is more to life than mindless pleasure-seeking.

But Americans in 2001 aren't quite ready to accept on blind faith the warfare-state regime being proposed in the tragedy's aftermath. That's probably a good thing, for the situation has changed since 1941 when the World War II generation, buoyed by uncritical patriotic enthusiasm, marched off to war overseas.

The surge of optimism that followed America's defeat of the twin evils of Hitler's Germany and imperial Japan was dampened as Americans realized that a scourge just as bad as Nazism was rapidly advancing across Europe and Asia. The Soviet Communists -- our wartime allies -- were transformed, in the space of a few months, into our new official enemy. Many Americans sensed that something wasn't quite right.

There followed the twin humiliations of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, where American forces were inexplicably hamstrung by their own government. Suddenly, Americans were deeply suspicious of the motives of their leaders, and warfare in exotic, far-off places no longer seemed glamorous. The initial euphoria over the American success in the Gulf War didn't last long either, for it soon became apparent that, as with the Vietnam conflict, containment, not victory, was the true objective.

In view of this sorry pageant of pointless wars in distant lands for ill-defined goals, Americans are right to be circumspect about the War on Terrorism. For in the days since World War II, a conspiracy of pro-internationalist interests has entrenched itself in our government, and seeks to turn every American conflict to serve ends hostile to American freedom and limited government.

What we are witnessing now is a resurgence of patriotism and national character, tempered by informed caution. Americans are leery of proposals seeking to separate us from our freedoms in the name of security. We're resisting the impulse to succumb to mass hysteria, despite the horrors of September 11th and the ongoing bacteriological attacks. Yet for all the commotion, Americans continue to go about their family, church, and community business with renewed dedication.

To be sure, much has changed for the worse since the September 11th disaster: Our sense of self-security; our economic stability; and our aura of invulnerability have frayed badly since the attacks. But by all early indications, America's character has received a once-in-a-lifetime boost. We haven't forgotten how to be people of decency and resolve.