Time & Perspective Quote by Spiro T. Agnew

Agnew frames the "generation gap" not as a natural shift in tastes or values, but as an act of cultural vandalism: the past is not merely forgotten, it is "ignored and obliterated". That pairing does quiet work. "Ignored" suggests negligence; "obliterated" suggests aggression. Together they turn youthful dissent into something closer to erasure, a moral offense rather than a sociological trend. The phrase "contemporary antagonism" sharpens the accusation: this is not misunderstanding, it is hostility dressed up as progress.

The intent sits squarely in the late-1960s/early-1970s political weather, when student protest, antiwar activism, and the counterculture were being translated into electoral language. As Nixon's vice president and a reliable voice for the "silent majority", Agnew specialized in recasting cultural conflict as a crisis of respect. This line does that efficiently: it elevates tradition into "lessons" (implying hard-won wisdom) and positions the young as both ungrateful and dangerous, not because they disagree, but because they sever the chain of inheritance.

Subtextually, it's a defense of authority. If the past carries "lessons", then established institutions (government, schools, media, parents) become the custodians of truth, while challengers become reckless iconoclasts. Even the clinical label "generation gap" gets rebranded as a weaponized myth: a name for antagonism that excuses contempt.

The rhetorical power is its sleight of hand: it shifts debate from specific grievances (Vietnam, civil rights, state power) to etiquette and memory, where older voters instinctively feel on home turf.