Lifted from a recent interview at Mother Jones with Ken Burns, whose latest docu-marathon, this one on World War II, debuts Sunday. According to Burns, the "greatest generation"--a grating phrase, perhaps, as thought my father, who, as a veteran of the Normandy Invasion (D-Day plus 2), was a charter member--is also "the worst generation."  The filmmaker explaineth:
   
MJ: The film's tagline is "In extraordinary times there are no ordinary lives." What do you think about the whole idea of "the greatest generation"?

KB: I think "the greatest generation" becomes part of the calcification of the Second World War. I mean [Tom] Brokaw did an amazing thing with his book. He got these reticent people who had never spoken to speak. He should be given a medal for that. But I think to the extent that it perpetuates this notion of the greatest, it is also the worst generation. They slaughtered 60 million people.

    Who are "they"? I mean, since when do Hitler and Stalin and Tojo qualify as greatest  generation members? Oh, I get it. In Burnsworld, dead is dead, and carnage in the service of the self-preservation of the good guys is just as bad as carnage in service of the genocide and tyranny of the bad guys. Somehow, I don't think I'm going to like this Ken Burns "event." (Nothing new about that.)

MJ: Did you feel like you were going up against the History Channel and other popular portrayals of World War II?

KB: Well, no. I'm disappointed by them. I think that we deserve, and more important, we need a much more complicated history.

    Oh, brother.