The argument that I hear often why men are less patriotic today than previous generations is that the wars the West started were morally wrong and they do not want to take part in any of it.

It is an attractive argument in my mind but I also have to say that in many wars governments had to somehow convince its men to take part in an immoral war. How could they pull that off? Is it just propaganda and have we somehow lost the ability to successfully propagandise or did we consciously choose not to use this tool anymore?

For example here in Austria we convinced many men to take part in WWII and the conduct was in many cases horrifying. When talking to older people here many acknowledge that yes, there was rampant Anti-Semitism but many also knew some Jews personally from their community that they felt were decent people.

People here generally knew what was being done to their Jewish neighbours and most of them didn't approve of it but they still went along. Why? The Nazis restored the economy in a way that allowed them to work and put some food on the table of their families after the Germans experienced crippling hyper-inflation.

People had a future again and something to work for, at least they thought so at the time, so they rationalised their evil actions away.

The US empire certainly is not even close to the viciousness of the Soviets or the Nazis, whatever disagreements we all might have with the current foreign policy of Western countries. (and there is a _lot_ that I would criticise about our foreign policy)

So why can't we find volunteers? The Germans knew what was really going on, so did the Soviet people, yet they mostly went along even though what they did was far worse than what the US did.

That's why I believe that this can't be a sufficient explanation. A far better explanation is that there is a trend that vast amounts of people don't see any future for them in this society and the decline in formation of traditional and lasting families is to me an obvious reason.

We can see for example that in almost all Western countries the birth rate is far below the rate necessary to keep population size stable. We also see that single parents are soon to be the norm in Western societies. (which hurts first and foremost the children)

It can't be a good sign if our society can't even produce enough children on its own to sustain itself. And this I believe must have some kind of effect on men and women in our society. (likely negative)

I literally haven't come across a single young person in my life here in the West that believed that they will be able to have a life long stable marriage. I also have never spoken to a young person that believed that they'll be able to retire when they're old. So why participate in anything? Let's just all be hedonists and have a party as long as we can because we can't do anything about it anyways. (that's the kind of mentality I mostly see today)

Edit: Just ask yourself: What would you be willing to do for your country and how hard would you be willing to work if you knew that there is a very high chance that immediately after high school education or college you'll be able to A) afford to buy a home while being able to pay off the debt in 5-10 years and B) if you're able to attract a women you can enter a marriage that will very likely last for the rest of your life? (and not end in divorce and bankruptcy) This is actually the kind of situation our grand parents found themselves in.