That generation (seems to me) knew better than ours to not worry about what others thought of them if they were sure they were doing the right thing. And they worried VERY MUCH what others thought of them if they were doing the wrong thing.

We came away from knowing them, confused. We somehow gathered (in the observation) that we should not worry about what others thought of us no matter what we were doing. And that if we were really sure we were doing the wrong thing, by dragging more people down with us, it somehow became less wrong.