Blind followership
I happened across this column by Mark Shields today on CNN, dealing with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. Mr. Shields makes some good points, many of which I agree with, but I believe he (like many, especially on the "right") misses a large chunk of forest whilst looking at the trees.
Mr. Shields laments the change in attitude of America, primarily from the generation that saw us through WWII to the current predominant generation.
On this Memorial Day, even as we pay all the appropriate tributes to those now serving and those who have served, we are forced to confront a profoundly changed reality about ourselves: McCain‘s America, the culture of heroism and sacrifice, is in full retreat.
Our institutions that demanded and that honored sacrifice -- the military draft, the church and traditional morality, to name a few -- have been either discredited or dismantled.
And he has a target on which to pin the blame for the loss of said institutions.
Here is Whitehead‘s analysis: "Over the past generation or so, liberals in America have ‘deregulated‘ the nation‘s culture while conservatives have been busy ‘deregulating‘ the nation‘s economy."
The result, the product of an almost implicit libertarian agreement between liberals and conservatives, is a non-aggression pact: I won‘t meddle too much with your lifestyle if you don‘t meddle with my free market. (Obviously the current social-issues war over federal judges risks shattering that compact.)
What has emerged, if we are candid, is an American society and culture where individual autonomy and self-expression are revered, where the individual‘s pre-eminent obligation is to himself and where the uninterrupted, private pursuit of wealth qualifies as a contribution to the common good. There is little room in this equation for sacrifice.
Once again, us dirty liberals are to blame for the "desecration" of good American values.
Sorry, I call bullshit on that one.
My personal belief is that you cannot engender loyalty to a nation through things that must be forced or legislated...like a military draft. There are those that think forced military service builds a culture of selfless loyalty and patriotism, and I suppose in those who don‘t really engage the gray matter all that much they might...but if you really think about it, loyalty comes from within. It‘s not something that is drummed into you by pledges or oaths or flags or colors...the recent debates over the Pledge of Alliegence (or, in the Navy, the reciting of the Sailor‘s Creed) just ring through as silly to me. If I‘m not loyal or patriotic, if I don‘t believe the words I‘m saying, then mouthing them is rather a moot point; likewise, if I do really believe those ideals, my actions will speak far louder than my words ever will.
Same goes for the feelings of selfless service, the issues of morality, heroism, and willingness to sacrifice. No draft, recitation of a pledge, or amount of attendance at church is going to really change who most people are or what they will (or will not) do in a given situation. And blaming increased freedom for a lack of a sacrificing attitude or erosion of the ideals of service, sacrifice, or loss of morality is rather asinine. That is what liberalism is all about...more liberty and freedom, less interference in our lives by the government. Funny, that was what the Founding Fathers seemed to have in mind when they drafted up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
When it‘s all over and done with, actions speak louder than words; and you can‘t instill in someone (or force down someone‘s throat) what simply isn‘t there. The best way to engender loyalty to (and willingness to sacrifice for) a nation is for that nation to uphold it‘s ideals and do right by it‘s people. That our nation is losing that loyalty and that people are not willing to go out of their way for the country anymore shows that the nation is no longer looking out for the best interests of the people. The "representatives" in our representative democracy serve their own interest, not that of the people; our leader, our head of state, serves his own agenda and that of an extremist faction of the nation rather than the interests of the people. The war we are in is not one centered on the defense of our nation and way of life, but rather one of misguided intelligence and stubborn clinging to something that simply isn‘t there (i.e., the "threat" Iraq never really posed to us). We‘ve watched our nation‘s leaders send over 1,600 servicemen to their deaths over political self-interest and outright falsehoods, and we‘ve watched the rich (politicians) give the sweet deals on taxes to the rich at the expense of the nation‘s fiscal well being and (coming soon) the solvency of the Social Security system for our middle and lower classes. And we now see the "right" grabbing for more power to legislate their moral views on the rest of us.
And people wonder why there is so little of what us sailors call the "give-a-shit factor". Small wonder...who is really going to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of a nation that only serves it‘s own leaders interests and the interests of those wealthy enough to fill the campaign coffers?
For all their self-serving rhetoric, the current crop of Republicans are the ones who are the first to cut fiscal corners by hacking away at the benefits of veterans. For all their "pro-military" talk, it was the eight years of the Clinton Administration that saw the military finally get close to being on par with the civilian sector for pay. And for being so "pro-military", our current chief executive seems rather cavalier with military lives.
Yes, Memorial Day is a day to remember the sacrifice of those who made it possible for us to be where we are today. But the best way to memorialize their sacrifice is to make this nation one worth sacrificing for. The road our current leadership has us on is one that is making us less free, less secure, and less of the nation of great ideals than we were in the mid 20th century...is it a surprise that the attitudes have followed the example from on high?
Oaths, pledges, symbols...taken on their own they are all meaningless. And what gives them meaning is there not because of the oaths, pledges, and symbols...the oaths, pledges, and symbols are there because of the sentiment, the underlying loyalty and dedication of those who believe in what they stand for. And that is what really matters.
