Navel gazing at hippie central
Tom sends us an article from the New York Times written by essayist William Deresiewicz, the latest imbecile to weigh in on the subject of whether the troops qualify as heroes. He calls it the “The new cult of the uniform”;
The term most characteristically employed, when the cult of the uniform is celebrated, is “heroes.” Perhaps no word in public life of late has been more thoroughly debased by overuse. Soldiers are “heroes”; firefighters are “heroes”; police officers are “heroes” — all of them, not the special few who undoubtedly deserve the term. So unthinking has the platitude become that someone referred to national park rangers on public radio recently as “heroes” — reflexively, in passing — presumably since they wear uniforms, as well. Stephen Colbert picked up on this phenomenon long ago, which is why he slyly refers to his viewers — and now, to the donors to his Super PAC — by the same term.
Well, ya know what, compared to the three congressmen who stood on the roof of Saddam Hussein’s palace and declared Hussein to be more trustworthy than our own Republican president, compared to the “human shields” who went to Iraq to protect the people of Iraq from our bombs, but were instead employed willingly to protect Hussein’s war machine, compared to the Code Pink leaders who raised money for the enemy fighting against our troops in Falujah, not to mention Code Pink and union thugs protesting the war as the wounded are brought to Walter Reed on Friday nights, compared to the college students who spit on a wounded veteran outside of the National Archives back in January 2007, compared to all of those examples and countless others, the fricken forest rangers ARE heroes.
Maybe the bar for being counted among “heroes” is so low because the anti-war left have debased themselves so much and disparaged the words “heroes” and “patriotism” to the point that anyone can be a hero or patriot compared to them.
Deresiewicz might have a point if he had examined the entire issue instead of just trying to trivialize the views of one side of the spectrum. Have I mentioned that I hate hippies?
Category: I hate hippies
I read that thing this weekend and couldn’t figure out what his point was. After reading the comments that were left I was left just shaking my head. Sure is a lot of leftie hate for the military in this country. I wanted to write my own little post about it, but like I said it was just rambling and incoherent. So the guy doesn’t see heroes, fine it probably squares with his moral relativism argument that he doesn’t see villains either.
BTW my first clue came in the picture that accompanied the story. Straight out of one of the numerous phony soldier posts over here.
I think I sort of understood his point, but could we possibly get a more jacked up photo to accompany the OpEd?
Every American who dons a uniform should be recognized for that act of service, but I do think the term hero is overused. The military has it’s share of dirtbag oxygen thieves too. If every person in service is a hero….what do you call those who go above and beyond the call of duty?
Sergeant.
That’s exactly the point, Grunt…moral relativism. No heroes, ergo no villians. It’s a pathetic justification of their own behavior. Tell me, does the average civilian run INTO a burning building? Or towards the sound of gunfire?
I have been out of the military for a very long time, but don’t remember ever seeing Corporal brass on Lapels of an AG-44 jacket. Is that SOP?
“Is that SOP?”
I find nothing on that jacket SOP.
Someone who has never seen a hero has never needed one.
PN – awesome! May I steal that line for later use?
Absolutely, DaveO!
I don’t like leftists or hippies in general, but I have a certain amount of agreement for what he says, if I decrypted it correctly. We who serve or who have served are not automatically heroes, in the way I understand the word. I am not. The guys who wear Navy Crosses, and Silver Stars, and such awards for valor, they to me are heroes, who truly distinguished themselves from the rest of us who simply did or do our duty as best we can. Just doing your job, no matter how hazardous, does not make you a hero.
Part of the problem, I think, is we’ve let Hollywood define the term “hero” for us. Their profile of a hero, off of a movie screen, would generally qualify for “homicidal sociopathic maniac” in real life. It has nothing to do with reality. The real heroes I’ve met had a couple of personality traits in common that you don’t see in the movies: they were quiet, meticulous in their knowledge, and really cared about others. They gave 110% at everything they did, not just in emergencies.
I doubt there is anyone who posts here who hasn’t known someone like that. The question would be: were these folks YOU thought of as heroes?
#1 “I read that thing this weekend and couldn’t figure out what his point was.”… “I wanted to write my own little post about it, but like I said it was just rambling and incoherent.” These two sentences encapsulated my exact thinking.You would have to go paragraph by paragraph.
I have to say I think his thesis is correct, that “hero” has been debased, but then again so has “veteran” or “combat”.
His comment about the generals not getting blamed for shortcomings. Yes there is a deference there, but it is not absolute. Also much less then before. Remember the likes of Sanchez(failer), Casey(guessed wrong strategy and failed), Pace, Franks, & Abizaid(poor supervisors), Odierno(failed & redeemed), and McKiernan(sacked for who the hell knows why). Thats just a few flag officers, nevermind Colonels and below. I haven’t even mentioned some of the great successes either.
This entire post reads like a lament. A lament of a man who knows that the only way the nation can rejuvante itself, is with the very values he despises, though he loaths to admit this. A society with martial spirit, honor, and, pride has hope and a will to survive. He’d ather the country decline, then confess to his error.
Look, the left hasn’t changed since the 60’s and 70’s when they did the same shit to the Viet Vets. By the way, most of the left’s heroe’s also wear a uniform, ie: Che, Castro, Ho Che Minh, now Chavez. Seems to me he was doing more crying over the right’s idea of what a hero is, because nobody cares for the left’s idea of what a hero is.
I have stayed away from this, because I wanted to think about this one for a while. This isn’t the first time someone has brought this subject up. Let’s see if there are other words that have been debased from over-use:
Racist: This one gets thrown around so much you need a program to figure out what is and isn’t racist anymore.
war monger: Yeah, if you’re not a smelly hippie anti-war type, you’re a war monger.
illegal war: This is perplexing, because I don’t know where they get the idea that there are laws against war of any kind. Or, do we have to have the blessing of the UN in order to carry out an attack? BTW good luck getting that since China and Russia have veto power.
sustainable: this one really annoys me, since the people that keep spewing it out of their pieholes don’t even know what the hell it means, but some greenies used it in an ad and now everything has to pass their idea of “sustainable” in order to be worthy. Well, kids, our economy is not “sustainable” with all this spending.
That should do it for now. If anyone wants to add to the list, feel free.
I know this thread is old, but I wanted to say that I agree with Old Trooper. The word ‘hero’ has become just one more buzz-word in a long list of politically correct words and phrases that the media and the politicieans find fashionable. Say a word or phrase from this ‘good list’ and you are a good person. Say a word or phrase from the ‘bad list’ on the other hand, and you are a monster. All of this BS really shows how broken our society has become.