Saturday, April 3, 2010

Big Brother

Maybe it's unrelated but I'm reflecting on the last ten years, nearly 9 of which have been in the hysteria after 9/11 and the main thing that jumps out is not the war or the sacrifices of the military but rather the explosion of technology and access to information. Veterans need not be surprised when their service goes unrecognized by the younger generation. We were too busy downloading pirated mp3 files. I wonder if the government is making a mistake by sheltering the population from the violence of war. I really wonder. I want to compare it to the filthy rich father who does everything to make sure his son doesn't have to work, and then wonders how he got spoiled. It's a double edged sword because there are folks still alive who remember the bleak depression and WWII rationing. "Never again" they said, but look what they accomplished because of that hardship. And I mean just your average person in 1948 was so motivated. Hell, baseball players, hall of fame baseball players routinely served 4 years in the military. New York would come to stand still if $100 million man, Alex Rodriguez so much as directed traffic on a busy day in Times Square. I think it's understood that we're rotting from the inside out but still the company line is that soldiers die to keep us free. That kind of simplification doesn't cut it for me. Soldier's are dying. And we are free. I'm not sure the two are related. Furthermore, I'm not sure that's the best solution. Maybe I'd change my opinion with a fat check in my wallet.
Creative Commons License
Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.