Memorial Day 09

Some time ago I saw movie on either the History Channel or PBS, I forget which was the life story of Thomas Jefferson. Of his many accomplishments the show centered on his relationship with Sally Henning and made it appear that she was the one true love of his life, which he could never acknowledge. At the end of the show the actor who played Jefferson was asked if he considered Thomas Jefferson as a hypocrite because he said so much about freedom and equality and yet owned slaves. The actor said that Jefferson was not a hypocrite but was the victim of a hypocritical age. At first I thought that was a profound observation until I thought about it. There are those who believe that there can be no real heros and that all men are victims. I personally think this goes back to the most destructive "thinker" of the 20th Century, BF Skinner. In a nutshell he believed that freedom and freewill were illusions and that everything you do and every choice you make are predetermined by things beyond your control.

There was a book I read some 20 years ago called The Myth of Male Power and at first I found the book profound but as I read on and on I became disgusted with what I was reading. He correctly pointed out that men do not hold all the reigns of power in this country but in the end he reduced men to simply another group of victims. I remember wondering If everyone's a victim who is the victimizer?

As you watch shows like Oprah (gag) you see a curious thing. The true heros of these people are the victims who have the "courage" to speak out. You see book after book of "I am the victim" because I am this or that and society refuses to recognize my dignity as a human. I can't help but wonder why people would be proud of victimhood; it is handy, and sometimes valid, excuse but it is no source of pride.

What does this have to do with Memorial Day?

A hero is one who sees something far larger and more important than himself and risks, or even sacrifices his life for it. For the victimization crowd this is incomprehensible. Our soldiers who died in battle were the victims of an evil propoganda machine that convinced them to throw away their lives for nothing. They run heros down by proving they were nothing but flawed men, which we always knew and that the hero is an illusion.

All of which leads to this post by the Brilliant, or at least smarter than I am, Gagdad Bob and One Cosmos. He offers a posting that explains why so many do not understand heroes and thus do not understand Memorial Day. I suggest you read this article as I can do no better than he has.

Update: Some time ago I wrote about how WWII affected my mother's family.