Regular readers know that this week I have returned from my current residence in East Asia to my family home in the United States. This post is designed to be a commentary on the current state of affairs of American society, and I apologize in advance if this comes across as another rant.
My father and I traveled through upstate New York last week. As we traveled north towards the state capital, we pulled over at a rest stop where I spotted this sign on display at a Roy Rogers.
Let’s face it: if you wanted to do something—anything—about the fact that young men and women are dying in Iraq at the hands of homicidal Islamists, a little frugality in your daily life to volunteer resources and funds to our troops is the way to go. Failing that, you could support the familes of the troops through church and charity. Yet instead, we’re being told that the way to help our troops is obscene, meaningless consumption. It would be one thing to ignore this behavior, but to justify it with cheap patriotism? You could not if you tried find a better picture to encapsulate what is wrong with the United States today.
“Show them you care” is just one example. Everyday I must see yet another obscenely overweight person roll their fat bottom into the driver’s seat of their new Jeep Cherokee, complete with the magnetic yellow “Support the Troops” ribbon stuck to the rear bumper (and to complete the irony, often with a “Save Wildlife” license plate). What is wrong with this picture? More and more Americans are gourging themselves on consumer goods they do not need, wasting resources in a way that is unhealthy for the people involved and society at large. And then these people try to assuage their guilt with gimics such as “carbon credits,” ribbons and bracelets dedicated to the latest trendy cause, and other public displays of caring that result in no real benefit to solving the real issues at hand.
Most critics of this style of modern American consumerism are leftists. But surely the virtue of stoicism and self control are traditional conservative values. I don’t think any readers are the type of people to be suckered into buying a super-sized soft drink on the grounds that it’s doing our troops a favor, but just in case you get the urge, hear me out: using patriotism to capture your consumer dollar is a cheap gimic that does no benefit to our troops or our country. Show them you care and don’t supersize.
- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
- « The Bleak Future of Energy Consumption
- » Currently Reading
COMMENTS / 13 COMMENTS
ElamBend added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 4:13 amWhat’s worse, shollow support or complete disregard? As offensive as it might seem, at least the magnetic ribbon buyers carry some feeling that they should think about the troops.
Otherwise, I agree. Much of our society pursues a simulcrum of what they profess to be for, paying for indulgences, whether they are ‘carbon credits’ or magnetic yellow stickers. Yet, I feel uncomfortable being the Veblen to call everyone hypocrites and pikers.
P.S. My girlfriend just rolled her eyes and said, “Are you blogging??” Must go, Happy Memorial Day!!
Jeff Medcalf added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 4:19 amI certainly understand being annoyed by the crassness of advertising. But I think that you make an error, too: just because a certain resource (say, the time it took to make, ship and sell the jeep, or the material in it) is not being consumed in the civilian economy does not mean that it is available to the military economy. If we were in a shortage situation somewhere, I’d be right there with you, but in this case, we have an abundance of everything material, and the only thing we’re short of is common sense, discipline and apatriotism.
Never mind; answered my own point.
carpetblogger added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 5:51 amCurzon, why do you hate America? ;)
That’s obnoxious…..
Phil (Pacific Empire) added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 6:25 amExactly the point that Patrick West makes in the brilliant monograph, Conspicuous Compassion. (summary here)
People make pointless displays of caring or “recreational grief” as nothing more than a social signal. Protesting has reached a similar low point as seen in the “Not In Our Name” slogan, which expresses emotional opposition without any real hope for or desire for change.
Curzon added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 12:00 pmThanks all for the comments.
Phil, your poignant point about “Not in our name” is as true as it gets. This post was by no means an endorsement of the self-righteous protests. On a similar note, I find it interesting that this youtube video from the Fog of War that I posted about a year ago has become so popular (links, favorites, comments) with leftist commentators—my point here and there was not anti-establishment but cultural and social commentary.
Gray Hat added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 1:58 pm“. . . a little frugality in your daily life to volunteer resources and funds to our troops is the way to go.”
Well said. A plausible place to direct those resources is the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (www.nmcrs.org)—can you suggest others?
sushil_yadav added these pithy words on 26 May 07 at 5:45 pmCurzon,
People need to show all their caring for “Mother Earth” – not for troops – not for the Military Industrial Complex. You have written about Consumerism in your post. In this context I want to post a part from my article which examines the impact of Speed, Overstimulation, Consumerism and Industrialization on our Minds and Environment. Please read.Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.
Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys emotional circuits.
A fast (large) society cannot feel pain / remorse / empathy.
A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself.
To read the complete article please follow any of these links :
sushil_yadav
Bryan added these pithy words on 27 May 07 at 1:22 amWell said…I’m a little more hostile about the issue. If you really want to help, go volunteer your time and services somewhere, somehow, to something more directly involved with the families and people serving for one example.
Consumerism does virtually nothing to help but, to keep billionaire corporation owners to stay rich ,and they will try any gimmick to get you to buy their wares..
Matt@occidentalism added these pithy words on 28 May 07 at 6:15 amSupporting the troops would be bringing them home. Right now they are dying in a war without a clear objective.
a517dogg added these pithy words on 28 May 07 at 3:10 pmIt’s the American way – make a buck however you can.
Eddie added these pithy words on 28 May 07 at 6:38 pmA fellow conservative started this insanity, when Reagan used Jimmy Carter’s (the great failure) calls for Americans to be realistic and to sacrifice for the common good as cheap political talking points. Carter was wrong about many, many things, but he was right in that Americans must be realistic in their insatiable appetite for most things.
Supporting the troops is just another bankrupt statement that people use to make themselves feel better. The problems at Walter Reed and dilapidated conditions in Army barracks and medical centers were known about for several years before Dana Priest and co. “broke” the story late last year. Few then cared to do anything, and few now care to do something, whether that’s holding failed leaders accountable or ensuring that the men and women in the military have what they need to succeed, from cultural knowledge, language training and adequate comrades in the field.
Its the loss of collective citizenship in this country, people no longer feel a responsibility to the community. Everything wrong in the country, hey that’s somebody else’s problem or somebody else’s chance to fix it.
From a military POV, a “portion”... like what, 10%-20%, a few thousand dollars when all is said and done? What a cheap publicity gimmick based on false patriotism…. We not only make great political backdrops for everyone from Bill Clinton to George Bush, but we’re also excellent marketing opportunities.
snow added these pithy words on 29 May 07 at 4:12 amCurzon, I agree with pretty much everything you say in the post, but at the same time, I think you are conflating two things that aren’t necessarily connected here. It would be better if people supported the troops in ways that are more effective and heartfelt, to be sure, but I think that such gestures as noted above are better than nothing and certainly better than gestures that undercut that support. Such gestures as seen above may seem shallow but that’s how much of American culture sometimes seems. Shallow gestures of support is better than indifference or no support, but I think this is not connected with the idea of overindulgence. That’s another issue altogether. It may seem hypocritical for Americans to overindulge while soldiers are going through hell and dying for us, but a freedom to choose our lifestyle is one of the great things about America. Because we have soldiers who are willing to support the freedom to live life as you want to, with limits of course, the rest of us are able to enjoy that freedom. And because of that, I believe that the rest of us who are not soldiers should support our soldiers even more, because they are putting their lives on the line. The rest of us owe a great debt of gratitude to our soldiers, all the more so, as we have even more freedom because of their sacrifice.
Actaully, I do agree in sacrificing in support of our troops, but I don’t like to see it as a moral issue. I prefer to see it as a freedom issue. Support in any way you can, be seriously grateful for their sacrifice, but live the life that that sacrifice allows (and support the troops for it). Worst of all is when people live however they like, a life of freedom, and yet don’t support the troops at all. To me, that is just disgusting.
Sorry for the rambling mess. Just don’t have much time to edit.
R.Y. added these pithy words on 19 Mar 08 at 11:38 pmGreat shot of that Coca Cola ad. Do you have a high-res version you can e-mail me? Part of my school thesis involves advertising that exploits patriotism. If so, thanks in advance.
R.Y.
SPEAK / ADD YOUR COMMENT
Comments are moderated.
