From "Why We Fight" to "Nothing Is Worth Fighting For"

 

During World War II, the United States sponsored and produced a series of seven movies titled "Why We Fight".  Originally intended for US soldiers, President Roosevelt ordered their release to the general public as well.  They were propaganda, yes, but they tried hard to be objective in presenting reasons why the USA was in the war and why it was essential that US values triumphed, rather than be defeated by the forces of totalitarianism.  All seven films have been preserved, and are available from the National Archives or on YouTube.

The thing is, those films were made for a nation united behind its leaders and their stated war goals.  People were patriotic.  They were prepared to fight, prepared to make sacrifices in the name of ultimate victory.  In the extreme, they were prepared to die for what they believed in.

Nowadays?  Not so much.

The American military is having trouble finding new recruits these days. The problem isn’t just that young Americans have more lucrative options and serious health and legal issues—it’s also that they have a fundamentally different view of the country and military service than in ages past.

. . .

It’s all a matter of perspective. Justice is artificial and conditioned by subjective bias. In this view, patriotism is a form of affection experienced only by the unenlightened who do not understand their love of country is a hollow extension of historic chance itself. The proper response to this chance isn’t patriotic zeal but relativistic acceptance. This is how they arrived at the conclusion there is never a “right side” in a war, never a “higher” moral precept, never a reason to die for a political cause. Among progressive activists today, many of whom are young Americans in their 20s, only 9% say that their American identity is “very important” to them; compare this to the US average of 48% and the whopping 92% for devoted conservatives.

It would be foolish to assume this trend is not somehow connected to the fact that the American military is now experiencing severe shortfalls in meeting its recruitment goals, shortfalls that haven’t been this severe in half a century. To be fair, there are also significant structural reasons including COVID and the attractiveness of the current job market.

But dig a little deeper and the reasons for paltry recruitment numbers are utterly deflating, symptomatic of a generation whose lifestyle and values do not bode well for the country’s future success, much less its security. Only a small percentage of young Americans today can meet these two qualifications: being physically fit and having no disqualifying criminal record.

One in four meet the qualifications. A staggering 75% aren’t able to serve in the American military because of high levels of youth obesity, drug use, and inadequate education. But buried inside this reality is a disturbing trend that speaks to the perspective so many young Americans now possess, a perspective voiced by my students just a few years ago that is now becoming more mainstream: in just the past few years the number of young Americans willing to serve has dropped from 13% to 9%. That is a 31% change and reveals not just a health crisis with the presence of a pandemic and frustration about perceived failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, but a generational pivot in the way they look at the country and the nobility of defending it.

It is a bit reductive and hysterical to merely conclude young people have been taught by their teachers to hate the country and despise our history. While that attitude is certainly more present and powerful than it was a generation ago, my argument is that it is symptomatic not of national self-loathing, but naive individualism.

. . .

We should not be alarmed if declining enrollments are a symptom of a booming economy. But we should be concerned if it is tied to a fashionable disdain of the nation and to a fundamental misunderstanding of the work the American military does in the world.

There's more at the link.

Part of this is, to be sure, our own fault as a society in general.  Too few of us have tried to inculcate in our children a fundamental patriotism, a commitment and a loyalty to our country.  It became unfashionable, almost primitive, to think and speak in those terms.  That's partly because of a blind patriotism that refuses to acknowledge faults and failings, something that was evident in much of the older generation during the Vietnam War and afterwards.  The younger generation, that was actually doing the dying there, rejected that.  However, there was no immediately apparent fix for the problem - and nobody tried very hard to find one, at least not then.

However, it's also uncomfortably true that we've allowed our young people to become indoctrinated by community organizers, university professors, politicians and rabble-rousers.  Too many of them have been taught to believe that "America was never great".  For example:

This, from a disgraced Governor who was forced to resign in the face of overwhelming evidence of malfeasance.

In the name of free speech, we've allowed such views to be propagated and popularized - but we've done little or nothing to counteract them by propagating and popularizing alternative views, ones that are more faithful to our Founding Fathers and their vision for this country.  It's an ancient truism that "The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing".  I suggest the truth of that aphorism is demonstrated by the sea-change visible in our young people's reaction to patriotism and service (military or otherwise).

An equal part of the problem, I suggest, is the 1960's counter-culture.  The mantra of that era was "If it feels good, do it".  That's very different from President Kennedy's call at the beginning of that era:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Fundamentally, essentially, Kennedy's call was to serve, rather than be served.  Today, that's a joke among most of our young people.  Therein lies a great deal of the problem.  We haven't raised our young people to serve;  instead, we've told them that they can be anything, do anything, without putting in any effort first.  They got prizes at school for simply being there, for existing, rather than for achieving.  They've been brainwashed that they can have others serve them without first having to serve others, without having to learn what it means to put others ahead of oneself.  The parents born and raised in the "If it feels good, do it" generation have all too often put that principle into practice in raising their children, and their children have done likewise in their turn.  The results, we see before us.

Ironically, even those most opposed to all that America stands for have been suckered into the same corruption.  Can anyone forget Black Lives Matter and the millions it raised from gullible, panicked, liberal businesses?  How much good did that do for the people it was meant to benefit, versus buying luxurious residences for Patrisse Cullors, one of the top leaders of BLM?  It's become a standing joke that the movement's initials actually stand for "Buy Large Mansions".  How many other leaders of BLM and movements like it have become rich (or, at least, better off) through the funds raised by and for their groups?  Inquiring minds would love to know...

With leaders like that, and examples like Andrew Cuomo, and educators who are out to brainwash them into compliance with extremism, and parents who all too often abandon them to such influences rather than trying to "bring them up in the way they should go", it's no wonder that our young people have lost their roots and their way.  It's no wonder that they don't see service in general, let alone military service, as an obligation to be taken seriously.  They've been served all their lives, in many cases without deserving it;  and they've never been asked to return service for service.

And, in the end result, that's why the US military can't find enough people ready, willing and able to satisfy its recruitment needs.  Its recruitment techniques and approach are set up for a society that no longer exists.

Peter