The War of Complacency
I was watching this show on The History Channel today about the 60s and 70s, the hippy movement and it’s impact on culture and the nation and the music of that generation including Woodstock. It just got me thinking. I look back at that time and think there was so much passion in the nation. People with strong convictions and struggling for some greater purpose.
It makes me sick when I think about the nation today. We are so complacent and blinded to anything that might actually be important. We seem to be living for nothing but ourselves. The ideals of this country have morphed into something disgusting. Especially our attitudes towards war.
We fought against being forced to go to war for a country that we weren’t even legally allowed to vote in. Once that changed and the service became voluntary, we sit back and bask in our egotistic world where we bitch about the nation yet don’t acknowledge or even respect those people who are giving their lives willingly so we have the ability to bitch at all. The least we can do is get up off our couches and do something with the life and freedoms they are giving us to improve this nation and world.
This country just blows my mind sometimes. Our attitudes have gone from support to apathy to down right denial.
WWI - “We’re at war. We stand behind our fathers, sons, and brothers”
WWII - “We’re at war. Go America! We will make it better.”
Vietnam - “We’re at war and this is how I feel about it”
Desert Storm - “We’re at war… *shrug * Ok.”
War in Iraq - “It’s not MY war.”
When you think about 1967 you remember chaos and people fighting to be heard. It was such an incredible time to be alive in our nation. Peace, love, and freedom were clashing and the sound of it was deafening. People were marching to protests and people were marching to war.
When we think back on 2007, what are we going to remember? That Paris Hilton went to jail.
That is disgusting. We are pathetic.