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Food for thought from Tom Gilleece:

Watched two excellent war movies recently. The first was “Rescue Dawn,” starring Christian Bale and directed by Werner Herzog. The second was “Unbroken,” starring Jack O’Connell, co-written by the Coen brothers, and directed by Angelina Jolie.
Both were based on incredible true stories (the former taking place during Vietnam and the latter taking place during World War II) , both were unabashedly pro-American, pro-Christian, and patriotic, and neither film pulled any punches in their brutal portrayal of our enemies, the Viet Cong and the Japanese, respectively. Our soldiers were tortured, beaten, humiliated, starved, and shamed, but, in both cases, remained, as the second title implies, unbroken.

I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised by the positive themes; most Americans at those times - and certainly most soldiers - were still pro-American, pro-Christian, and patriotic.

What really struck me, though, was how in each film, the protagonists face a similar dilemma: denounce your country, publicly or in writing, or face unspeakable torture.

In both cases, they refuse, without any hesitation, and are subsequently brutalized.

Today, men in the same age range routinely denounce our country, publicly and in writing, here and abroad, without any hesitation or coercion. They openly disdain the flag that so many men, men far better than they could ever hope to be, spilled blood, suffered, and died for. They mock the notions of Christianity, masculinity, and patriotism, the true bedrocks of our foundation, holding those with such traditional values in contempt.

Indeed, these pale imitations would likely have to be tortured before saying something positive about their country. (And, to be clear, when I say “tortured” in this case, I mean having their iPhone taken away or being denied their Starbucks macchiato.)

As a nation’s patriotism and heroism goes, so goes the nation.

Sadly, for us and the world, we’re pretty far gone.

Wordmage 8 July 15
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2 comments

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2

It's so much easier to simply denounce what is Right, than to try and live up to it.

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It is us, the baby boomers who wanted the best for our children. We didn't want them to struggle in life and have to wonder where their next meal came from. We wanted them to have a good education, we thought a public education would do so we paid taxes to pay for it. We thought a social safety net would be a good thing and paid taxes for that. Our government mandates and burueacracies grew. Then a single payer healthcare system was said to be a good idea. Most western nations adopted some form of government healthcare, the US got medicare and medicaid and then Obamacare. The generation after our children, Gen X, just carried on getting government to provide more services, more regulations and licensing and to crack down on environmental pollution and waste, because climate change. Millenials and Gen Z followed in our footsteps demanding even more from government. But our public education didn't prepare them for life. Our educators moved them from the playpen to the pasture with behavior modification where they just bleat for what they want.
True, no one is tough today. I don't mean rugged and physically strong. I mean having integrity. Feeling entitled is not a virtue but a vice. Each generation felt more and more entitled. The world owes them a living. Oh, sure they can loot and pillage and burn down half a city in making their demands but the do so because they have no sense of justice or fairness or of right and wrong.
It's there innately but government wishes them to not see what justice, fairness or the difference between right and wrong is. It's for them to judge, people are too stupid and there are far too many of them, in their view. Only socialist politicians know how to handle the problem of stupid people and their burdensome numbers but first the contemporary hierarchy must be destroyed. We will get the stupid people to do that. Then they can get down to brass tacks.

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