07-08-2013, 12:14 AM
BjornF16 Wrote:Sounds like you are advocating stopping complacency...I agree.
I'd like to see the apathy go away! We have too many people who don't care what happens with anyone else, only what happens in their world.
That attitude is hard to overcome unless you become involved with others through service. Its why Boy Scouts have Eagle Projects, Mormons send their young men and women on missions, we used to have a draft, and why I still believe that service for young people is what gets them to understand their place and the requirements for being adults. The WWII generation was the "Greatest Generation" because they saw so many sacrifices and because they sacrificed so much for others.
We haven't had that common experience as a nation since, and we are lessened by it.
A good friend who served in both Gulf Wars and recently retired put it best when he said to me, "America didn't go to war in the Gulf, the military went to war, and most Americans went to the mall."
I understood that, and though he wasn't disparaging me or other non-combatants, he was pointing out that we don't have a common ground as a people.
I keep hoping we will find it, but becoming more and more discouraged that we won't.
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt