Paris in the Heart of America
MoveOn.org of Michael Moore fame has created another amazing publicity campaign. Currently, I am attending a seminar at a small liberal arts college in the heart of the United States. Upon entering the library, the academic center of the campus, I noticed a flier entitled, "Are You Feeling a Draft?" with President Bush cariacatured to resemble Uncle Sam. The flier, created by the student wing of MoveOn, details the current military crisis, shortage of manpower, and delivers the tirade against the President for his malfeasance. Fair enough considering libraries and colleges exist to stimulate discussion and debate.
However, its concluding paragraph is most striking: "So unless you like the idea of graduate school in Fallujah, we need to pay careful attention to what our President is saying, versus what it really means." Take a moment to think about what this organization touts in this flier. Regardless of the soldiers and Marines who serve in Iraq think about the political failures or successes of the war, they nonetheless serve under the command of the President. In most cases, these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, of whom an enormous majority do not have the benefit of a college education, volunteer to resign control of their life. The word "service", often uttered with respect given to those willing to perform it, originates from the Latin word, "servare." That Latin word does not mean, "to do something so others don't have to." It means "to save." That definition finds no footing in MoveOn's flier. Instead, MoveOn lauds the cowardice of those privileged enough to pay for education but savvy enough to duck responsibility. MoveOn instills fear in place of honor. MoveOn wants the college elite to question their future. MoveOn rewrites the definition, "you do it so I don't have to."
Let us turn back 3000 years for a m0ment to consider cowardice. Its defintion proves elusive, but its examples abound. In Homer's Iliad, Hektor stands with wife and child as the Greeks besiege his city of Troy. Hektor, cognizant of his impending death, holds his own child aloft and exclaims, "Zeus, and you other immortals, grant that this boy, who is my son, may be as I am, pre-eminent among the Trojans, great in strength, as I am, and rule strongly over Ilion: and some day let them say of him: 'He is better than his father' (6.476-9, translated by Lattimore). Hektor does not flee the way Paris, the cause of the conflict, does in a previous military engagement. Paris, the younger Trojan, favors the pleasures of the bedroom to the duty of the battlefield. He is the quintessential college libertine. Hektor cannot flee from his obligations for in addition to the Trojan citizenry, his son, wife, and reputation as a leader depend upon his courage. Paris has no such obligation.
Any successful, lasting society must instill the value of earning, not granting, privileges. Our society will be "saved" by those who understand it.
However, its concluding paragraph is most striking: "So unless you like the idea of graduate school in Fallujah, we need to pay careful attention to what our President is saying, versus what it really means." Take a moment to think about what this organization touts in this flier. Regardless of the soldiers and Marines who serve in Iraq think about the political failures or successes of the war, they nonetheless serve under the command of the President. In most cases, these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, of whom an enormous majority do not have the benefit of a college education, volunteer to resign control of their life. The word "service", often uttered with respect given to those willing to perform it, originates from the Latin word, "servare." That Latin word does not mean, "to do something so others don't have to." It means "to save." That definition finds no footing in MoveOn's flier. Instead, MoveOn lauds the cowardice of those privileged enough to pay for education but savvy enough to duck responsibility. MoveOn instills fear in place of honor. MoveOn wants the college elite to question their future. MoveOn rewrites the definition, "you do it so I don't have to."
Let us turn back 3000 years for a m0ment to consider cowardice. Its defintion proves elusive, but its examples abound. In Homer's Iliad, Hektor stands with wife and child as the Greeks besiege his city of Troy. Hektor, cognizant of his impending death, holds his own child aloft and exclaims, "Zeus, and you other immortals, grant that this boy, who is my son, may be as I am, pre-eminent among the Trojans, great in strength, as I am, and rule strongly over Ilion: and some day let them say of him: 'He is better than his father' (6.476-9, translated by Lattimore). Hektor does not flee the way Paris, the cause of the conflict, does in a previous military engagement. Paris, the younger Trojan, favors the pleasures of the bedroom to the duty of the battlefield. He is the quintessential college libertine. Hektor cannot flee from his obligations for in addition to the Trojan citizenry, his son, wife, and reputation as a leader depend upon his courage. Paris has no such obligation.
Any successful, lasting society must instill the value of earning, not granting, privileges. Our society will be "saved" by those who understand it.
posted by Henry Plantagenet at 12:14 PM
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