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As the First Anniversary approaches, we are frequently reminded that America had been a frivolous and hedonistic society before Sept. 11, 2001, but now we're concerned about serious things.
Granted, President Bush appears to have succumbed to
some public pressure to follow the Constitution he swore to
preserve and protect, since he now says he will get
congressional consent before commencing military action to
force regime change
in Iraq.
That's serious business, and people are paying attention to it; just about everyone I've encountered in the past fortnight wants to talk about it. We don't appear to be in the mood for a big war in Mesopotamia without a clear explanation of why we should worry more about Saddam Hussein than, say, drought or wildfires.
But on the other hand, we still have Las Vegas, NASCAR, MTV and the World Wrestling Federation, all apparently thriving, so it's hard to say that we've totally forsworn folly in favor of civic virtue.
Nonetheless, there is a long-standing belief that war improves the national character. Consider this editorial from another newspaper:
We do not believe there can be a man, however much he
may deplore and deprecate war, who does not thank God that
he has lived to see this day. With all its terrors it has
been a glorious one. The country had slept under a long,
unbroken peace until the blood in its veins was well nigh
stagnant. The body politic had grown corrupt, yea rotten.
Public virtue was only seen to be sneered at.
The individual was absorbed in the pursuit of selfish
aggrandisement, and the national heart that throbbed, young
and vigorous, had grown torpid and callous.... Almost in a
day, national virtue, courage, character have seemed to be
born.... The spectacle is the sublimest that the century
has witnessed. Patriotism, all but an obsolete word before,
has a meaning now. The national flag which hung, an idle
piece of bunting, in the time of peace, has been
reconsecrated in the breath of war, and is again a holy
thing.... What jealous alien may scoff at the sordidness,
the selfishness and lack of earnestness in the national
character?
As you might have guessed from the florid prose, this piece is not current, even if its sentiments are in current circulation. It was published in the Buffalo, N.Y., Courier as the Civil War was starting on April 27, 1861.
The problem with this view, as any decent history of the
Civil War will demonstrate, is that while there was
certainly an outpouring of patriotic enlistment on both
sides, especially at first when one noble Reb could easily
dispatch a dozen mudsill Yankees or a simple two-week
campaign would capture Richmond, the pursuit of selfish
aggrandisement
did not vanish when the cannons began to
roar.
Instead, the word shoddy
moved into common
circulation, to describe some of the goods sold by
contractors to the War Department: shoes that fell apart on
the first march, muskets that did not fire, coats that
melted in the rain, glue-factory horses barely able to
walk. Meanwhile, northern cotton-mill owners traded with
the enemy, draft exemptions were bought and sold, and
speculators at the New York Gold Exchange hoped for Union
defeats.
On the nether side of the Mason-Dixon line, patriotic blockade-runners brought in vital war supplies -- sometimes. There was more money in hauling perfumes and finery, which filled their holds to such an extent that the Confederate government felt compelled to regulate the ships.
In other words, the sordidness, the selfishness and
lack of earnestness
did not vanish from the national
character.
And if it didn't happen then, why do so many
people expect it to happen now?
Perhaps it's because many people remember a feeling of unity resulting from shared sacrifice from World War II.
But this administration does not ration gasoline to save it for the war effort; it seems more willing to go to war so that gasoline supplies remain abundant and cheap.
Nor does this administration raise taxes to help finance the war; instead it cuts taxes even as the government starts running at a deficit again.
Indeed, the only current wartime sacrifice that comes to
mind is our liberty. This administration does claim the
right to declare anyone an enemy combatant
without
any procedural safeguards, and the President keeps
threatening to veto any Homeland Security bill that has
normal restrictions on how he might assign its employee. In
other words, he appears to want a security force that could
be deployed as a private presidential army, with no Civil
Service protection for whistle-blowers or the like.
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