Pride

Just because someone is in the military, we are supposed to be proud of them. We're supposed to thank them for serving our country and making the world a better place. It's part national pride, part indebtedness. And it's hooey.

People point to the decadence of our society (by that I mean the society of the United States, for those of our readers living in places other) by saying that people take the sacrifices of our soldiers for granted. They say we don't make sacrifices of our own to deserve our soldiers, even to the point where we don't seem to care about them and what they're doing. We're decadent because we don't feel enough pride in our armed forces.

I can't write this article because it's too hard. No one listens. I'm not proud of people killing each other. I'm not proud of going to war, whether or not it was avoidable, whether or not it was justified. I'm not proud of soldiers who do what they signed up to do. They weren't drafted. I'm not proud that our nation seems to be bound and determined to believe that the only thing worth admiring is the military. I'm not proud of any of it.

I'm proud to be an American, not because it's the thing to say, or because it fights terrorism. I'm proud to be an American because I can say this type of thing and not be arrested. I can express thoughts which might not mesh with many other people's views and not be thrown in prison. And until I stop having that right, I'm going to continue to say the things I believe, even if no one listens.

I'm proud, I guess, to live in a country where so many people (including me) can take so many things for granted.

Ah hell, I'm not proud of that. Who would be proud of that?

There's more to pride than approval. There's more to pride than support. We might accept that certain unpleasant things need to be done, but that doesn't make us proud of them. And there's nothing which says that we have to accept them either. There are more ways to sacrifice for your country than to kill for it. Pride is an empty word for most people.

So yes, I guess I'm contributing to the downfall of civilization because I'm not proud of the things "my" soldiers do. I don't care whether people think the things have to be done or not. That doesn't make me proud.