The Kindness of Strangers

This rant is about heroism.

In case you are wondering what got the bee in my bonnet on the below posts, well it was a Catholic back to the land and simplicity website. I usually don't agree with them, but I love their anti materialism approach that counters the "God loves you, and if you follow our rules (and buy our book for 12.95) you will be successful" Christianity that I have to live with.

So anyway, I ran across a post saying:

The book, The Last True Story I Will Ever Tell, is by one John Crawford, a young man who joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition and ended up in an extended tour of war-torn Iraq. The book is a heartbreaker, but not in the way that I had expected.

Mr. Crawford and most of his compatriots in fact sound like a bunch of louts: vulgar, contemptuous of the Iraqi people and their culture, an obscene caricature of the worst aspects of America in its decline...

I suppose some would commend him for the naked honesty he exhibits in telling his sordid tales, but I see no virtue in this: nowhere does Mr Crawford show any sign of awareness that anyone might find his self-portrait repulsive.

Well, first of all, he didn't join the NG to find tuition...he spent three years in the military, and usually you have to do some years afterward in either reserve or NG components to fulfill your enlistment. And he wasn't merely "military". He was airborne, which is voluntary.

Second, books are written to sell...so one suspects his was skewered to fill the niche for nihilistic anti war book of louts (which is why he was on NPR and Jon Stewart instead of Chief Wiggles...). so rather than "awareness that anyone might find (it) repulsive...I suggest that his editor suggested to the author to write it that way to sell books.

third: "the worst aspects of America in it's decline"?

You know, I'm a grandmother...And MY mother reports that HER grandmother used to call Benny Goodman "katzemusik" and say it was of the devil and all the young folks who danced to that vulgar music were going to hell.

I hope John Crawford- like certain other modern memoirists- is embellishing his story. And I hope he and his soldier buddies are an aberration. But given the crudeness of American culture- especially American youth culture- this is probably a naive hope.If even a sizeable minority of our troops are behaving in the manner that Mr Crawford describes it is evident to me that Al Queda need not recruit in Iraq: the Americans are doing a fine job on their own.

Ah, now we come to the crux of it. It's about Evilbushy...When you have "Bushderangementsyndrome" TM no soldier can be noble, the ordinary frustrations of war (did the author ever read MASH or Catch 22?) are due to the evil Neocons...

But what about the "crudeness of American youth culture"?

Well, I suspect he is not talking about the kids in his local church group, but what he see on MTV. THIS culture is not a culture of American youth, it is the culture of corporations.
They see the crude, the nihilistic, the debasing, and they try to sell it.
So we have rap, an enthusiastic poetry, selling murder, and hip hop, exuberance in life and dance, selling misgyny...

YES FINALLY, something I agree with the writer...

You see, the music don't have to be evil. The gatekeepers could either find less controversial artists to mold and give contracts to, or if the artists are truly obscene, do what they are supposed to do: Editing is NOT censoring.

You know, most youth don't listen to the lyrics, and a large percentage of music sold is Christian pop music...but never mind...

So, if you want to condemn "evil youth culture as promoted by middle aged rich entertainment industry run by conglomerates", I will agree wholeheartedly with you.

You want to condemn "youth culture", meaning youth and their music and their way of understating their good deeds and heroism by using vulgarity, humor, and irony, then no, I don't agree.
Take the book discussed: there is a part where he describes how he saved the life of an Iraqi boy...(from the Amazon review)...

Crawford cared little for the mission and less for the Iraqis. "Mostly we were guarding gas stations and running patrols," he explains. As for Iraqi civilians, "I didn't give a shit what happened to any of them," he confesses after inadvertently saving an Iraqi boy from a mob beating. "

Right. Now what does that remind me of?

"Man!" cried Pippin, .."Man! Indeed not. I am a hobbit, and no more valiant than I am a man, save perhaps now and again by necessity."...
"Many a doer of great deeds might say no more" said Ingold...


So perhaps the problem is not the evil lies of the evil neocons, as the writer of the blog suggests, but that we live in a world where heroism is ignored and scorned,..and, alas, we have no Ingold to point out the heroic deed under the humor and vulgarity...

Oh yes.

The link is NOT to the blog..(you can find the link on my regular blog if you want to know whom I'm Fisking)

The link is to the Popular mechanics article on the heroes of Hurricane Katrina...the 100 000 rescuers..the National Guard troops, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the police, the firemen, the dept of fish and wildlife, and a lot of ordinary, vulgar men....you see, We DO have heroism in our midst...