My father-in-law passed away a few years ago. At the end of his life, he reflected back often as older people are want to do. He mentioned from time to time that the best time of his life, the time he was most proud of, was his military service during World War II.
He is not the only man of his generation who feels that way. In fact, I would almost say that it is a common sentiment among those men who served in the American armed forces during that war. Many lived to a ripe old age, accomplished many things in life, and yet, at the end, those years of misery and danger are the most precious.
There is a life lesson in this. What is it that makes these years so valuable that they surpass all of the many years that follow? We don't assume that the majority of their years have been wasted.
Rather, I think that military service during World War II gave these soldiers two things that are at times difficult to come by outside of the extraordinary circumstances of war. These two things are the following:
Being part of a noble cause that is larger than yourself. This was true during that war. It is hard to imagine these days, or indeed in the last 40 years of American history, but World War II was in general fought for noble reasons that most people agreed upon. The shock of Pearl Harbor didn't simply translate into a desire for revenge but ignited a passion for freedom of the entire world, not just the United States.
Many gave their lives during that conflict. Those sacrifices were inevitable, for sure, but they did something that President Lincoln expressed better than anyone I know in his Gettysburg address:
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Indeed, those who gave their lives during World War II increased the resolve of all who remained.
And this is the second reason why so many veterans of that war remember it as the best time of their lives.
They put their lives on the line. Without immense risk the war would never have been so important to them. The risk transformed an ideal into a cause, perhaps the highest cause anyone has ever conceived: Freedom.
But,
The history of the United States since the Good War, as it was known, is almost tragic. A time of great prosperity and world power created an economic engine the world had never known. And with all that economic power at its disposal, great people had to think about the possibilities that such an economy might provide.
President Eisenhower's chief economic advisor, Victor Lebow, stated that
"Our enormously productive economy... demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption... We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."
Indeed, after the sacrifice of many American lives and the development of the largest economy in the world, so shortly after the cause for freedom had been won, Lebow stated the purpose for this new economy succinctly:
"The American economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods."
Producing consumer goods! Not, education, health care for everybody, sustainability. No. Consumption
In the space of a decade, freedom had been reduced to consumption, and the ideals of a nation had been translated into a wish for choice in the shopping malls.
We have become very cynical in the intervening years. In particular when President Bush urged us, after 9/11 and after the beginning of the second Gulf War to go shopping. How many times have we gone to the store since then and joked with friends and even by-standers that we were doing our best for the country.
We need to understand that this force to keep consuming has had other effects. In order for us to keep buying new things, we need to believe that we in fact need those new things. The best way to tell people to buy new things is to give them one simple message:
You suck!
Yes, you suck if you don't sport that latest model iPod
You suck if you are not skinny as a vegan yoga practitioner, or have the behind of Brad Pitt in that awful movie Troy, which we say anyway. You suck if you don't have the latest all-clad dual core copper anodized skillet.
Three thousand times a day do we receive a message that tells us: You suck.
What I want to highlight here is that not only is our highest purpose no longer freedom but consumption, the ability of each and every one of us to make a terrific contribution to the world is seriously undermined. Who will give a Gettysburg address about the contribution of american consumers to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the shoppers who made the capture of Osama bin Laden possible, or those bought new shoes at the urging of our President? What is all this dedicated to and what devotion do we lift up by eating more?
At the end of our days, what will we say about our lives? At least I matched by belt and my shoes? I was the founder of an American idol fan club? Macy's was my best friend?
Or will we think back fondly at all the hours spent at work, stuck in meetings, and sucked back into shopping?
A noble cause, greater than ourselves for which the sacrifices of many create the devotion of all us. That is what we will think about.
There are more ways to sacrifice than by giving your lives. But ask yourself how meaningful that 20 dollar donation to Greenpeace was. Yes, all small contributions matter to Greenpeace. But I am asking: did it matter to you? How about a donation when you don't know if you have it to give?
So what if you are tired from work, you go and volunteer anyway.
You find a way to belong to something that is larger than yourself, and you contribute to the point that it hurts. Than you will resist the message that you suck much better and I guarantee that you will look back on your life with justified awe and wonder.
It is no wonder that World War II remains the most important part of so many men's lives. It is the last time they were asked to be part of a noble cause and put themselves on the line for it. In the 40's, it was what you did. Today, to make such a sacrifice is an act of resistance.
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