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Orson Scott Card: the Smart People
A small part of a much larger essay. Go read it all.I'm of the generation that was too smart for patriotism. It was called "flag-waving" and it was sneered at. Politicians who invoked it were chauvinists, jingoists, cynical exploiters of trite public sentiment. Then a funny thing happened. Patriotism, the thing that the Smart People all inveighed against, disappeared. Not everywhere -- just among the Smart People. It was a motivation that other people had. Strange people that the Left never actually met. Oh, when you say the Smart People aren't patriotic, they get so angry and righteous! Suddenly they wave the flag and say, "How dare you impugn my patriotism!" As soon as they've silenced their critics, of course, they flush their "patriotism" down the toilet; it's a flimsy garment that, if you get up close, you can easily see through. I have been that close, many times; I have hung out with the Smart People and listened to them talk. I've heard them jeer at patriotism, mock the military, sneer at ordinary Americans who shop in malls and watch television. Their contempt for the Stupid People is so thick and deep that if the target of this hatred were members of a minority group, we'd know them for the bigots they are. They deny it, like Klan members pretending not to know what you're talking about. Meanwhile, the Stupid People who believe in patriotism and volunteer for the military -- they're not a minority, they're the majority. They still have the power to elect presidents and change the makeup of Congress. And since the Smart People try to avoid ever meeting or spending time with any of these Stupid People, the only thing they can do to get control of the parts of the American power structure they don't already own is to lie. The Smart People don't even think they're lying, though. They don't count it as a sin (they don't even believe in sin) to lie to Stupid People. It's sort of the Santa Claus principle. You tell them whatever you need to tell them in order to get them to let you have your way. . . . The biggest lie in this little flap about Limbaugh is not what they say about Limbaugh. It's their pretense that they actually care about American soldiers. They don't care. Give me a break. Most of these Smart People are so filled with bile about the military that when they actually meet a soldier in uniform they are revolted or frightened or angry. Nobody that they know ever enlists in the military. Since patriotism doesn't exist in their social circles, they have to invent other motivations for people to become soldiers. It's like science fiction to them. Soldiers are an alien species. These people must love violence, that's what it is. Or they're such losers they can't think of another career. Or they're bullies. Or simply stupid, so that recruiters can trick them. (And you watch: Some Smart Person would just love to quote that paragraph and claim that it's what I said about American soldiers!) Yet whatever the motivation is, the military keeps filling up with volunteers; hopelessly underpaid, often badly led, whenever they're called upon to do something, they perform ... Superbly. When it's time to destroy an enemy force, they're very good at it. But when it's time to restrain themselves and avoid inflicting harm on the civilian population, no Army in history has ever been better at it than the American Army (with the possible exception of the Israeli Army, but that's not a good example, since the vicious propaganda against U.S. soldiers pales in comparison with the vile slanders heaped on the soldiers of the Jewish nation). The task of the Smart People would be so much easier if our military really were what they claim it to be. But instead our soldiers are smart, courageous, disciplined, resourceful, and creative -- traits that aren't supposed to coexist with "patriotic" and "self-sacrificing." And when they're well led, they run circles around their enemies and, later, compared to other victorious occupying armies, they are astonishingly well liked by their defeated enemies. . . . Posted by: Mike 2007-10-18 |
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