Reflecting on Veterans Day last night, it occurred to me that the two decades following World War 2 were an age of wonders for America, and also the last time our civilian and military cultures were truly in harmony. The ever-growing separation in those cultures cost us dearly.
The 60s counterculture created a vast schism between civilian and military life, ending an amazing generation in which a huge number of veterans returning from WW2 brought military values and discipline into civilian business, education, and cultural institutions.
That era was also a time of assimilation and integration as both immigrants and native-born were swept into the war, and people from different parts of our vast country who might not otherwise have met became brothers in arms. The melting pot was vigorously stirred.
The benefits to civilian society from its close harmony with military culture were so obvious that the Left was no less eager than the Right to take advantage of them. From the age of the World Wars came the Left's tactic of treating its causes as "the moral equivalent of war."
But after the 60s and Vietnam, the military and civilian spheres began to grow apart, becoming increasingly alien and inscrutable to each other. Perhaps this was partly due to a smaller all-volunteer military, giving fewer civilians a direct connection to military life.
Even as the military grew smaller as a share of the civilian population, it grew smaller as a share of the rapidly expanding central government. Americans came to see the military as an increasingly small part of what the government does.
Civilian culture is now wholly divorced from military life, and indeed actively hostile to its values. Triggering, safe spaces, cancel culture, Internet mobs, aimless youth lacking purpose and discipline, the entitlement mentality... all are the antithesis of military thinking.
This is reflected in constant complaints from recruiters for all branches that they have trouble finding enough young people who can pass their tests and meet their standards. We would benefit enormously from educating every child as if they were a potential Marine or Ranger.
Imagine the howls of outrage that would bellow from the educational establishment and the media if President Trump gave a speech suggesting every child should be educated as if they were a Marine recruit. if that speech were given in 1959, the applause would be equally deafening.
When the 60s Left separated military from civilian life, they drained martial virtues from the civilian sphere. This is profoundly unnatural and contrary to human nature. Even the most peaceful people see the value of martial virtues and know war might come looking for them.
Young people instinctively realize something important has been carved out of their culture and education... and they go looking for it in all the wrong places, from gangs and cults to extremist groups. They join the wrong armies because they've been cut off from the right one.
The last remnants of the glory days when military and civilian culture were in harmony are under deliberate attack. Patriotism = nationalism = racism. The Left can't finish the job of redefining our national identity without destroying what's left of military culture.
You can't convince a society with a proper understanding of martial virtues to give up its guns and become helpless before crime. You can't sell the welfare state to soldiers. You can't convince people sworn to defend a nation that its borders don't exist.
And if you're trying to trick civilians into accepting state-run health care, you really, really, REALLY don't want them looking at the VA system and getting to know people who have experience with it. You don't want them learning, as soldiers do, that duty is a two-way street.
We could reverse so many of the problems we face in civilian life if we made a determined effort to recover the martial virtues and bridge the gulf between military service, other branches of government, and the private sector. It's the only effective medicine for what ails us.
We should not just welcome soldiers home from war, but welcome them into peace. They have learned so many lessons that people who will never wear a uniform desperately need to hear. We all knew that, once upon a time. We never should have forgotten. /end
