On one trip, a certain exhibit that might have been just a curiosity struck me as a significant commentary on the path this nation has taken in its journey with the community of man.
It was an exhibit that reflected some of the popular American culture of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and what caught my eye were clips from the early days of television. Americans viewed themselves in a positive, inspiring way in the post-war years, and the nation manifested itself to the rest of the world in that way through its popular culture. Images of Bing Crosby crooning, of Fred Astaire dancing, of Louis Armstrong singing and trumpeting all projected an image of good will and joyful musing to the world. Young families with happy, respectful kids might have been silly sitcoms, and though they might have been an unrealistic representation of what really happened in American families, they did model an ideal to strive for, a reaffirmation of high standards and values. At least it was possible in those to credibly affirm that sometimes Father really did know best.
The image the nation had of itself and broadcast abroad was of confidence, kindness, joy, and energy, all values that any culture anywhere could celebrate. And the world respected the United States of America.
Some time in the intervening years – some time in the 1960s – American self-image began to morph into an America that doubted its values and its heritage. The popular culture began to develop a crass and coarse tinge to the point where today someone in a foreign land viewing our popular culture would conclude that we are over-sexed, over-fed, and utterly self-absorbed, that we are a people who celebrate violence and self-gratification to the exclusion of any higher calling.
Muslim nations can point to our Christian heritage on the one hand and our exportation of our pornographic obsessions on the other and proclaim to the world that Christianity leads to prostitution of one’s daughters, citing the names of Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, and Madonna as object lessons of the vacuity of western culture.
What an affront we give to the name of Christ!
Within a generation a happy, gregarious, confident culture that captured the imagination of the world became a byword for a self-indulged, grasping, narcissistic people who are more interested in the “I” than the “Thou”.
Several months ago an old World War II veteran with whom I had become acquainted died after a long illness. After he as a teenager enlisted in the military he wrote this poem to explain why he was volunteering to make the sacrifice that he was.
What Price Liberty
A bursting bomb, a whistling shell
Suffering the pangs of a warring hell
To think of home on a hospital bed
Receive word that your son is dead
What price liberty?
A piercing scream, unknown dead
Are you sorry for the things you have said?
Fighting amid friends and foe,
In a land of sunshine, or icy snow
What price liberty?
Love of country, freedom of speech
A land with equality for each
Threatened by a treacherous foe
Who wants to rule and cause us woe
What price liberty?
To lose an arm, a leg, or an eye
To be blown to bits from the sky
A struggle to victory, or the end
To receive injuries that’ll never mend
What price liberty?
The urge to kill, the will to die,
To keep “Old Glory” waving on high
The torn bodies and lives of countless men,
In a world of bitter hatred and sin
What price liberty?
Is it the price of billions, the cost of war?
Or is it the millions of lives or more?
Is it any price so that right will win
A freedom for all? If not this…….then……
What price liberty?
Billy C. Warfel 1943
We have lost what we had to become what we are because we no longer believe in things greater than ourselves.
Billy C. Warfel was my Grandfather and mentor. I still miss him every day.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post.
Nikki
nikkiburgett@yahoo.com