Are we a nation full of hypocrites when it comes to war?
on March 20th, 2007 at 11:16 amRecently, millions of Americans like any other weekend decided to escape the hustle and bustle of real life to go see the movie “300“. Like past movies like Braveheart and Gladiator, the central themes of this latest pic are loyalty and honor AT ANY COST. And as expected, 300 smashed the record for a movie release in March.
Unfortunately the world outside of the theater is much different that the qualities we admire in our films. While many of us regardless of political persuasion rush to our televisions every week to cheer on Jack Bauer of 24 as he stomps on every strip of legal red tape that is thrown his way in order to protect the country he loves, in the real world people like him would be depicted as a bloodthirsty warmonger who is in desperate need of sensitivity training.
While thousands of “peace-loving” people took to the streets this weekend here in America to convince the world that we real Americans are against aggression, this “mature” approach on handling conflict seems to get lost with every Rambo-type film we Americans rush to see. Funny how this moral high ground is pitched to the side like a worn-out protest sign when the main character of our favorite film resorts to indiscriminate violence to save the day.
The hypocrisy of fantasizing the use of any and all means to rid the innocent of oppression while speaking out against such actions in the real world at the expense of the morale of our own soldiers speaks volumes to the victims we claim to represent.
Perhaps Steve Urkel would accurately portray our idea action hero.
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