In “Everyone’s a Winner,” sociologist Joel Best notes in passing that the inflation of military rank is still very much with us, but his survey of America’s self- congratulatory culture concentrates primarily on contemporary suburban life. Everywhere the author turns his gaze””from bumper stickers that boast about “my kid the honor-roll student” to boosterish “employee of the month” awards ”” Mr. Best sees a proliferation of prizes that seems to arise from a desperate desire to exclude fewer and fewer people from the winner’s podium.
This tendency is evident in the broader cultural realm. Literary prizes are now given for every kind of category, including 12 different kinds of detective fiction recognized by the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar awards. The nominees for the Best Picture Oscar (nominations themselves are awards) have recently doubled from five to 10, and the number of Grammy awards given out last Sunday night came to more than 100. Valedictorians were once unique; now some high schools have dozens. The label “hero,” Mr. Best observes, is ever more broadly applied””not just to soldiers but to firemen, cancer patients and even community volunteers.
I thought the author of the book, Mr. Best, has a
surname which itself is rather self-congratulatory.
The mention of soldiers being heroes is in itself interesting. Is Mr. Best saying that /all/ soldiers are heroes? I read an article some years ago talking about the Medal of Honor and other decorations and how our culture has turned military service itself into something heroic and how when the Medal of Honor and other top decorations are awarded for bravery and gallantry in action, they are ignored and those who receive them are largely ignored.
#2
We had a local soldier win the distinguished Service Cross a couple of years ago, our nation’s second highest decoration for valor, and none of the local newspapers, radio stations, or TV stations mentioned it at all. complete silence. Had this been WWII, every medium would have given it coverage, and that in a war involving a much larger portion of our population in uniform. It’s shameful.