I read a local newspaper article where a crew of firefighters were being praised for saving someone’s life. I’m not saying they don’t deserve praise for this.  There are a number of professions that deserve praise & they are one of them.  It’s a tough job & most people can’t & won’t do it.  What I’m saying this is their everyday job, as they do something like this virtually every day in every city, but to stop & write an article about it when it was not extraordinary or unusual is just plainly ridiculous & illustrates a number of things:

1) It was apparently a slow news day, and instead of being inventive or writing a story that might help cure society’s ills or focus on the local area problems, they picked this story because it’s “patriotic” & would generate mass appeal. Be wary of anyone who’s telling you they’re patriotic & trying to show you how patriotic they are — these are usually the people who are actually the ones that are less patriotic than the average person as they typically want to take away the rights you have now & install their own version of liberty & freedom.

2) Our society has gotten so addicted to praise that we have to be liked by everyone & praised constantly so we feel better. This all started when a generation of kids called Baby Boomers (those arguably born between 1940 & 1964) grew up in an idyllic world with virtually no concerns & suffering, pampered into believing they were special & everything they did was special, and they believed they could change the world with their viewpoint & that the world’s destiny was to be that very same viewpoint they held. The problem is that they lacked self-esteem & were narcissists, and they transferred those traits to their future generations, so we now have the most-pampered, soft & weak generation in the history of the world — Millennials. These are people who were born appx 1980 to 1999 & also include late-term Gen-Xers from the late 70’s.

Let me say that to agree to put on a uniform & do something that may kill you takes a brave person, and every person who does that is a hero, whether they live or die, but we’ve got to stop pandering to the mostly ignorant masses & their baser instincts & their fragile feelings by drumming up patriotic stories that have no connection to the masses other than milking praise & readership/viewership.  The newspapers & TV networks who do this are using you and your feelings just for ratings.

Did you know that the Dept of Defense pays sports teams to do patriotic things like bring on the color guard & do fly-overs?  It’s part of how they recruit people for service.