{"id":24,"date":"2007-11-23T22:28:34","date_gmt":"2007-11-23T22:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2010-01-28T11:23:48","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T18:23:48","slug":"honor-our-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"Honor our Troops?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nThere’s something insidious about email from an anonymous source which cajoles a course of action, uninvited — that is bad enough, but when the pitch is passed innocuously by family or friend, the treachery carves even deeper. Specifically, over the Thanksgiving break the following message arrived from a friendly source:<\/p>\n

What a simple way to honor our troops with recognition and a greeting!
\nSomething cool that Xerox is doing.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you go to this website; http:\/\/www.letssaythanks.com\/Home1024.html<\/strong><\/a> you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq. <\/em><\/p>\n

You can’t pick out who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services.<\/em><\/p>\n

How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one!!! This is a great site.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Several stealthy ploys are at work here. One is the base appeal to mindless patriotism, (see the first line above). Next, couple this personal appeal in a positive way to an impersonal corporate entity — that’s Marketing 101. Then, remove the fear of inter-personal contact — click a button on a website only registering your name and home town, to initiate an action to an unnamed person — nearly anxiety-free. And finally, the real cost associated with this activity — a piece of raw emotional response to war has just been therapeutically removed. Any feelings for war’s victims and\/or the trauma afflicted upon participants at all levels and both sides — is fleetingly transferred through this anonymous action. How tidy is that? “And it only takes a second.” Very creepy, no? Also worth noting, the card designers are young children, so absolution by innocents also comes into play.<\/p>\n

So with all these notions racing through my mind, I responded as follows to my well-meaning but totally uninformed acquaintance.<\/p>\n

When things are “too easy & simple” I object to the simulation of “doing something” when the activity is more likely to impact the virtual participant (the button-clicking web visitor) — as a balm for the conscience, than to impact the supposed recipient of the effort — foot soldiers in a dubious war. Guilt: that one cannot do more meaningful work, and\/or guilt that what one might be tacitly supporting may cause more harm than the merit it aims to produce.<\/p>\n

Hence, we oblige as consumers to legitimize anonymous “recognition” (an oxymoron if there ever was…), at no cost! Or we paste magnetic ribbons on our gas-guzzlers (…won’t even harm the paint!), in “support of the troops”, while we meld in subconscious agreement with an administration that would not stand a more critical examination of current war methods and ends.<\/p>\n

It’s time to end this bloody war and honor our fellow citizen-soldiers by bringing them home, not by continuing things as usual.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hopefully, the message is taken to heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s something insidious about email from an anonymous source which cajoles a course of action, uninvited — that is bad enough, but when the pitch is passed innocuously by family or friend, the treachery carves even deeper. Specifically, over the Thanksgiving break the following message arrived from a friendly source: What a simple way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20,28,53,8],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-corporate-sponsorship","tag-cultural-anxiety","tag-military-industrial-complex","tag-public-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}