Very few Americans can remember a time when the country was asked to make collective sacrifices for the greater good.
It has been more than 75 years since World War II, when Americans both in combat and at home made tremendous individual sacrifices to contribute to the war effort:
- military service
- working in factories where weapons were made
- rations – meat and sugar to firewood and penicillin
- price controls to prevent inflation
But today, we selfishly flout individualism and free enterprise at the expense of the greater good. Simple masking and social-distancing guidelines have been met with disdain from mainly the Republican party, most notably people who foolishly perceive themselves to be less at risk.
In the words of Jon Meachem, Pulitzer prize author, “we no longer think, we feel.”
Elsewhere, religious leaders have demanded to hold church services in defiance of emergency orders.
If sacrifice once meant joining the military, or the mass-mobilization of factory workers, today it means living the “normal” life, at the expense of American lives.
We are doing horribly leading the world in most of the bad categories in the spread and tracking COVID-19.
Thus far, our deaths are equivalent to the cumulative deaths of the American Revolution, War of 1812, WW1, Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War [250,000 and counting].
How did we respond to sacrifice in the “good old days”?
Robert Citino, the executive director of the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, was asked about how sacrifice was perceived in the 1940s.
Americans received their ration cards in 1942 during WW2. Rations were imposed on things like cars, tires, nylon, and firewood. Mr. Citino was asked, “What was the public response to those [rations]?”
“Nobody likes having the family car parked for the duration of the war. Pleasure drives in the countryside were outlawed. The government wanted the rubber from your tires. You weren’t going to be able to get gas. That’s the first thing you had to sacrifice in World War II.
“Did they grumble? Certainly. If you look at the ration system, you had to make decisions like, ‘Do I want to have a pound of ground meat or do I want a jar of cheese spread?’ We didn’t have enough sugar or butter or lard because they were used to make explosives. But people understood that.
“Workers weren’t happy about wage controls. Businesses weren’t happy about price controls. Landlords weren’t happy about rent controls. But most Americans realized this was necessary for the war effort and were willing to go along.”
And the “Greatest Generation” stepped up!
“Shared sacrifice” versus “freedom”
How did Americans reconcile sacrifice with other, potentially contradictory American ideals during WW2?
Mr. Citino continued, “There was this notion in World War I that some companies fattened themselves on the war, hadn’t produced what they said they would, and came out of the war with excesses of government cash.”
Today we have examples of wealthy businesses [owners] scamming the 2020 Cares Act money with purchases of exotic cars and real estate, while employees are laid off or terminated.
During the Second World War, Roosevelt’s enemies in Congress argued that wage controls were positively un-American. But it was a popular measure because it made sure that the burden was being shared.
Today? Billionaires like Bezos, David Koch, and the Wal Mart family have increased their wealth by billions.
How did churches respond, then and now?
Another question posed to Mr. Citino: How did religious institutions help encourage or promote sacrifice?
“Though we have adopted a separation of church and state, the American church has been remarkably supportive of the American political system. A minister could stand up in front of his congregation and say, “This is a struggle against Fascists and evil” or “These are the people that bombed us at Pearl Harbor.”
But unlike WW2, today many churches are having “super-spreader” events in the name of religious freedom. Some pulpits have politicized mask wearing, social distancing, and economic issues as if they are getting their marching orders from the Trump administration.
What about holding each other accountable?
Additionally during WW2, Americans policed one another and helped enforce their sacrifices. And that’s because virtually every one of them had a loved one in the military. You could say: “You’re hoarding toilet paper? That’s not fair. My son’s over on Guadalcanal getting shot at right now.”
However today, people “go along to get along” while their family members, friends, and neighbors ignore the greater good and endanger each other in the name of freedom.
Have you ever heard “freedom is not free! With it there are responsibilities”?
And what about the descendants of the Greatest Generation?
Mr. Citino observes during WW2, “The US is a fractious [irritable] place, and not everybody suddenly stops being fractious because there’s a war. You can find all kinds of moments when Americans argued with one another or accused one another of all sorts of nefarious activities. All those things happened, but none of them rose to the level of disrupting the social contract or making it impossible to fight the war.”
But what has happened to the “Greatest Generation’s” children and grandchildren today?
Many of them are supporting indoor church events and are anti-social distancing. Many are anti-maskers, harassing their friends and neighbors. Many support threats and attacks on government officials trying to save lives, with those attacks cheered on by Trump, his acolytes, and by the deafening silence of McConnell, the Republican Party, and locals.
“In the end, this [pandemic] presents a great and compelling test of our national sense of ourselves as exceptional, generous, and resilient,” Meacham said. “One thing’s for sure: We’re about to find out.”
[click_to_tweet tweet=”In the end, this pandemic presents a great and compelling test of our national sense of ourselves as exceptional, generous, and resilient. But one thing’s for sure: We’re about to find out.” quote=”In the end, this pandemic presents a great and compelling test of our national sense of ourselves as exceptional, generous, and resilient. But one thing’s for sure: We’re about to find out.”]
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