Fast Food Society

The trouble with the American Society is that most people in it expect things to occur for them instantly. Fifty years ago, people saved for things they wanted to buy. Now, we have Americans as young as 18 with credit card debt that is a mile high. The reason for this is that they can not wait for something. They have to have it now. And the entitlement society that the Democratic Party has bred has given many people the attitude that they are owed this or that they deserve it. People have become very impatient and this is evident in our daily workplace. It use to take hours, days, or months to track down information. Now the computer does it and if it takes more than a few minutes to accomplish the task people complain because they want it now.

The war in Iraq, part of the Global War On Terror is another example of this “have it now” mentality. People expected that we would do into Iraq and be done in a weekend. Now, I know there are those who will say the President gave the impression that we were done with the Mission Accomplished banner but they miss the fact that the mission of the ship he was on was accomplished. While the event marked the end of major combat operations, it by no means was the end of hostility. WW I and WW II lasted for years and they had been in progress for years when America finally entered. Much the same is true about the GWOT. This country and its interests have been attacked for twenty or thirty years. 9/11 was a direct result of American inaction. The United States finally regained some back bone and decided to fight back. Many Americans have become tired of a war that has been relatively short in duration when compared to other wars. No one said it would be easy or be fast. We knew that the GWOT would take years, not necessarily in Iraq but years to fight Globally.

I would remind people that America’s fighting forces are trained and they expect to be in harm’s way. They accept the fact that their jobs place them in danger and that they could lose their lives. American Civilians do not have this understanding about their own lives yet 3000 of them died in pursuit of a living on that dreadful day in September 2001. I might remind the public that the American military has had fewer deaths in just over two years than the civilian population had in 45 minutes on one terrible day.

When WW II was over we built bases and occupied some land in Germany. We have bases in South Korea to deter the North from invading the South. We have bases all over the world. It is only logical to assume that we will build bases in Iraq and that after the bulk of our forces leave, the balance will stay on those bases. I would imagine that as the country stabilizes, we will leave and give those bases to the Iraqi Army. The idea that this war was waged to make corporate America wealthy is a joke and people who believe this are the same ones who are led around by their noses and told what to say and when to say it. These are the same people who still think the Vice President made billions of dollars on his stocks by having his old company do the work. They are, as usual, blind to the fact that those stocks have been donated to charity and Cheney did not make a penny on them. The fact is Cheney also had nothing to do with the awarding of the contracts. But you can not convince the people who want instant gratification. That philosophy spills over into their lives and they read something and take it as true. They do not take the time to investigate.

The people who want things done quickly will also jump on any bandwagon and join any cause or believe any information that they believe will bring a rapid result. There are people who will have you believe that the US killed a hundred thousand Iraqi civilians despite the fact there is no credible evidence of this and none of the groups espousing such information used a scientific method to attain results. They used what would give them the answers they wanted, quickly, to further an agenda. The United States Military goes out of its way to avoid injuring non-combatants. You will not find this information coming from the instant happiness crowd because they want the results to match an agenda, NOW.

Impatience, lack of discipline, government handouts, and the building of an entitlement society has resulted in a populace that expects results instantly and is not satisfied when things take longer than they expected. That is why there is so much credit card debt in this country. It is not because people are scraping by to make ends meet and they are using their credit card. It is because, regardless of their means, they feel entitled to the same things everyone else has and they should not have to wait. Instead of saving they use that credit for big screen TVs, computers, cell phones, and a number of other items that are luxuries. Even though automobiles are not a luxury any longer, look at the types being purchased and how long people are going into debt to drive. They are not satisfied with a smaller, less expensive car because they deserve this luxury model.

People should exercise patience in the GWOT. Our enemies have been patient and they have been successful in the past because of that patience. People also need to learn that parroting stupidity makes them look stupid. If they can show a hundred thousand bodies then they have a point. If some activist group says that, it makes them look foolish. If the VP actually made money from stocks, then there is a point, but when it is pointed out with legal documents that he did not, people look foolish. It does not take long for people to lose all credibility when they parrot stupidity.

So the message is, “Don’t be stuck on stupid.”

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