No more laughing

Long-time readers probably know that I am not a champion of the military. I think we have reached the stage where the military is venerated. I don't understand why, with today's volunteer army, we have a Veteran's Day for these volunteers but don't have a similar day where we honor others - such as doctors, firemen, policemen, teachers, etc. who also serve this country. Steven Walt may agree with me as he comments on the decline of humor re the military.

He lists a number of tv shows, books and movies of the 20th century which featured humor in a military context, such as Sgt. Bilko, McHale's Navy, No Time for Sergeants, ,Gomer Pyle, USMC, Hogan's Heroes, F Troop, M.A.S.H, Dr. Strangelove,Catch-22. Over the past several decades there have been very few similar demonstrations of humor with the military as the butt. Now we have such laudatory movies as An Officer and a Gentleman, Top Gun, A Few Good Men, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, The Hurt Locker, Lone Survivor, Shooter, Under Siege, Tour of Duty, Call to Glory, JAG, Band of Brothers.

Walt thinks the fact of the all volunteer military is a primary reason for the change. Plus the focus on terrorism that has defined the 21st century.

Walt concludes:

Unfortunately, losing our ability to laugh at the military comes with a price. No human institution is perfect, and none should be given a free pass by the rest of society. Humor and ridicule are potent weapons when trying to keep powerful institutions under control, and giving them up makes it harder to keep those institutions on the straight and narrow. Capable armed forces are a regrettable necessity, but treating them with excessive deference and declining to joke about their foibles makes it more likely they will be indulged rather than improved.