Just Like it's 1968!

Yesterday in one of my classes, we were discussing the fact that many people watch television shows online, as opposed to weekly during the season. The ever-popular website Hulu was mentioned, and as conversation drifted towards the appearance of propaganda in films (namely the news reels that prefaced movies during WWII), one of my classmates mentioned the Army ads that frequently appear on Hulu, and his assumption that they're directed at young men who watch media on Hulu.

Classmate: They're losers, so let's just get them in the Army and kill them.
Class and Professor: *laughter*

It went downhill (in my opinion) from there.

I was surprised (sort of) and dismayed (a lot) by the fact that my classmates found his comment to be amusing. There are brave men and women dying for his right to say that and their right to laugh about it. Some college students and intellectuals are so out of touch with reality. They have not been touched by war, they don't have loved ones in the armed forces and spend their evenings watching American Idol. Although I have never seen the face of war and have never spent a day serving in the military, it angers me that some people are so far removed from the military sector. I suppose we should be grateful that we Americans have a military comprised entirely of volunteers, but at the same time, I must admit I sort of wish that the military and civilian sectors would coincide once in a while. I do not understand the lives of military personnel, and I am certain that many would not understand mine.

I wonder if this sort of incident is merely the product of ignorance, or perhaps the product of the indoctrination many colleges, universities, and other educational institutions seem so fond of providing. Many of my peers condescend to members of the armed forces because of their lack of college degree -- or simply because the latter chose to enlist and serve the "corrupt American war machine" (all right, so that quote is possibly a slightly butchered one from An American Carol . . . I left the DVD at home with my dad, so I had to base it off of the fact that I've watched the film countless times).

Young Michael Mallone: You got drafted!
Marty: I wasn't drafted. I enlisted.
Young Michael Mallone: Why would you want to serve the corrupt American war machine!