Glory, and the Distrust of Intelligence

I just stumbled on an article written in response to an article that someone stumbled upon. The initial article, which caused this glorious chain reaction, was written to remind us that 2014 is the 100th anniversary of World War 1, and that war is glorious. Presumably, the author felt that he needed to remind us that war is glorious. It's easy to forget, in these days of roadside bombs and an ever-growing list of civilian casualties via drone-strikes, that we're on the highway to glory. From what I understand, the man who wrote this article both supported, and dodged the draft for, the Vietnam War. That strikes me as odd. One would think that a guy who found something glorious, and openly supported it, wouldn't object to participating. I've spoken at some length with my grandfathers, both of whom are World War 2 combat veterans. I've also spoken with my father, who served in Germany during the Vietnam War, and with friends and family who have or are presently serving. I've searched my memories as best I can, and as best I can recall, when discussing their service, I've never heard one of them use the world 'glory' or any synonyms to describe their service, not even when it was warranted. My maternal grandfather carried a wounded comrade back to safety while being shelled somewhere near Zerf, Germany, and was wounded while doing so. He still has the shrapnel they removed from his back, on a key-chain. My next door neighbor plugged a breach at the base he was stationed at while under insurgent attack. Neither mentioned glory, and neither, it must be said, appeared overly eager to talk about what they'd done. I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that front, but I do have a suggestion. I believe why they didn't mention glory is because they didn't do it for glory. They did it for themselves, and for each other, and for their country. To keep themselves and their brothers alive, and to keep our country free. Glory, then, or at least this guy's version of it, must be reserved for those who love war, who support war, and whose foxholes are entirely metaphorical.

The 100th anniversary of WW1 reminded me that, come June 6th, it will also be the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach, and that August 6th and 9th of next year will be the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. This reminded me of a newspaper article I found in a dresser we purchased up in Enosburg Falls, VT. It was dated in the late 1940's and was celebrating the advancements of nuclear technology, and the minds behind it. It occurred to me that such an article wouldn't be written today, and for two reasons, one of them good, the other bad. The good reason is tact. It seems wrong to me to be celebrating a technology that just a few years prior you'd used to kill somewhere between 150,000 and perhaps nearly 250,000 people [source]. The bad reason is that, for some time now, we've stopped celebrating intelligence, or at least scientific intelligence. You could argue that we still celebrate financial intelligence, in the case of Donald Trump, or musical intelligence, in the case of Simon Cowell, but I'm not buying it. Neither of those guys would be half so popular if they weren't so provocative. They aren't famous for their smarts, only for their snark.

I cannot help but wonder about all the brilliant scientists out there today, the modern equivalent of yesterday's Einsteins and Teslas, staring at their slashed funding and feeling the weight of the public's distrust of their intelligence. Do they wonder what happened? Or are they smart enough that they already know? Perhaps they prefer their place deep in the background. It's certainly possible. The names Einstein and Oppenheimer will be forever linked with the creation of the most destructive weaponry the world has ever seen, and maybe that's something they'd rather like to avoid. But maybe, just maybe, we have to consider the idea that our distrust of intelligence has stifled the voices of the brilliant, and we are, consequently, putting the brakes on our future.