Reply #17: Remarque addressed his type in "All Quiet on the Western Front."

[DemoTex]

The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy (my emphasis).

Katczinsky said that was a result of their upbringing. It made them stupid. And what Kat said, he had thought about... (skip ahead).

While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and the dying. While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger. But for all that we were no mutineers, no deserters, no cowards -- they were very free with all these expressions. We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from the true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.

"All Quiet on the Western Front," Erich Maria Remarque, excerpts from pages 15,16,& 17.

To the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot I am tempted to bark aloud. I am tempted a response somewhere between "Get thee to the front!" and "The only support our soldiers really appreciate is fire support," but I usually hold my tongue, too. If your "patriot", in his $800 suit, was in his mid-to-late 50s, and did not serve in Viet Nam, then chances are there is a name on The Wall of the real patriot who took his place. Thomas Paine was right, these are times that try men's souls.