After Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a national address making eight references to the "sacrifice" that would be needed in the impending war and three mentions of the "self-denial" we would have to endure.
"Every single person in the United States is going to be affected," Roosevelt said. "(Business) profits are going to be cut down to a reasonably low level by taxation ... (Americans) will have to forgo higher wages ... All of us are used to spending money for things that we want, things, however, which are not absolutely essential. We will all have to forgo that kind of spending."
For its honesty and purpose, the speech remains the shining example of leadership. For its bravery in telling painful truths the country needed to hear and for Americans' subsequent rise to the challenge, the address today stands as a sad commemoration of a tragically lost ethos.
That is the only conclusion to draw when comparing Roosevelt's clarion call to those following the last decade's Pearl Harbor-like calamities. Rather than being encouraged to sacrifice or accept self-denial in the face of emergency, we are now instructed to simply embrace our inner hedonist.
That's no exaggeration. After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush told us not to prepare for austerity measures in the name of the common good. Instead, he exhorted citizens to "do your business around the country, fly and enjoy America's great destination spots -- go down to Disney World in Florida, take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed." Then he gave us tax cuts and wars whose costs were rung up on the national credit card and passed on to future generations.
The same aversion to sacrifice now defines the response to the ecological Pearl Harbor on America's Gulf Coast. In his first press conference since the oil spill, President Obama only briefly noted that the drilling at the center of the disaster highlights "the urgent need for this nation to develop clean, renewable sources of energy" and get off petroleum. But he avoided suggesting that this need requires any collective effort, abstinence or forfeiture.
"Americans can help," he said, "by continuing to visit the communities and beaches of the Gulf Coast."
Put in bumper-sticker terms, FDR's "Profits are Going to Be Cut" and "Forgo Higher Wages" have become Bush's "Go Shopping" and Obama's "Go Sunbathing" -- and the question is why?
One obvious answer is presidential shortsightedness.
Bush characteristically refused to believe sacrifice is ever necessary, even during war. Obama, meanwhile, surely knows the Gulf disaster warrants sacrifice, but he cravenly refuses to discuss that fact for fear of being lampooned as a sweater-clad Jimmy Carter.
But, then, let's be honest -- when it comes to difficult lifestyle changes that Pearl Harbor-sized crises demand, many of us are as willfully ignorant and plagued by denial as Dubya. And truth be told, had Obama asked us to do something -- anything! -- more than have fun in the sun, many Americans wouldn't have praised him as a new FDR; many indeed would have berated him as Carter incarnate.
Thus, as easy as it is to blame two flawed presidents for eschewing FDR-style leadership, we haven't seen that leadership, in part, because we don't seem to want it. And we don't want it because we've stopped valuing the concept of shared sacrifice.
That's the true change since the original Pearl Harbor attack -- and it's a crying shame because while trips to Disney World or the beach are certainly fun, history suggests that genuine sacrifice will be the only way to solve our most pressing problems.
David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books "Hostile Takeover" and "The Uprising." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com or follow him on Twitter @davidsirota. This is his latest column for Creators Syndicate.
Follow David Sirota on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidsirota
If the last thirty years of our history have shown us anything it is that the vast majority of baby boomers don't do sacrifice. My generation has much to be ashamed about.
How was it that the late, great George Carlin portrayed us?
Oh, yeah: "Gimmie that, it's MINE!!!"
J
This comment strikes me as far more hysterical then anything Mr. Sirota presented.
The point of the article, (IMHO), is that Americans, both as citizens and elected leaders need to finally address our dependence on...... and addiction to....... oil. A product of limited supply, that has costs millions of human lives in needless wars over the years, and still we use and waste it in prodigious amounts. More than any other nation on Earth.
Having said that, I will fault President Obama for his decision to end the moratorium on deep offshore exploration. If nothing else, this disaster shows, without question, that while the oil industry may have the technology to drill where they never could before, the safeguards have simply not kept up. The Blow Out Preventor in use at the Deepwater rig is of a design that was patented in 1922, and has seen little in the way of improvement since.
As for the loss of life, it would be well to remember that humans are not the only life form on this planet. If ONE species becomes extinct, I challenge anyone to replace it. How do you put a dollar valuation on extinction of an entire species? How can you predict the possible consequences?
You fault the President for his decision to end the moratorium on deep well drilling. I argue, that he compromised with the GOP in order to get climate and energy passed in the next 18 months. Both bills would dramatically shift the US footing on global warming and moving from oil to sustainable energy. It was worth it. It is important to note that his decision has been rescinded, that this spill changed his mind, that this well was not a part of that deal and that Lindsey Graham demanded it as part of his agreement to move the legislation forward.
message about our need to support the Gulf Coast versus the capricious "Go shopping," attitude of
George Bush, and you know it! So, don't distort it!
When President Obama said, "Americans can help by continuing to visit the communities and beaches of the Gulf Coast," he was talking about our need to support an economic way of life which
has been built on the Gulf Coast beaches and communities. It's the same type plea which went
out post-Katrina for folks to support the New Orleans renewal project.
To use your analogy of FDR's pleas for sacrifice--and there were no bumper stickers, by the way--our
current President could have gone to the Rose Garden to make a plea for all Americans to decrease
travel in order to conserve on gas. But what good would that do to assist the people of the Gulf region
who are mourning the likelihood that their way of life has been lost--forever?
Are average Americans willing to sacrifice for anything?
I believe that they are not.
This started many years ago when a "me first" attitude began. Parents failed to be role models for their children in this because even their children were not an important enough reason to sacrifice their need to have more than enough stuff. Then, how can we expect that those same children will be willing to sacrifice for anything.
J
FDR was a brave man who saved our country from similar crisis in the past. We quote his insightful speeches, yet "the address today stands as a sad commemoration of a tragically lost ethos".
J
Everyone wants something for nothing, and then criticizes his neighbor for having that same attitude. To quote Walt Kelly in his cartoon POGO. "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"
J
The sacrifice: our lives, our liberty, and our property (especially if you were Japanese or of Japanese ancestry).
"Roosevelt said. "All of us are used to spending money for things that we want, things, however, which are not absolutely essential. We will all have to forgo that kind of spending.""
So instead of buying we wanted, we bought war, death, trauma, amputated limbs, broken bodies and tortured minds and guilty consciences.
"For its bravery in telling painful truths the country needed to hear and for Americans' subsequent rise to the challenge, the address today stands as a sad commemoration of a tragically lost ethos."
That ethos is best summed up as the state saying to the people "Give up your life to save mine!"
"And we don't want it because we've stopped valuing the concept of shared sacrifice."
That might be some progress.
I could take to the streets right now (trust me, I have considered it several times) and begin a relentless campaign for change, but I already know -- "we" can't handle change. I am trying in my own way, but it is tough sledding. I will not quit however -- word to the haters. I do not mind being a shrub, but I would like to see the wonders of those towering giant trees of expressed conviction and touted ability.
No oil (a tanker on its way to the US is lost to a bidding war between China and Russia), no rubber, no new plastic, no refrigeration, no antibiotics, no manufacturing, no new steel, no radio, internet, computers, electricity, tv, postal service, no trains, no bicycles once all the old tires have been scavenged, no centralized government, no shipments from overseas of things that we've forgotten how to grow or manufacture.
The most powerful man is the owner of a town dump, where people can pay to scavenge for rubber and wire and steel and plastic discards.
We can sacrifice moderately or have great sacrifice thrust upon us. Our choice in how we build our country's future.
Miles "Those Who Ignore History..." Long
"My fellow Americans, what has happened in the gulf is a disaster of global importance. We have seen the destruction this has caused and is continuing to cause.
We know what has happened. And we know what must happen. BP must fix the leak and pay for the damage. And they are doing so. They understand if that if they fail to stop it, the results will be catastrophic, even more so then now.
However, the Gulf cannot wait. It must be cleaned and repaired now. That is why I am going to ask Americans to sacrifice now as this is our land. This was not our doing but in trouble times, blame games and talk get us no where. I have asked Congress for the funding to create under the management of the federal government the Gulf Coast Recovery And Restore Agency that will coordinate the biggest clean up the world has seen.
BP will be paying for this effort-but it cannot be done alone by them. Therefore the government will be imposing a one percent tax on all incomes. I understand that there will be those who will be angry at having to pay for this clean up. But part of being an American is standing up for each other and we cannot do that without the sacrifice of all of us."
Not that hard.
Oh and nothing stops us from ripping off prior leaders.
Democrats have turned out to be no less in thrall of corporate campaign cash than their masters.
You will no calls from this President or most Democrats in Congress for anything that reduces corporate profits or corporate campaign contributions one iota.