As I start writing this piece it is the 79th anniversary of the Japanese attack on US naval and army forces at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the (then) US Territory of Hawaii.
I won’t talk about the attack itself, nor the war as a whole. I identify the attack because it was this that brought a state of war between the two countries, and then between the US and Italy, Germany, and several others in the days to follow. In short, after World War II had been going for three years, it was this that brought America into the greater conflict in a complete sense.
But what I want to write about now is not the battles in theater, but the battle of the people at home.
This writing is prompted by an online exchange I had recently over a post asking for examples of “First World Problem” responses to the pandemic we are facing, and in particular in the US. For those few of you who don’t know the expression, first world problem is used to describe situations that would only be called difficult amongst people who faced no actual privation. An example might be a person who says her life is ruined because a store sold out of a particular handbag. Meanwhile billions are facing hunger on a daily basis. In comparison, such complaints seem the acme of self-centeredness and shallowness. A problem that millions would wish they had. And while that expression was generally used to separate those of us in the affluent first world with those in the poverty stricken third world, that divide is increasingly less geographic.
In regard to the pandemic, while we have tens of thousands of Americans lining up at food banks, and millions unemployed and facing eviction and poverty, and hundreds of thousands are dying, some others think that what is really a problem is that they can’t go to the movies or go to a bar to watch the big football game. To the rest of us watching the crisis unfold, people like this seem to deserve our scorn for lack of empathy.
What did we learn as children? Be grateful for your food, as there are starving children in Africa, or Asia, or whatever country was a useful reference for our parents. They weren’t being trite when they said this, but simply trying to convey what they understood to be true. A decent human being accepts the limits of their pantry as a blessing, and wants their children to learn it is their duty to aid that suffering in some way. And to begin they must weigh their complaints against the conditions of those less fortunate.
In any case, in the discussion above, a person was defending those seemingly trivial complaints because they were real losses to their normalcy and effected their happiness. In short, those who couldn’t dine in at a restaurant were actually suffering real trauma.
So I thought I would reflect our country during a national crisis of the past, and I chose WWII because of a coincidence of calendar. It is December 7th.
The world had been in the throes of the Great Depression when the war started. And while it is true that many in the USA didn’t suffer much or at all because of their personal or family wealth or their fortunate positions of employment, they were quite aware of the millions that were. They mostly felt empathy for those who were suffering and sought ways to help; but even if the cold-hearted amongst them didn’t, they had the good sense to refrain from comments that would reflect poorly on themselves. And when the war came to America with the Pearl Harbor attack, the country largely circled the wagons. Huge numbers of men enlisted in the armed forces almost immediately, and the nations industrial might, already having begun large-scale production of war goods, turned the dial up to full blast.
What followed was shortages of the goods and services that normal society relies on. But for a people already accustomed to going without or watching others in those straits, they largely took rationing and other measures in stride. Sure there were those who cheated, gamed the system, and continued their lives as they had before; but most of the country accepted their state. Their sons and the sons of friends were in uniform facing death. They watch newsreels showing bombed out cities east and west. When they felt privation they checked themselves in thanks for their relative safety. They weren’t being bombed. They weren’t refugees. They weren’t facing death. And they mostly all knew these things. People accepted that life was different and rose to the challenge. They grew victory gardens, the engaged in recycling drives, and wore their old clothes for longer, and they made do with what they had. They were part of something bigger than their own wants, and held a dim view of those who focused only on themselves.
Perhaps as a child of those who went through this I learned different lessons than those I see around me today. Perhaps it simply doesn’t occur to those who are complaining about some minor inconvenience of how awful that sounds in the face of the crisis we face. But for those who say we must acknowledge that it is real trauma for them whether or not it pales in comparison to the suffering of others I say no. I say that they need a metaphorical slap in the face if not a literal one. Their behavior is selfish and inconsiderate and it needs to be called out sharply and directly.
Are their hurt feelings more of a trauma than the tears of a hungry child? Should we be worried about the feelings of someone who can’t recognize the suffering and hardship all around them?
I joined the Navy when I was seventeen years old. At bootcamp I got a dose of regimentation and discipline that stunned me. My feelings got hurt quite a bit. I adapted to the conditions of military life fairly easily, but their were others who adjusted more quickly, and those who didn’t. There were even a good sized chunk who couldn’t cope and were pushed out. Unfit for service. Most of us grew up, and right fast. And we had little sympathy for those who didn’t. Manhood demanded the release of childishness. Crying was no longer an acceptable response to difficulty.
And during WWII there were those who couldn’t cope. But people came to recognize the difference between those who needed their help, and those who needed that slap in the face. Then, as now, the time has passed for coddling those who whine about how life has changed. There are too many people who need our actual help for us to be suffering those who don’t but seek our sympathy nonetheless.
Metaphorically, and actually, people need to grow up.