A hero is, according to the dictionary, a man of distinguished courage or ability admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. Who we call our heroes will always be subjective, though one group of people, the troops, seem to be universally respected. You would be hard pressed to find a successful politician that openly denies honoring the troops. Politically incorrect does not even begin to describe what most would consider a refusal to bow before them. The truth is, we could not have set the bar any lower. There is no other job in which an eighteen-year-old is able to sign his name on a dotted line, totally devoid of merit, responsibility, intellect, education, experience, or general aptitude, and immediately become a hero.

Let’s take Billy, for example. Billy will go to high school and during this time he will mock and disrespect the teachers, he will start fights, he will just barely earn the required grade point average and he could not have any less interest in becoming educated. Once he stumbles into earning the ubiquitous high school diploma, he doesn’t know what to do. Billy then realizes that by virtue of signing his name, he will without delay become an American hero, a protector of liberty and freedom, a badass, and better than you or me. He will be given a “free” education if he desires it, he will be presented with military discounts, he will be given preferential treatment nearly anywhere and his life will have been given meaning through the government’s thirst for battle. By becoming a pawn in the military-industrial complex, his life will have greater perceived value than mine or yours in both the eyes of the government as well as the public. I can find no better word to describe this than ‘disgusting’.

There is no other occupation in which a person can go from being the trash of society to being applauded with absolutely no effort. Of all the people making a career out of living on the government’s dime, a soldier is the worst. A soldier is one whose job is to destroy nations and their people in the name of another nation. These people do not produce a good or service that would be provided in a free and open market. These people are the first to enforce the laws of the empire. The troops are the ones that would be used to disarm the public because it was their duty. Our Armed Forces, the people we idolize, are responsible for thousands of civilian deaths overseas just in the last decade, yet these are the people we’re giving a 50% discount to.

What better home for a psychopathic killer? What better way to hide your psychopathic tendencies than to join the army as a sniper, be granted a permit to kill, and be praised for murdering who the government decides is our enemy? Only adding to the enticing nature of it all, any recreational side kills are whisked away as collateral damage. I’d say Dexter Morgan should have joined the military, but he actually killed people that deserved it.

Why is it we don’t honor those who actually work for a living providing the goods and services people actually demand? Soldiers are used to destroy while entrepreneurs are here to cater to the wants and needs of the public, they are the people who promote progress. What baffles me are Republicans and Conservatives who claim to favor a smaller government, less taxes, and the free markets, yet they are simultaneously the most vehement supporters of our Christ-compared soldiers. The troops represent everything antithetical to their supposed worldview.

“But Jon,” they cry.

“…why are you being so harsh? A lot of them are just kids, they probably didn’t really know what they were getting into.”

This may be true, though I will only hesitate to excuse those that entered without the intent of engaging in combat. Any person who joins the military knowing full well they plan on killing people deserves no respect, I don’t care how old they are. Again, this statement would make any good American cringe, but why? They say no matter what, these people deserve respect because at the very least, they think they are protecting their country and its people. This is interesting because rarely will I find the conservative who openly honors and defends another person who has taken up arms to defend another country. Instead, they’d be more likely to cheer on their deaths. People have degenerated to assigning different values to different lives based on their geographical location. This could not be any more dangerous to the progress of the human race.

Now, this is not to say there aren’t good people that have been victimized and brainwashed by the military. Sure there are, but I find it impossible to respect a man that kills people without regret. The conscientious objectors are the ones that have earned my praise. If we do not cease the idolatry and the promoting of being a soldier as a respectable profession, America will no doubt continue on its path to global rule stomping on civilians as it treads. The military is an enemy of man – do not honor it.

-Jon Quill