Normally, when Bill Whittle posts a new essay, I hear about it relatively quickly; the blogs that I read on a regular basis tend to mention his posts within a day or so of their posting, but he’s had a couple since mid-June that I hadn’t heard anything about (which may be more a result of my not reading than them not writing about him, honestly). My favorite bit, from his CHAPTER ONE: THE WEB OF TRUST (the introduction to this new set of essays, RAFTS, can be found here, was this:

We can go on and on and on – all through 3,461 current Medal of Honor recipients. Not one of them could be named by any schoolkid in a hundred. Add all the other awards for gallantry and you have a small army of heroes, all unremembered by the huge majority of the population. And ask any combat vet, and he’ll tell you that only a sliver of the daily acts of sacrifice and heroism go reported, let alone recognized. For every selfless Medal of Honor recipient there are tens, perhaps hundreds, who have shown the same courage unsung. These people gave their lives for us…for this country and this Civilization. They gave their lives so we could live in the freedom, security and prosperity that alone allows us to be so callow, so cynical, and so relentlessly ungrateful to those who have sacrificed on our behalf.

We don’t see these things because we choose not to see them. But we not only have movie awards, we have movie awards season. Oscars, Golden Globes, SAG awards, People’s Choice…it goes on and on and on. A civilization that is this debased when it comes to who and what they glorify is in some trouble.

I’ve never followed the Oscars or any of those other award ceremonies, but I do know the names of most of those people who win (or simply nominated), and I have to say that Bill’s got me feeling pretty guilty about that. Anyway, as always, go read the whole thing.