Being a contrarian ain’t for sissies

Is America still the 'land of the free' and ‘home of the brave?'

I know Lee Greenwood is proud to be an American, but does he still “know” he’s free? Why does he still think this?

We’ve all probably had conversations with older friends or family members who observed that “growing old ain’t for sissies.”

I have a similar thought on being a “contrarian” - a person who questions almost all of the “authorized narratives.” 

You better not be a sissy if you’re going to be such a person.

For example, in recent years, I’ve begun to question two of the most iron-clad truths about American citizens. This truism declares that America is the “land of the free” and “the home of the brave.”

To which I now reply, based on what evidence?

Freedom Checklist …

If America is “the land of the free,” freedom is now defined as a place where people are ….

NOT free to refuse an experimental injection of largely unknown micro-particles into their blood streams (at least if they want to keep their jobs or travel or attend some public event, etc.)

In the land of the free, millions of citizens who owned smaller or “non-essential businesses” were not free to operate their businesses and thus make money for themselves and their families.

Almost 100 percent of the country was NOT free to attend religious services for several months to more than a year.

People weren’t even “free” to visit sick and lonely family members in a hospital or nursing home. If these people died, most of their friends were not free to go to their funeral.

Even today, I’m not free to make posts on Facebook that question narratives deemed the infallible truths by “authorities” and Mark Zuckerberg.

I wasn’t free to go inside a public place without a mask.

In many states, kids who love athletics weren’t free to play football, basketball or baseball for many months.

Musicians weren’t free to perform songs in public places or even practice in a garage with their band mates. (So they were not free to catch any big career-changing break).

Actors couldn’t act  (unless, I guess, they were acting in their den in front of their wife and kids, with their masks on of course).

All across the land of the free, infants to young adults aged 18 weren’t free to attend school or go to a day care for many months. So parents weren’t free to go to their jobs if they had to stay home to care for their children.

Until a few months ago, my two children weren’t free to drink from a water fountain while at school. This means my wife and I HAD to buy countless water bottles and wash them every day just so our kids could be “hydrated” while at school. 

We also had to buy boxes full of masks, which we may or may not have washed every day.

The masks and the water bottles were NOT free, but we had to buy them.

“… And the home of the brave.”

I could write 500 more words on all of this New Normal freedom, but I want to now segue into a discussion of another now-dubious truism - the one that says America is overflowing with brave people.

Call me a contrarian if you want, but I don’t see many examples that support this accepted narrative.

If America was the “home of the brave,” all kinds of people would have risen up and told authority figures to take their freedom-eradicating mandates and stuff them where the sun don’t shine.

I recognize it’s not politically correct to put forward my new postulate, but I think America has really become the home of the meek, compliant and endlessly terrified, a land of “sheeple” who must receive permission from their rulers before they take their children to a public park or playground.

Furthermore, I think authority figures get some twisted thrill from telling “the people” what they can and can’t do. These “leaders” enjoy issuing fines for not wearing masks or telling unvaccinated tennis pros they can’t play in their tournament.

What’s even more troublesome is the number of people who are eager to rat out or castigate those in society who do not comply, or who use their own God-given critical thinking skills to make decisions that don’t agree with Anthony Fauci.

One reason more citizens aren’t really “brave” is that they know if they do go against the “Current Thing” the more-virtuous-than-thou mob might attack them. 

Or these people might simply want to keep their jobs or avoid saying anything that might keep them from earning a promotion.  

Such people might not meet my definition of “courageous,” but I can’t deny they might have made a smart decision given our New Normal realities.

Several songs come to mind here …

Here, a couple of lyrics from well-known pop songs pop into my mind.

For example, John Cougar Mellencamp’s “I fought authority … authority always wins.”

The late Tom Petty famously sang, “And I won’t back down … Gonna stand my ground.”

I can’t remember if Tom died before Covid or not, but except for Van Morrison and Eric Clapton every one of his fellow “rebel” rockers did back down. None of them stood up to “The Man” or even considered “fighting authority.” 

And Rolling Stone magazine - the Bible for authority-challenging rockers - said, “Yeah, man. Power to the people … ah, Power to The Man.” 

The same was true with all the actors, many who became famous portraying characters who fought injustice or exposed crooked authority figures.

Here I think of Robert Redford, who lobbied hard to make the movie “All the President’s Men.”

The irony is Redford would probably disown Woodward and Bernstein if they investigated any Covid scandals. (Woodward and Bernstein also both took a pass on taboo Covid investigations as did The Washington Post.)

It’s all carrots and sticks (more sticks than carrots) …

No high-level psychological analysis is necessary to support the conclusions contained in this essay. It’s all just basic, rudimentary “carrots and sticks.”

In fact, I’ve begun to think the whole purpose of the Censorship Industrial Complex is to punish and intimidate people who might have the courage to challenge authority.

If a citizen does what Authority told him he had to do, this “good citizen” was rewarded with a yummy carrot. 

For example, If he got vaccinated, and once The Man said plays were allowed, he could go to a Broadway show or maybe dine inside a restaurant. 

If he didn’t, “No soup for you!” or, an even more effective “stick” - No job for you!

I sometimes wonder if John Lennon, who didn’t always agree with The Man, would have protested any of the Covid mandates. 

Paul McCartney certainly didn’t. Bruce Springsteen, The Boss, didn’t. 

The Boss actually said, “Everyone listen to The Man, who is a good and loving boss … and everyone replied, “Okay, Boss.”

What does Lee Greenwood think about his famous patriotic song today?

These days I think often about the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “I’m proud to be an American.”

In fact, I just took my kids to our local fireworks celebration and the football stadium loud speaker was playing Greenwood’s patriotic staple.

“And I’m proud to be an American … where at least I know I’m free.”

I wonder if Lee Greenwood still thinks he is “free” in America.

I mean, what Stasi-style reforms would it take to make him reconsider the lyrics of that song?

Has it occurred to Greenwood that he was not free to sing that song anywhere in public for  more than a year? Does he know that for one or two years towns like mine cancelled 4th of July fireworks celebrating our nation’s original freedom fighters?

If he does at least acknowledge this, does this bother him even a little?

It would take immense courage for Lee Greenwood to come out and say, “I’m not singing that song anymore - at least until real freedom is restored in America.”

Talk about an interview that might generate headlines. 

“Dang, Lee Greenwood, Mr. Freedom himself, is not pleased with the direction our country is headed. Maybe we ought to listen to him.”

But Lee Greenwood has not done this and nor, in my opinion, will he do this. 

This is because he knows if he did say something like this, he’d be attacked and cancelled and probably wouldn’t get any more paying gigs … at least in the (allegedly) “free” America he’s so “proud” of.

So add Lee Greenwood to the list of celebrities who are not exactly courage personified.

Leadership matters … and there are good leaders and bad leaders

One definition of courage is doing something you know probably won’t end well for you, but you do it anyway because you think it’s the right thing to do.

Put differently, displaying genuine courage ain’t for sissies either.

One quality real leaders have is they are often brave. They tell their troops or followers they’ve got to do something that might not be easy to do, but this needs to be done.

So where have America’s truly brave leaders gone? 

Don’t get me wrong. We’ve got some (and “God bless” these brave Americans) … but it’s no coincidence they’re all being attacked, censored and cancelled … by our actual leaders, all the the people who hold positions of “authority.”

It’s all these people in charge of our lives who fear real freedom.

The great puzzler is that in the “home of the brave,” most citizens haven’t figured out that the people and organizations they think are “protecting” them are actually the problem. 

As it turns out, it’s not Russia, Iran or China that are taking away our freedoms, it’s our own government.

It will take brave leaders - people not currently in government - to remedy this discombobulating situation.

Hopefully, one day we can all again enjoy Lee Greenwood’s patriotic classic without contrarians like myself thinking, “Well, that song’s now a load of a bunk.”