"There cannot be any better cross-section of America and I think the soldiers represent the best we have. Today's soldiers are brighter and smarter, perhaps in a different way, than past generations because they've been brought up in the computer and information age"
About this Quote
The line flatters the military by flattering the nation: call soldiers a "cross-section of America" and you get to praise them as both representative and exceptional, an elite that somehow still stands in for everybody. That contradiction is the engine here. It offers democratic legitimacy ("they are us") while also preserving hierarchy ("they're the best we have"). In a culture that routinely worries about who deserves honor, this is a neat rhetorical two-for-one.
The subtext leans hard on generational anxiety. "Brighter and smarter" arrives with a hedge - "perhaps in a different way" - that anticipates pushback from anyone nostalgic for the grit-and-glory myths of earlier wars. The pivot to "computer and information age" is doing cultural repair work: it reframes intelligence away from the old battlefield archetype of toughness and toward adaptability, systems thinking, and technical competence. It also quietly legitimizes a modern military that is increasingly about networks, surveillance, logistics, and precision - the less cinematic parts of warfare.
The context matters because the attribution doesn't. Gerald Griffin, the early 19th-century Irish novelist, couldn't plausibly be talking about "the computer and information age". That mismatch signals the quote is either misattributed, paraphrased from a modern speaker, or retrofitted to borrow the authority of a literary name. If that slippage is intentional, it's revealing: we like our contemporary arguments to wear antique credibility, especially when praising institutions that depend on public faith. The line isn't just complimenting soldiers; it's updating patriotism for a digitized era.
The subtext leans hard on generational anxiety. "Brighter and smarter" arrives with a hedge - "perhaps in a different way" - that anticipates pushback from anyone nostalgic for the grit-and-glory myths of earlier wars. The pivot to "computer and information age" is doing cultural repair work: it reframes intelligence away from the old battlefield archetype of toughness and toward adaptability, systems thinking, and technical competence. It also quietly legitimizes a modern military that is increasingly about networks, surveillance, logistics, and precision - the less cinematic parts of warfare.
The context matters because the attribution doesn't. Gerald Griffin, the early 19th-century Irish novelist, couldn't plausibly be talking about "the computer and information age". That mismatch signals the quote is either misattributed, paraphrased from a modern speaker, or retrofitted to borrow the authority of a literary name. If that slippage is intentional, it's revealing: we like our contemporary arguments to wear antique credibility, especially when praising institutions that depend on public faith. The line isn't just complimenting soldiers; it's updating patriotism for a digitized era.
Quote Details
| Topic | Military & Soldier |
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