Andy's Angle

I’ve always thought the Army advertising campaign about “An Army of One” was nonsense. When the United States Army went from being “All That You Can Be” to “An Army of One,” I got nervous. Fortunately for our nation I have no empirical reason to believe my fears were justified, but let my explain my apprehension at the slogan. My generation is self-absorbed.

From participation ribbons at the county fair to “most improved” awards at school, my generation, like the hippies of the ‘60s, has always believed we were the most important people on the planet. Blame it perhaps on our Baby Boomer parents who all wanted us to grow up having it a little “better” than they did, certainly blame it on the rise of feel-good self-esteem psychology in the public school system, maybe even blame it on Big Bird and Burt & Ernie, but kids of the last thirty years have by and large been raised, taught, and guided to think that they are unique and special individuals with no greater care than self-fulfillment, self-enlightenment, and self-entitlement.

Think about the great phrases and slogans of the last three decades… How many times have you heard “if it feels good, do it.” Or perhaps someone rationalized a bad decision by saying “well, if it makes you happy.” I’ve written before of my belief that my generation is only now learning the reality of sacrifice. We’ve never been touched on a national level by armed conflict on the scale of either World War, Vietnam, Korea, or the Cold War. We’ve almost always enjoyed unemployment in the single digits. Credit has almost always been readily available, and cheap to enjoy. “Always,” of course, meaning in the last three decades.

From the time of our birth on (because no one in my age bracket remembers the unmitigated disaster known as the Carter administration), we’ve more or less had it made. The great Ronald Reagan taught Americans to believe in America again, and put the nation on a path to prosperity that lasted over two decades. It took a freewheeling and bipartisan Congressional spending spree the better part of the past ten years to finally take us from “Morning in America” to “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil.”

So with that cultural context in mind, you can understand my trepidation when the cornerstone of the greatest military force in the history of man adopts a “me, me, me” advertising campaign. An Army is about a cohesive orchestration of force and discipline. With agility and precision striking fear in the hearts of its enemy, and with grace and dignity restoring order out of chaos. These attributes come from sacrifice and duty, not the realization of some great new-age self-awareness.

I tell you that to tell you this: One is not big enough to be great. With few exceptions, true greatness takes a team, a network, a unit, working in unison, with shared vision and a common unifying force. Speaker and author John Maxwell describes this principle as trying to make a difference working with people who want to make a difference. In our organization I know this is true. I am not good enough, smart enough, talented enough, or fast enough to accomplish everything our team needs to accomplish. By surrounding myself with people who are stronger than I am, we are able to accomplish exponentially more than one or two of us could on our own. The results are not merely the sum of the parts, in other words.

For example, this weekend dozens of tractor enthusiasts will gather in Celina, Ohio for the 2nd Annual Great Buckeye Tractor Cruise. Last year these drivers, their sponsors, and dozens of volunteers raised nearly $6,000 for Camp Quality of Ohio, a camp and mentorship program for youth struggling with late and terminal stage cancer. I hope we’ll raise even more this year. A friend of mine is a competitive cyclist. Each weekend he rides dozens if not hundreds of miles around scenic parts of our great state. This year he’s participating in The Pelatonia, a 100+ mile tour to raise money for the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital. Each rider in the event is asked to raise at least $1,000 for the James. My Masonic Lodge hosts a golf outing each June to raise money for Breast and Prostate Cancer research. Over the last three years, over 150 golfers, volunteers, and donors have raised over $15,000 to fight these diseases.

Notice the unifying theme? Strength in numbers, the power of synergy, the sheer force of what Roy Williams calls “Exponential Little Bits.” By combining the power for greatness in each individual, rather than focusing on each individual, amazing things happen. My friends’ donation to the James will undoubtedly help sick people in our state, but by riding and giving alongside hundreds of other riders, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be raised to fund that same effort, and thousands of people will benefit.

Our society would do well to remember that American Exceptionalism is the philosophy that has guided the most successful tenures of our nation’s history. The notion that our nation, because of our shared vision and combined strength, is something great and singularly awesome in the history of our species is seemingly forgotten in modern elitist society. Listen to the nightly news or read the morning paper and its clear how many have forgotten what makes our Federalist Republic the greatest societal accomplishment in recorded time.

Washington forged a nation; Lincoln saved the Republic; Patton and MacArthur won the War to End All Wars; Reagan crushed the Soviets; all with the same guiding principles, none of which revolved around a single person, or the importance of individuality. Duty, honor, country. Those are ideals worth fighting for. While the vast majority of us in modern society don’t serve this country in a military sense, I suggest we internalize those ideals in our own lives, working and serving for something larger than our own selfish wants and interests.

If we can abandon what the opening ceremonies of the FFA refer to as the “darkness of selfishness,” perhaps our own “Army of One” can make a difference, indeed.