The Fickle Public

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Bob Knight is one of the greatest basketball coaches in history.  Who?  I am sure is asked by many.  Of course most great basketball coaches like Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Dean Smith have faded into historical footnotes – but Coach Knight, equally on a par with any of them, is more than likely a footnote on their footnote.  Despite one of the best records in college basketball history he was fired in disgrace by Indiana University after 29 years for, frankly, being the same guy he was when they hired him.  He was irascible, and demanded much of his players.  He was a strict disciplinarian – and somewhere over the 29 years he was at IU, such traits went from laudable to disgraceful, hence his dismissal.

I thought about Coach Knight as I listened to the host’s interview with Jake Tapper on his new book on Thursday – and specifically their discussion on PTSD.  Now I am no expert on PTSD, but I could not help but wonder if PTSD is not so much about war and more about how we, the general public, treat our soldiers.  They are now, largely, a class apart from the rest of us in this age of the all volunteer military.  Where all of us, in one way or another, once went to war, now we send “them.”  Where once we welcomed home heroes, now any military action is a matter of intense political and social debate, leaving those that served in that action ducking for cover.

I wonder if those poor souls that serve this nation, then suffer so deeply, are victims of war or, like Coach Knight, the victims of changing cultural and social mores.  Is it their duty that creates their suffering, or is it our treatment of them?

Again, I am no expert – but I think the question is worth asking.  And if indeed our treatment of our military has even just exacerbated this situation much shame is due.

Meanwhile – Bwahahahahah  Take that all you holier-than-thou EV lovers.