Professor J,
Let's start with the link to the documentary you recommended and quoted last time: Why We Fight. I
watched it twice. Excellent, and disturbing. Some illusions are foisted
upon us and some we readily embrace because the truth is very nearly
unthinkable. Unspeakable. The chunky thinking about things like
"freedom" and "democracy" is so much easier than untangling the twisted
filaments of truth. We have trouble wrapping our brains around what it
would mean if another game was afoot. We let those thoughts recede and
dam them up with, in many instances, more vehement arguments and
emotions. Acknowledging the uncomfortable truth presented, shakes people
to their foundations. "What if much of what I believe is a lie?" isn't a
question very many people want to ask. That the misinformation is
intentional and elaborate means that our trust is misplaced. Something
in us shrinks to imagine what else that might mean.
Our national discomfort, and suspicion is evident in
the quote from the guy who said he thought we fought for freedom "...at
least I hope that's why." I couldn't help thinking in the back of his
mind he doubted his own words even as they came out of his mouth. But
then, it's so much easier to just believe. Others noted a dislike for
war and questioned the need for it, but in a complex and rapidly
changing world, and without a historical view to help read the road
signs they've acquiesced the right to ask too many questions.
Besides what is really the point when the media (Have you noticed
that journalists and the press have been melded into that new all
encompassing term?) is in collusion and keeps the carefully scripted info-tainment flowing?
As I watched this I once again thought about how different our
foreign policy might look if every high school student were required to
serve for two years before going to college. (Just as public schools
would change rapidly for the better, if all elected officials were
required to send their children there.) While Daddy's being a senator
might have enough influence to get you a desk job, I think we'd see an
immediate effect when the children of executives, doctors, and local
politicians were being put in harm's way for the sake, not of national
defense, but instead to earn massive profits for defense contractors.
We spend 8.9 billion on ICBM missile defense systems that would be
useless in stopping a shipping container concealing a dirty bomb. The
defense industry is able to monopolize the best scientific and research
talent and squander the nations' resources and investment capital. These
defense industries produce nothing that is useful for society or the
national trade account. the offer little more than a psychological
security blanket for fearful Americans who want to feel protected and
safe. (153)
"The Pentagon, Melman noted, is not
restricted by the economic rules of producing goods, selling them for a
profit, then using the profit for further investment and production. It
operates, rather, outside of competitive markets. It has erased the line
between the state and the corporation, and it subverts the actual
economy."(154)
The film points out that many young
people with limited choices make up a large part of the all volunteer
military. This is depicted painfully by showing us a young man with few
other options. I wonder what happened to him. I couldn't find any
information about him but I did find this quote by the film's
writer/director/producer/ Eugene Jarecki:
"The crucial notion is that we have a poverty draft. It
may look voluntary, but it's not. It's not semantic to say so, but
joining the military is the best game in town for people in the inner
cities and forsaken heartland. Adam Smith's invisible hand is drafting
people instead of Uncle Sam's pointed finger."
The country is involved in wars, the support of which is
based on lying to the public through massive media campaigns and
carefully constructed language. Americans don't know how we got here,
can't understand why they hate us, and make no personal sacrifice
in whatever conflict we are involved in. Indeed apart from members of
the military and their families, there is nothing to indicate that we
are in a prolonged conflict. They are tolerated because they indirectly
affect a relatively small part of the population. I was cleaning out a trunk this week and found family ration cards from WWII for coffee and sugar. Sacrifice shared by everyone meant that the entire population had a stake in seeing the thing through and looking forward to the END.
"What we are seeing is a disconnection of our American foreign policy from the American citizen." ~Karen U. Kwiatkowski
We never see an end to conflict now, the names of countries and "evil" leaders we must depose just change as we go about our business.
You mentioned Kennedy and the "missile gap" which is also
mentioned in a book I'm currently reading revolving around events during
his first year in office. I was watching his first State of the Union
Address online and was struck by the militarized language in that speech
just ten days after inauguration. Still by comparison it was fairly
tame compared to what we have been hearing since then.
http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/jan-30-1961-jfks-state-union-9272368
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