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War is Slavery - An Awakening
It was January of 2003, late at night, and I was home alone. I turned on the TV. The movie Platoon was on. I had never watched any violent shows nor read anything about war or Viet Nam since I left there in March of 1971. Now, all these years later, I figured it was time and I could handle it. The scene was a US patrol entering a village. I saw the kids with their big dark eyes, skinny bodies and ragged clothes - and it all came back. The sights, the sounds, the smells. I turned off the TV and sat in a darkened room. It was like a lightning bolt followed by thunder. It hit me . . . and then proceeded to roll through my mind. Now what?, I asked myself.
The next day was a frenzy of activity. Answers. Answers. I needed answers. The internet (thank goodness for this powerful tool) became my life. Unstructured for the first few months, I consumed a new world of information. At 57 years of age with an MBA, it seemed like I should have known these things. But I was almost totally ignorant. Information on war, peace, politics, world affairs, religion, organizations, books, magazines, videos, DVDs, in depth radio and TV shows - and the list grew with each passing day. I needed structure. After several months I formulated two questions: why war? and why do we so proudly send our children to kill other children?
These two questions burned my brain. Howard Zinn helped with his book on US history. Marine Major General Smedley Butler helped with his booklet "War is a Racket". Many other authors and people and programs moved me along the path.
My research revealed that the main causes of war are money and markets. There is always plenty of flag waving and bluster about the "evil ones", but every war I've studied, once you begin peeling back the layers, has money and markets as a common core.
Why do we send our kids to kill? Because that's how we raise them. Sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, but there is an ever present message that violence is the solution to conflict. Go into any park in any town and you'll probably see a military statue, or a cannon. Veterans' memorials are everywhere. Veterans and the military lead parades. The military carries the flag into sporting events. POW-MIA flags fly from Post Offices and other buildings. Highways are named after wars, war veterans, and generals. We call the military "service". Battleships are named after Presidents. We have civil war reenactments. We let violence into our language - "I could just kill my kids", "bullet points", and sports announcers inject "kill", "beat", "destroyed" into their descriptions. The more overt influences are easy - video games, TV shows, weapon toys, paint ball parks. It's there. Everyday. All of these lower the barriers to hurting others.
I've tried to summarize my findings into short, snappy slogans, to get people to think. I use to say that "war is failure". This worked for me for a while. But war is only failure for one side. For the other side, war is magnificent. It is the best business in the world. High profits, little competition, products rapidly used. Weapons are the number one export product of the USA. Thousands of people are employed in the death and destruction industry. Thousands also spend their lives teaching at war colleges and military schools. Other thousands plan wars and "covert actions". Mercenary companies are on the rise. I'm told that there are over 120,000 mercenary troops in Iraq. Contractors are used for everything from "security" to spies.
Thus I needed a new slogan, a new summary of my research. I found it in an unusual location. As I walked through the Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati I began to feel what slavery was/is. It felt vaguely familiar. The oppression, the hatred, the total dominance, the violence, the tearing apart of families are part of slavery, but there is also "the other side". On the other side is the money and the righteous - the people who were not only comfortable with slavery, but promoted it. The preachers, the politicians, the teachers, the business people, the pillars of society said slavery was not only necessary, it was the only way the country could survive. The slaves weren't people. They weren't human. It was OK to torture them and shoot them and hang them. It was OK to use dogs on them and beat them. They didn't have a brain. The Bible didn't apply to them.
Slavery will never be forgotten - on the one side. The scars are deep, bone deep, generations deep. Like war. On the other side the masters and the foreman and the slave traders and the bankers and the pillars of society and all those who supported and profited from slavery didn't have bad memories. They didn't have loses. They knew that what they did was "right for the country'". There was nothing to forget.
As I thought about slavery over the next months I began to realize that slavery and war are very similar. The one side (the slaves, or in war - the civilians and the lower ranks of the military) suffers. The other side says war is a great and noble thing and the only way the country can survive. War is slavery.
25 Comments so far
Show AllWell said, period.
Yes, the State is an artificial entity. War, when waged, is in its interests. Agreed.
war becomes one of the inevitable by-products of an enslaved life - one who either consciously or not rationalizes "trading - in" their freedom to think, feel, live, for the "security" of a predictable, conventional existance. problem is this isn't the outcome from that trade-off. when people decide to merge into a soulless security-blanket mindset, putting all faith in elected representatives to take care of thinking about the deeper issues of peace and economic justice and environmental responsibility, they effectively withdraw into passive acquiescence. they becomes useful, tax-paying tools of a lying, warring state. when people begin to awaken, they become dangerous. but not to themselves. there is another kind of trade-off here. the government is no longer one's protector, it is the perpetrator of crimes against humanity to which one is now obligated to resist with one's whole being. paradoxically, this is liberating.
How many people really want a peaceful world? I mean- really want it? What percentage of Americans hold this as a precious value willing to align their behaviours with their values?
My guess is where the wheels literally meet the road...peace is probably simply not desired enough...by enough people. Many if not most people secretly love the drama, excitement, destruction and diversion WAR creates-violence sells...
How can we make PEACE more seductive and desirable than-destruction?
Interesting comments so far. My take on whether or not peace is really achieveable is that it is not. There are basic human instincts at play here. Animals have a survival instinct and also tend to play dominance games over each other, and man is no different. To try to eliminate this from our collective psyche is really like trying to remove something genetically embedded within us.
That being said, there are also societal and sociological reasons for wars. Religion is one, which is really a play for dominance on a large scale. Wars are also fought for market and money reasons, as stated above, which fall into the survival of the fittest category.
John Lennon really said it best with "Imagine" - but unfortunately even tho we can imagine it, it will not happen as long as man is a slave to his reptillian instincts, which seem to be getting worse, not better, at least on the world stage.
The last century has been very sad to behold, since we have developed WMD's that can literally wipe everyone off the planet. Up until then it was just fear of God or Armeggedon that kept people submissive and in line. Now our military is capable of worldwide destruction, and also armed dominance in every locale on the globe. There is no hiding, there is no escape, and there is no fixing the problem, because there will always be assholes that must dominate over others to satisfy themselves, either physically, financially, or emotionally, or all three.
It's all very depressing, and I wish there were an answer. I honestly do not believe there is an answer to complete peace - there are too many who would choose dominance over peace to achieve their own selfish, ego-driven goals in life.
Bill V.
As you say war is slavery for the grunts, their families, the citizenry who sacrifice education and health care. Slavery for the hapless civilians who, in dying, lose everything. In short, slavery for the world's poor.
War is peace for the corporations who own the congressmen who make the laws to allow the neocons a free hand to make war without end. In short, peace for the world's rich.
And let's not forget that as the poor become poorer they become easier prey for PR firms who tell them how to vote.
Mr. Stieber, thank you for this examination. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on class and war-with something like 57% of the wealth controlled by 1% of us.
I've written elsewhere that modern/conscripted war (and perhaps volunteer also?) has a dynamic that works like this: (a) stripping of independent judgement away from its combatants, (b) subsequent ethical monopolization by the State and (c) the indentification/manufacture/dehumanization of the enemy. All of which require (d) the prerequisite of a perverted sense of ethics by those individuals who monopolize the decision for themselves.
Think about it carefully. Why would you, I, or anyone ask someone else to give up his own ethical judgement about who, where, when and why to kill? It's a grave enough decision to make for oneself. Why would anyone feel compelled to make it for others? On a mass scale? For pointless/selfish/greedy/optional reasons?
I differentiate between this and a call for pacifism. If fascist invaders were patrolling most American streets, for instance, they'd probably face constant small-arms fire from the locals. There's arguably an emergent/defensible use of force to protect oneself/community/etc. But even before we get to that point, we're dealing with the ability to chose.
And, so, the writer here is correct in drawling a parallel with war and slavery. Self-determination (whether economic, political or ethical) is the common root issue.
Glaucus, I need no convincing that there will be war as long as there is government.
born2bwild, I agree 100%
Mr.E, There is no way to make war as sexy as peace but that does not mean we have no choice
Ok, I am angry and proud of it.
Anarchy might arguably be better than what we have now, but I still think that an improved kind of state-- one that cooperated with international agreements, would be best of all.
Anarchy leads to vigilante-ism for conflict resolution. There will always be conflict. Lots of small, individual conflicts can be just as bad, or worse than a few larger conflicts.
There is a survival advantage to centralized governments and has been since the Roman Empire and even before.
If a better government had a department of Peace, as Kucinich suggests, we might see a system that would be more peaceful and prosperous than either (a) the status quo or (b) anarchy.
Governments were invented for a reason. I think it's best not to throw the baby out with the bathwater in this case.
Just before the war started the local TV was running one of the ads they run, I believe for free, as "human service" ads. They usually run them late at night or very early in the morning when nobody is actually watching. At any rate they were running an ad to inform kids that gangs are bad. They showed some scenes of gang violence and then profoundly stated, "Violence is NEVER the answer". Then the US violently invaded Iraq and I never saw that ad again.
War is wrong.
Always.
Glaucus hit the nail:
Peace is the enemy of all states, all police, all military, because peace is anarchy.
Peace: The state of no one imposing their will upon another with violence or the threat of violence.
Anarchy: The state of no one imposing their will upon another with violence or the threat of violence.
Anarchy ends when violence begins. A chaotic control of another is still a governing of that person, no matter what the scale. When one person imposes their will with violence, there the anarchy ends and the governing begins.
Anarchy can lead to cooperationism. You don't play fair (by the democratic definition of the word) and nobody plays with you. You cannot buy or sell. We could rely on a state to enforce these rules with violence, but total economic isolation uses merely cooperation and non-cooperation.
For this to work, we must act unitedly and act democratically.
Money is not a threat to this: we put the value in money, and we can remove it too. Same goes for wealth of any form. Without labor it is useless.
It is not simple, because it is no simple task to act unitedly and act democratically, but lazyness does not justify violence. Violence is NEVER the answer.
War is the best way to maintain peace. Attack is the best way of defence, for all we hold dear. - That's what the war-profiteers always claim. And again the Emperor has no clothes but his cloak of war.
After the wars humans are always willing to forgive and rebuild, for a chance to live in peace.
Then we forget a little, and some profiteers start urging war again, exploiting the willingness to forgive.
So forgiving, yet not forgetting, and never letting war-powers rise above the people - that's the eternal answer.
That's even in the US Constitution ("We the people ... in a Congress ... shall have Power ... to declare war, [and] to raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years").
But then someone forgot again...
As long as we make heroes out of those in uniform, and those who fight wars, and those who promote them, we will have wars. When the day comes when having fought in a war, promoted a war, made money off war or its implements or spoils is a humiliation, then war's will stop.
I intend to live to see that day, and to know that my children and their children will look back on our barbarous actions as incomprehensibly benighted.
Two topics-am serious about both.De-emphasize everything that is militaristic about our culture-starting with the Star Spangled Banner-America The Beautiful is even a far better song. Over a period of time replace the flag which denotes imperialism with maybe a rainbow flag?
Dismantle all pro football leagues-I would prefer no compensation-but that may be impossible. Didn't Teddy Roosevelt try to ban college football? There's an ugly truth to the explotation of players that only recently has been given much attention. Offensive linemen in particular are encouraged to put on as much as 100 pounds of fat. Much of thishappened because the rules were changed allowing pushing with the hands instead of blocking mainly with the shoulders. Read a study years ago that life expectancy of NFL linemen was 51 years! Lest anyone think this trivial-this sport is supported with tax dollars and exemplifies our violent nature.
Of course I'd advocate outlawing prizefighting too-and guffaw when promoters and media shills claim that would disriminate against minorities. It would deny thieves like Don King the chance to rob boxers blind. Spend even a small portion of that money for social programs.
It would be unpopular to make out the war heroes as violent thugs, but probably realistic. I have heard first hand accounts of what our GIs are doing in Iraq. It aint pretty. They are not my heroes.
The problem arises if we make war criminal, then our "heroes" become war criminals. You might as well burn their flag in front of them.
Gen Smedley Butler wrote a great booklet called "War is a Racket" that is available online to read. Read it!
Annually, political wars kill over a million people (last century). The entire combined history of terror has killed less than an average year of war on earth.
And we call ourselves Homo sapiens, which means "Man of wisdom".
The greatest threat to humanity is/was/will remain GREED. Limit greed and you limit evil. America's system of greediness inherently feeds evil and breeds evil.
Poverty kills more children than war or terror. Simply put: GREED KILLS!
GREED IS MURDER.
We need a new system of politics that is not based on power-structure, but based on helping the children of humanity to grow in physical health, intellectual health and social wisdom. Call it the Children's Party.
Another good read on this subject is one Mark Twain's lesser known writings, THE WAR POEM. It not well known because it was and still is so controversial. It is a devastating indictment of war and reflects Twain's utter disdain for imperialism.
Ok, first of all, lest anyone misconstrue my views, I am anti-war. That being said, war can be necessary. We went to war to throw off the bonds of tyrany and thereby gain our independence. We again went to war in the middle of the last century to stop a megalomaniac from over-running the rest of the world and enslaving them, i.e., Hitler. But this 'war' is not a war of righteousness, but as someone above so eloquently put it, it is a war of greed. In seizing control of a sovereign nation, we have enslaved it's people and have set as a condition for their returned freedom(such that it will be now), their oil.
I think that we as Americans should take steps to ensure that we are not lumped ito the same mold as the Third Reich because we back an equally maniacal man. It could be as detremental to us as it was to them.
A wise man once said that, all that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
"All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing."
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", is often attributed to Burke, but does not appear in his works or recorded speeches: "Attributed to Edmund Burke, but never found in his works. It may be a paraphrase of Burke's view that "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle" (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, April 23, 1770)." - Platt, Suzy, Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations, p. 555. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1993.
Whoever said this, it's certainly true. The exploiting elites of the world thrive on that. So, my Good Wo/Men, never let bad deeds go unchallenged - keep Good in mind and in action.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
As far as the article goes, agreed 100%.
The way we are is a great mystery to me. Consider India when long ago the country was Buddhist. They were then invaded and put to the sword from the north. Pacifism, like Buddhism seems to work as long as there is still a warrior class. When the warriors also take the good path, there always seem to be others not so evolved who take advantage. So, the constant see-saw of enlightenment and misery continues. The mystery will be revealed to us all no doubt, in due time. Balance seems difficult in this world.
Many people feel that Peace is too difficult to accomplish. It is easy to create hate and say those dirty (insert derogatory name) Native Americans, French, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Iraqi's etc... It is easy to wave the flag and justify a war as a good thing and as the last diplomatic option that had to be carried out. Our government has been using the same stories to get people to believe that a war is just since we became a country. It is much more difficult to get people excited for Peace. With Peace there are no mega weapons manufactures making money and no news to show our "smart bombs". With Peace however there is no death of hundreds of thousands of civilians as well as thousands of Americans.
Peace is not impossible it is just not as easy. It has been done throughout history. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus and there are more, these people lived and worked toward Peace. They showed and continue to show that Peace is possible. War is easy, Peace is not. War makes billions of dollars, Peace does not. War kills people, Peace does not. War creates hate, Peace does not. What are your values? If you value life why would you not work for Peace? It is not easy and it will not make you rich, but it will not make you responsible for death either. You CANNOT kill for Peace! By doing nothing we "Americans" are responsible for killing. We do not pull the trigger, but our taxes and our silence are paying to keep Americans and Iraqis in harms way.
"Never has there been a good war or a bad peace."
—Benjamin Franklin