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American Militarism on Steroids
Whatever Happened to Gary Cooper? A Seven-Step Program to Return America to a Quieter, Less Muscular, Patriotism
I have a few confessions to make: After almost eight years of off-and-on war in Afghanistan and after more than six years of mayhem and death since "Mission Accomplished" was declared in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I'm tired of seeing simpleminded magnetic ribbons on vehicles telling me, a 20-year military veteran, to support or pray for our troops. As a Christian, I find it presumptuous to see ribbons shaped like fish, with an American flag as a tail, informing me that God blesses our troops. I'm underwhelmed by gigantic American flags -- up to 100 feet by 300 feet -- repeatedly being unfurled in our sports arenas, as if our love of country is greater when our flags are bigger. I'm disturbed by nuclear-strike bombers soaring over stadiums filled with children, as one did in July just as the National Anthem ended during this year's Major League Baseball All Star game. Instead of oohing and aahing at our destructive might, I was quietly horrified at its looming presence during a family event.
We've recently come through the steroid era in baseball with all those muscled up players and jacked up stats. Now that players are tested randomly, home runs are down and muscles don't stretch uniforms quite as tightly. Yet while ending the steroid era in baseball proved reasonably straightforward once the will to act was present, we as a country have yet to face, no less curtail, our ongoing steroidal celebrations of pumped-up patriotism.
It's high time we ended the post-Vietnam obsession with Rambo's rippling pecs as well as the jaw-dropping technological firepower of the recent cinematic version of G.I. Joe and return to the resolute, undemonstrative strength that Gary Cooper showed in movies like High Noon.
In the HBO series The Sopranos, Tony (played by James Gandolfini) struggles with his own vulnerability -- panic attacks caused by stress that his Mafia rivals would interpret as fatal signs of weakness. Lamenting his emotional frailty, Tony asks, "Whatever happened to Gary Cooper?" Whatever happened, in other words, to quiet, unemotive Americans who went about their business without fanfare, without swagger, but with firmness and no lack of controlled anger at the right time?
Tony's question is a good one, but I'd like to spin it differently: Why did we allow lanky American citizen-soldiers and true heroes like World War I Sergeant Alvin York (played, at York's insistence, by Gary Cooper) and World War II Sergeant (later, first lieutenant) Audie Murphy (played in the film To Hell and Back, famously, by himself) to be replaced by all those post-Vietnam pumped up Hollywood "warriors," with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger-style abs and egos to match?
And far more important than how we got here, how can we end our enduring fascination with a puffed up, comic-book-style militarism that seems to have stepped directly out of screen fantasy and into our all-too-real lives?
A Seven-Step Recovery Program
As a society, we've become so addicted to militarism that we don't even notice the way it surrounds us or the spasms of societal 'roid rage that go with it. The fact is, we need a detox program. At the risk of incurring some of that 'roid rage myself, let me suggest a seven-step program that could help return us to the saner days of Gary Cooper:
1. Baseball players on steroids swing for the fences. So does a steroidal country. When you have an immense military establishment, your answer to trouble is likely to be overwhelming force, including sending troops into harm's way. To rein in our steroidal version of militarism, we should stop bulking up our military ranks, as is now happening, and shrink them instead. Our military needs not more muscle supplements (or the budgetary version of the same), but far fewer.
2. It's time to stop deferring to our generals, and even to their commander-in-chief. They're ours, after all; we're not theirs. When President Obama says Afghanistan is not a war of choice but of necessity, we shouldn't hesitate to point out that the emperor has no clothes. Yet when it comes to tough questioning of the president's generals, Congress now seems eternally supine. Senators and representatives are invariably too busy falling all over themselves praising our troops and their commanders, too worried that "tough" questioning will appear unpatriotic to the folks back home, or too connected to military contractors in their districts, or some combination of the three.
Here's something we should all keep in mind: generals have no monopoly on military insight. What they have a monopoly on is a no-lose situation. If things go well, they get credit; if they go badly, we do. Retired five-star general Omar Bradley was typical when he visited Vietnam in 1967 and declared: "I am convinced that this is a war at the right place, at the right time and with the right enemy -- the Communists." North Vietnam's only hope for victory, he insisted, was "to hang on in the expectation that the American public, inadequately informed about the true situation and sickened by the loss in lives and money, will force the United States to give up and pull out."
There we have it: A classic statement of the belief that when our military loses a war, it's always the fault of "we the people." Paradoxically, such insidious myths gain credibility not because we the people are too forceful in our criticism of the military, but because we are too deferential.
3. It's time to redefine what "support our troops" really means. We console ourselves with the belief that all our troops are volunteers, who freely signed on for repeated tours of duty in forever wars. But are our troops truly volunteers? Didn't we recruit them using multi-million dollar ad campaigns and lures of every sort? Are we not, in effect, running a poverty and recession draft? Isolated in middle- or upper-class comfort, detached from our wars and their burdens, have we not, in a sense, recruited a "foreign legion" to do our bidding?
If you're looking for a clear sign of a militarized society -- which few Americans are -- a good place to start is with troop veneration. The cult of the soldier often covers up a variety of sins. It helps, among other things, hide the true costs of, and often the futility of, the wars being fought. At an extreme, as the war began to turn dramatically against Nazi Germany in 1943, Germans who attempted to protest Hitler's failed strategy and the catastrophic costs of his war were accused of (and usually executed for) betraying the troops at the front.
The United States is not a totalitarian state, so surely we can hazard criticisms of our wars and even occasionally of the behavior of some of our troops, without facing charges of stabbing our troops in the back and aiding the enemy. Or can we?
4. Let's see the military for what it is: a blunt instrument of force. It's neither surgical nor precise nor predictable. What Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago remains true: when wars start, havoc is unleashed, and the dogs of war run wild -- in our case, not just the professional but the "mercenary" dogs of war, those private contractors to the Pentagon that thrive on the rich spoils of modern warfare in distant lands. It's time to recognize that we rely ever more massively to prosecute our wars on companies that profit ever more handsomely the longer they last.
5. Let's not blindly venerate the serving soldier, while forgetting our veterans when they doff their spiffy uniforms for the last time. It's easy to celebrate our clean-cut men and women in uniform when they're thousands of miles from home, far tougher to lend a hand to scruffier, embittered veterans suffering from the physical and emotional trauma of the battle zones to which they were consigned, usually for multiple tours of duty.
6. I like air shows, but how about -- as a first tiny step toward demilitarizing civilian life -- banning all flyovers of sporting events by modern combat aircraft? War is not a sport, and it shouldn't be a thrill.
7. I love our flag. I keep my father's casket flag in a special display case next to the very desk on which I'm writing this piece. It reminds me of his decades of service as a soldier and firefighter. But I don't need humongous stadium flags or, for that matter, tiny flag lapel pins to prove my patriotism -- and neither should you. In fact, doesn't the endless post-9/11 public proliferation of flags in every size imaginable suggest a certain fanaticism bordering on desperation? If we saw such displays in other countries, our descriptions wouldn't be kindly.
Of course, none of this is likely to be easy as long as this country garrisons the planet and fights open-ended wars on its global frontiers. The largest step, the eighth one, would be to begin seriously downsizing that mission. In the meantime, we shouldn't need reminding that this country was originally founded as a civilian society, not a militarized one. Indeed, the revolt of the 13 colonies against the King of England was sparked, in part, by the perceived tyranny of forced quartering of British troops in colonial homes, the heavy hand of an "occupation" army, and taxation that we were told went for our own defense, whether we wanted to be defended or not.
If Americans are going to continue to hold so-called tea parties, shouldn't some of them be directed against the militarization of our country and an enormous tax burden fed in part by our wasteful, trillion-dollar wars?
Modest as it may seem, my seven-step recovery program won't be easy for many of us to follow. After all, let's face it, we've come to enjoy our peculiar brand of muscular patriotism and the macho militarism that goes with it. In fact, we revel in it. Outwardly, the result is quite an impressive show. We look confident and ripped and strong. But it's increasingly clear that our outward swagger conceals an inner desperation. If we're so strong, one might ask, why do we need so much steroidal piety, so many in-your-face patriotic props, and so much parade-ground conformity?
Forget Rambo and action-picture G.I. Joes: Give me the steady hand, the undemonstrative strength, and the quiet humility of Alvin York, Audie Murphy -- and Gary Cooper.
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62 Comments so far
Show AllThank you William Astore for this great article.
Clearly you expose the truth that the MIC is us the US citizen and it is time for a change.
Bring America Back !!!!......Not so sure this is all that "great" Abe, since it is
very obvious all we need to do is send Steven Segal over there to wipe out all
those dirty insurgent terrorismists.
**Segal has one of them there guns that never runs out of Ammo. That's why Steven always has time to give 'em a couple Judo Chops to the neck, before he
shoots the s--t out of 'em !!!
Granted though, Col Astore has put his military mind to good use when he is on the track with John Wayne and Audie Murphy. Wayne was a cowboy and Murphy was a
journalist !!! BOO--HA--HA
No doubt. A very well written and thought out article. I enjoyed reading many of the arguments I've made in the past, yet written far better than I've ever written them.
[If we're so strong, one might ask, why do we need so much steroidal piety, so many in-your-face patriotic props, and so much parade-ground conformity?]
Strength is not what is shown.
"Forget Rambo and action-picture G.I. Joes: Give me the steady hand, the undemonstrative strength, and the quiet humility of Alvin York, Audie Murphy -- and Gary Cooper."
The primary characteristic of our modern US culture is that television is reality. The problem with "undemonstrative strength" is just what the words say; "quiet humility" doesn't make good TV.
q
Your historical truth of a civilian society as our country was created is correct.... we should have no standing army whatsoever. The founders hoped for a militia-like system similar to what Switzerland has today.
The founders were afraid of kings and the armies that caused so much havoc and economic ruin. Which is what we have now... huge "armies"... and economic ruin. These two go together.
We are a declining empire BECAUSE of the militarism.
A thoughtful and well written article on American militarism. A book which explores this subject in more depth which perhaps Mr. Astore is familiar with is the extremely relevant The Hollywood War Machine: U.S. Militarism and Popular Culture by Carl Boggs and Tom Pollard.
I disagree somewhat with Mr. Astore's #7. Perhaps because I had ended up in Vietnam, where I contributed to the deaths of many innocent Vietnamese people, I cannot state that "I love the flag." To me, loving the flag connotes that one is proud of one's country. Considering the fact, as Mr. Astore correctly notes, that the United States has used the military for its own nefarious ends and that there is actually a debate in this country as to whether the U.S. should actually implement SOME kind of tepid universal health care system [despite the fact that the U.S. is, incredibly, the only advanced country in the world that can make the claim that it does not have a universal health care system], I cannot for the life of me understand why one should be so proud of being an American. Terrorizing the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq and realizing that there are some 45 to 50 million Americans without health insurance in this country and that 18,000 Americans die each year because they do not have that health insurance would hardly seem reasons enough to make one's chest swell with pride because one happens to be an American citizen.
fantastic comment.
Good article. One more thing that ramps up the addiction are the violent video games found in homes and malls. They teach boys (mostly) that shooting at something and watching it blow up means "winning". Get your kids "Guitar Hero" or Sim games or those Farm games. Or chase them out of the house to ride a bike or skateboard or play ball.
Joe
Jclientelle
Nicely stated. Nick Turse brings this point across most effectively in a chapter that he devotes in his well written book The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives.
Thanks for the book link. I've noticed how the civilian counterpart of US militarism is expressed daily as outright rudeness. Just a few examples: loud obnoxious behavior in restaurants, running red lights long after they have turned, cutting people off whether driving or walking, parking shopping carts in the middle of the aisle blocking everyone else. Certainly not on the scale of a military invasion but does show a lack of care, respect, and compassion for fellow human beings.
linden
I know I'm a hypocrite, cause I am typing this on a putter but It might be time for a global magnetic pulse. It would end all this bullshit.
Speaking of flags how about those lapel pins that our glorious and fearless elected officials wear.. Now that is about as disgusting as any trend I have observed... They should be wearing $2000 dollar coats that have their sponsors, the corporations, that have bought their votes plastered all over them.. Like the true heroes of America, Nascar race drivers.
I would love to see obamba with his jacket covered in insurance company logos when he give his little teleprompter reading next week..
Erclone
Great comment.
erclone: Good point! Maybe determined activists can prepare for the next "revolution" to be in orange Nascar jumpsuits with corporate logos splashed all over them. It would make for great T.V. coverage. Surely some young smart entrepreneur could market a cheap "Halloween version" well in advance for the next "revolution".
To me, peaceful and hilarious non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to begin a new national conversation about the insanity of war and the greed of corporate Healthcare. The stranglehold corporate capitalism has over the U.S. Congress and the American imagination must end. First revolution, then major election reform.
"how about those lapel pins?"
worn by real lapel-pinheads!
BUT -
they could be worn inverted to signify the distress the American republic is in.
Bring America Back !!!!....!!!!...Okay Col Astore, if you dont like Rambo and the GI Joe approach, then how dare you forget our favorite American missing in action guy Chuck NOrris.
***As Col Astore would have it, Norris took his time and cleaned out every NOrth Vietnameese military outpost in a bit more than 90 minutes. !!!!
****Before I give the good Colonel the answer, I am suggesting he read yesterdays articles posted on CD=="Afghan for Dummies", and Greenwald's article as well.
Since Obama's Generals on the ground--McChrystals follies== are drawing a blank on what to do, and Team Obama is highly Clueless, how about this:
***Get out of Afghanistan, Get out of Iraq, Stay out of Iran !!!!!!!!
Those Who Do Not Remember The Past, Are Condemned to
Repeat It !!!!
When it comes to Military Affairs and OUr rightful place in this World===Obama and company were born yesterday !!
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, NOW !!!!!
"BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, NOW !!!!!"
A better thought will not be expressed today. Thanks.
An excellent and thoughtful article. A fair look at where we are and where we should be.
"Forget Rambo and action-picture G.I. Joes: Give me the steady hand, the undemonstrative strength, and the quiet humility of Alvin York, Audie Murphy -- and Gary Cooper."
Truer words were never spoken. The Rambo's of the world are fantasies, but Audie Murphy, Alvin York are real....courage, patriots, love of country, honesty and integrity and ....and embarassed when anyone mentioned it. Thats a hero.
I closely identified with #7 as my fateher was also a Marine and a Firefighter and feel the same.
#5 is also something I feel is spot on.
Though he goes further than I would in a few places and not as far as I would in others, our feelings are close, so I would of course say how good this was.
odoco
The greatest and most immediate threats to the people's sovereignty in this country is the political alignment of the Pentagon, the State Department, the FBI, the militarization of the domestic police forces, the bought-and-paid-for mainstream media, the rapidly expanding surveillance state, the rapidly expanding invasion by the military into our public school systems, the politicization of the Justice Department and the court system, the concept of the all-powerful unitary executive branch, and the transnational corporations and other monied interests. General Smedley Butler, two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, understood at the end of his career that he had been nothing more than a paid whore for the corporations of his time - and nothing has changed since then.
And never doubt for a moment that these forces would turn hostile toward any domestic uprising that would challenge, or even seriously question their legitimacy. Think not? Read current articles about the misuse of police power during the 2008 RNC convention in St. Paul / Minneapolis last year. "Preventive" detention was alive and well at that event, with no due process, etc. Go to Minnesota Independent News and get the facts.
Chris Hedges' book "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning," and Andrew Bacevich's "The New American Militarism" are excellent reads and would go far in enlightening anyone who has doubts about this topic.
The Founding Fathers understood that a standing army was one of the greatest dangers that could confront a democracy; now we not only have a standing army (mercenary in concept due to the sign-up bonuses, re-enlistment incentives, etc.) but we also have an ever-growing contingent of truly mercenary contractors who make death and destruction into a profit driven enterprise.
This is a horrendously sick society that we have created. Little compassion, enormously diminished sense of wholeness, a pseudo-religious dogma that equates prosperity and dominance with salvation in the hereafter, and national leaders who have absolutely no qualms about standing before the American people and telling one lie after another.
I totally agree with Erroll - it is not pride I feel for this country, it is embarrassment and shame. I too am a Vietnam vet, having served with three different combat outfits in two years, and I will tell you that I will never again fly the flag of this country on my property until some sense of justice, some sense of honesty and integrity have replaced the moral miscreants that now hold the reins of power.
Howard Zinn - "Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders . . . and millions have been killed because of this obedience . . .Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves . . .and the grand thieves are running our country. That is the problem."
Jim Shea
The words of Howard Zinn are deeply perceptive and wise. It's just too bad that so few Americans are willing to
seriously contemplate and then act upon them.
Sioux Rose
ODOCO: MOST-excellent post! You said it all.
Great essay.
Step number one calls for shrinking the military. How long until we have people saying, "But it provides jobs." I can just hear the 2016 presidential stump speech: We can't leave Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Columbia and Iran because it would cost the economy jobs.
Speaking of jobs, television (FOX?) aired a piece about Iraqis selling their kidneys. I always wonder who is buying. If this isn't already happening here, it will be.
Thank you, William Astore.
it is patriotism itself that is the problem here. Patriotism is divisive in nature because it pits one country against another. It inflames superiority and exclusion. If you want to be patriotic then be a patriotic human and defend compassion for others and their countries. The writer could have presented himself as a real hero by denouncing mindless allegiance to a piece of cloth. Usually at this point i would erase my raging and go to another page,but what the hell i'll post and wait for the attacks.
Why do you fear attacks? Patriotism indeed goes beyond worshiping just a piece of cloth. Real patriotism would not include militarism in the first place because error would be acknowledge and corrected via non-violent means.
odoco
Sirios33 - you thoughts are good - please don't erase. Patriotism, now a euphemism for nationalism, leads to narrow-mindedness, selfishness, and self-righhteousness - none of which lend themselves to the betterment of mankind in general.
The modern-day military only exacerbates, and in fact, ingrains these traits in malleable young people who have no other economic choice but to join the military. Hence, when they have served their time in hell, many are released being a mere physical and emotional shell of what they once were - or - are so brainwashed that they support and join the choir in calling for American dominance throughout the world.
I would ask this simple question of all readers of CD: What is this society, this culture, doing to actually promote peace? Not only in the world, but especially within our own society? What do our schools teach that promotes a sense of respect for all mankind? How are the arts and entertainment contributing to a more psychologically and emotionally healty existence? How are our political leaders strengthening and supporting peaceful resolutions to the world's problems?
I find it difficult to grasp positive and substantive answers to these questions. For these reasons, and for so many more, I cry for my country. For we are no longer a country - we are the indentured servants of a corporate - elitist class whose only priority is the accumulation of wealth and the dominance of its power.
Here's my answer to a simple (HA) question.....
"What is this society, this culture, doing to actually promote peace?"
Not much when we are actively engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its difficult to lecture others about Peace under these circumstances. Wasting our efforts there limit any real projection to help anyone. And if I were them, I'd be suspicious anyway.
"Not only in the world, but especially within our own society?"
In our own society I believe we have made great strides in a number of areas and fallen flat on our faces in others. But we are moving forward, thats for sure. The economic recession and its length will slow us down though.
What do our schools teach that promotes a sense of respect for all mankind?
Our schools are a disgrace. More "feel good" than education. Courses are a joke in most instances and its the plantation mentality in most of our urban schools. Colleges are producing High School work for the most part. I am not an admirer of our educational folks if you can't tell. If your product stinks, its your responsibility.
How are the arts and entertainment contributing to a more psychologically and emotionally healthy existence?
I'm not sure they are. I found out that Dallas no longer allows grade schoolers to day trip to hear the Symphony, Opera, Ballet or go to Arts Museums. I think more people are turning to them these days. Movies stink. Mostly violent crap.
"How are our political leaders strengthening and supporting peaceful resolutions to the world's problems?"
They aren't. Bush was bad....I'm beginning to fear this guy is worse. I know the Congress is.
Darn...I sound like a real downer. But I feel our country is on the upswing and will throw off the very folks you mentioned. The left and right might very weell come together for the samre purpose for different reasons. As for me...whatever works, whoever thought it up.
Pax my friend.
"Our schools are a disgrace. More "feel good" than education. Courses are a joke in most instances and its the plantation mentality in most of our urban schools. Colleges are producing High School work for the most part. I am not an admirer of our educational folks if you can't tell. If your product stinks, its your responsibility."
Typical right wing propaganda, always pretending that funding has nothing with do with the quality of the education and the schools.
"I'm not sure they are. I found out that Dallas no longer allows grade schoolers to day trip to hear the Symphony, Opera, Ballet or go to Arts Museums"
Real men don't waste their time and money with such sissy European pursuits. More money for the military. More freedom fries for the military.
In the first place, our schools have a great deal more funding than most countries. Its not right wing propaganda to say that money does not equate to education. California school teachers make more than 25% more than teachers in other states and their education product is one of the worse. Throwing money at ecvery problem is not the answer. And what they are being taught in many cases is BS.
I would note that nowhere did I say anything about funding. You simply read what you wanted to read.
There are however schools that do not have enough funding and they are usually in poorer neighborhoods in other states (Texas has revenue sharing)This is something the Federal government SHOULD be involved in and are not.
"Real men don't waste their time and money with such sissy European pursuits. More money for the military. More freedom fries for the military."
Here, I must assume you are making a very bad joke. And the idea that Symphony, Opera, Balle, Arts Museums would be "European" pursuits is idiotic.
Yes, US schools have more funding than (public) schools in China, or India, or African countries, etc. They don't have more funding that schools in other rich Western countries, which is what they are compared against, whenever people claim that teaching standards in the US are crappy.
Of course you said nothing about funding. That is typical right wing propaganda. The pretense that funding has nothing to do with educational standards. The pretense that the difference in educational standards between poorly funded public school and a rich private school has nothing, nothing at all to do with money.
As is usual with right wing propaganda, you conveniently avoid comparisons in funding between public and private schools. That is the crux of the issue.
"Here, I must assume you are making a very bad joke. And the idea that Symphony, Opera, Balle, Arts Museums would be "European" pursuits is idiotic."
It is indeed idiotic. Yet, that is the thinking among the right wing. Among many Americans in truth. Vast amounts of money for the military, little for the arts.
Okay, I'm going to get into this argument sooner or later. I doubt you'll be attacked, but rather have plenty of agreement from most here. I don't think you understood the call for a quiet patriotism. We are organized by nations. There is nothing wrong with feeling that as an alliance of citizenship. That brotherhood or fellowship has been malformed by the propaganda machine that has hijacked its natural strength into the flag-waving jingoism that the author decries.
The point I'm trying to make is that it makes no more sense to say that nations themselves are the evil than to say families are. Would you be a better person if you rejected your family in order to join something larger than yourself like the Obama corps? Or is it not more a matter of extending your better traits outward, first from those close to you? Why are so many now ready to extend compassion to everyone but their fellow citizens?
Many here are happy to always put down nationalism, but it is less bad than the alternative. Let's say we forget our own nation and ally ourselves with the New World Order. How do you think that will turn out? Nationalism or patriotism can be good or bad, depending on how it is defined and its purpose. That was the author's point, how patriotism has been misappropriated.
odoco
Good point Pitch Fork, nuance is everything when one attempts to describe stereotypes or stereotypical behaviors. Nationalism is not inherently bad, but in its present form it is little more than a rabid belief that 'we' are better than 'them,' that 'they' should somehow be subservient to 'our' interests, and consequently, 'we' have not only the 'right,' but the power to impose our will on others.
I think I might like to put it this way: If our nationalism is based upon our professed ideals, the better angels of our nature, then fine - I will support that to the end. But when nationalism is increasingly and deceptively based upon the camouflaged interests of the corporate/economic elite then I will continue to rally around a different flag, a different allegiance, a different mindset.
I do find it amazing that, for probably totally different reasons, both Left and Right are growing increasingly disillusioned with this government and its leadership; the left because of the government's duplicity and fawning to the corporate fraudsters, and the right because of its belief that the government is taking away its liberties and freedoms (as do the left). It will be interesting to see what comes of such feelings.
Last night Olbermann actually stated that he believed the progressive community might seek to replace Obama on the presidential ticket in 2012 - and the beat goes on . . . .
An excellent post.
"If our nationalism is based upon our professed ideals, the better angels of our nature, then fine - I will support that to the end. But when nationalism is increasingly and deceptively based upon the camouflaged interests of the corporate/economic elite then I will continue to rally around a different flag, a different allegiance, a different mindset."
I paticularly liked the part above. We agree except that our flag ( which does NOT represent the interests you so rightfully mentiond second ) represents exactly those sentiments you expressed first..." our nationalism (and patriotism...added by me) is based upon our professed ideals, the better angels of our nature"
I'd go further and say that each time someone spits or stomps on our flag like a Bill Ayers did or says they despise it, they serve the very interests you mentioned in the latter part.
"I don't think you understood the call for a quiet patriotism. We are organized by nations. There is nothing wrong with feeling that as an alliance of citizenship. That brotherhood or fellowship has been malformed by the propaganda machine that has hijacked its natural strength into the flag-waving jingoism that the author decries."
Why does that brotherhood, that fellowship have to be based on lines on a map?
"The point I'm trying to make is that it makes no more sense to say that nations themselves are the evil than to say families are."
What makes a nation anymore special than a village, a town, a city? Do you extend brotherhood and fellowship to people from the same city as you, but not to people from the other cities? What about from a neighbouring city? What about from a neighbouring city from across the international border, such as say, Seattle and Vancouver?
"Or is it not more a matter of extending your better traits outward, first from those close to you? Why are so many now ready to extend compassion to everyone but their fellow citizens?"
Who is closer to an American living in Seattle; an American living in Atlanta or a Canadian living in Vancouver?
Furthermore, why does closeness have to be determined by geography at all? Why does closeness have to be determined by arbitrary determinations of Place, by arbitrary and artificial boundaries? Why does closeness have to be determined by arbitrary lines on a map, by accidents of birth, by accidents of fate or history?
Why exactly has the choice to be between one's own family or the Obama corps? Why exactly has the choice to be between alliance to a nation or the New World Order? You are deliberately setting up a false dichotomy here.
You want to claim that patriotism can be good or bad, and that it has been misappropriated. Well, I claim that universal humanism has been misappropriated, and in actual fact, has never been actually tried yet in human history.
A very good post and an excellent point. Far too many here confuse Patriotism with what is correctly identified as jingoism and are unable to seperate the two. That inability leads them to mistaken opinions.
Hey friend. Don't ever hesitate to express your opinion here. You may get disagreement, other views, but if anyone attacks you they are a small and useless minority.
Dive in, heck I disagree with your " The writer could have presented himself as a real hero by denouncing mindless allegiance to a piece of cloth."...but I'd never attack you for your opinion...I'd just say I disagree and why usually.
sirios333: We all love our country and are patriotic to America's ideals and even though I rant about our governments corruption and false patriotism, if America was ever attacked I would do what I could to protect the country I love. I see all these bumper stickers that say God bless America, well I think they should be changed to: God bless the world.Do not worry about attacks friend, keep posting.
Well spoken!
Dr. Astore, this article needs to be mailed to each and every soldier and contractor out there. The question you posed
"If we're so strong, one might ask, why do we need so much steroidal piety, so many in-your-face patriotic props, and so much parade-ground conformity? "
is similar to what my wife kept asking me in all those years after I returned from Vietnam and recovered my mentality. You see, it was not only my addiction to patriotism and feeling strong as a way to cover up feeling left out before I joined that I was recovering from. The biggest danger to being more militaristic is that the power and urge to use force becomes so great that the side effect of resorting to extreme forms of cowardice such as suicide also arise. When I was in the Marines, I was never trained to overcome suicide and I doubt it's any better today. My wife left me an article posted by Sioux Rose that she found from one of JenniferBedingfield's comments on this site about the dangers of Mars ruling. In that article, the sentence "Mars can be a deadly force, even unto itself." holds true. In a militaristic mind, one does not want to acknowledge error but instead conceal it even if it means suicide which never works anyway.
Ask yourselves and each other this question:
How far are you willing to push militarism to the point of risking not only control and destruction of others but your own life as well?
JW, militarism need not apply to only war. Even here at home, the concept is so ingrained that people are conditioned to hastily resorting to an aggressive solution regardless of the consequences. This can be applied to big businesses using a non-violent brand of militarism to financially crush small businesses before they can compete. This can even be applied to life. Like you, I once almost resorted to suicide. It happened on earlier this year on the day of my bad date. My uncle luckily stopped me before I poisoned myself to death and then consoled me the next day followed by my parents trying to work something out. I also had cases earlier in my life where I would eat aggressively while depressed and not think twice before doing so. I could say the same thing when I started out here and on Alternet where I used to get too emotional. Some say it's best to let it out. I don't know though. When I look back, sometimes I wished I had let it out in a more controlled manner, something militarism does not encourage.
"When I was in the Marines, I was never trained to overcome suicide and I doubt it's any better today."
As I understand it, its no better now. Not much better councling on how to deal with injuries. And the worst thing is apparently the C orp does better than the other services.
This guy is right, we need to do much, much more for returning Vet's.
America’s military has been caught red handed in so many lies and deceptions that I’ve lost count. Yet even mentioning that the military has made mistakes, let alone outright lied to the public, is forbidden in America’s main stream media.
Here are a few highlights; there was no white phosphorus used in Fallujah, the veterans of the first Gulf War were not warned that they had been exposed to highly toxic radioactive depleted uranium until after a bunch of medical tests proved they had been exposed.
Jessica Lynch had emptied her rifle on her attackers before being captured and had three broken bones, gun shot wounds, and was rescued in a daring military strike against a hospital that was also used as a command post for the Iraqi military (all of which about Lynch was total bullshit) Commander Codpiece’s Mission Accomplished Banner didn’t come from the White House. The attacks on the statues of Saddam were not staged.
There were all the troops the Generals wanted for the invasion of Iraq even though there were not enough troops to secure an ammo dump THAT WE KNEW ABOUT IN ADVANCE DUE TO THE UNITED NATIONS WEAPONS INSPECTORS THAT WENT UNPROTECTED AFTER AMERICAN TROOPS HAD INITIALLY SECURED IT. 377 tons of ultrahigh explosives from the unsecured ammo dump fell into the hands of the insurgents. These ultra-high explosives were then used in IED’s that maimed and killed hundreds of American soldiers. If there were all the soldiers that were needed then why haven't the officers that allowed this to happen been in front of a Court Martial?
And even though the military specifically no longer does body counts the estimate that there have been more than a million civilian deaths in Iraq is way too high...Yah, right.
And the reason we’re in Afghanistan doesn’t have a damned thing with securing a petroleum pipeline...Yah, right.
I.F. Stone said the Number One Rule to remember, and never forget, when dealing with these never ending disasters is this:
GOVERNMENTS LIE.
PERIOD.
What is going on in the Middle East today is reminiscent of what the jazz pianist Les McCann sang on the song Compared to What on the Swiss Movement album [along with Eddie Harris, Leroy Vinegar, Donald Dean, and Benny Bailey], with these lyrics:
"The president he's got his war,
Folks don't know just what it's for.
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason,
Everyone doubts, they call it treason."
Those words are just as relevant today as when Les McCann sang them forty year ago about another war that was raging in a place called Vietnam.
History does not repeat itself; it echos. I do not like to write long posts on this site, but I think a little review is appropriate here. The following excerpt is from a middle-school American history textbook, that maybe no one reads. This is what happened during the First World War in the U.S.
"Congress passed the Sedition Act to silence any opposition to the war. The law made it a crime to speak out against the war on say something 'disloyal' about the U.S. government or the armed forces. The Justice Department arrested pacifists and socialists . . . . All over the country, patriotic citizens groups sprang up. They spied on their neighbors and made life miserable for people who disagreed with the government. . . . Socialists and pacifists were attacked and sometimes killed. Prominent Americans, like Eugene Debs, were jailed for opposing the war. Newspapers and journals that questioned American involvement in the war were often shut down by the federal government.
"After the war, most people expected a return to 'normalcy.'"
"(But) the fear of 'difference' lingered."
"People who held different social or political opinions were often harassed."
They did not have military jets in 1915, but yes, they would have been flying over stadiums then too.
History does not repeat itself; but human nature always does.
At this point in history, the American human being may be the most anxiety ridden of all the anxiety ridden humans on this planet. As our standard of living continues to decline, as the middle class shrinks, as we feel increasingly helpless to do anything but remain bent over, grabbing our ankles and watching the Big Parade of Corruption go sneeringly by, military adventurism may be THE cheap and easy substitute for our helplessness. It may become more furious and brutal as things worsen. To keep it going, future American governments may try to make a deal with the rest of the world's nations to become their chief mercenaries as long as they pay the bills. I'd love to see how all the bleeping wingnuts and fascists justify that.
One should always note that right wing groups in the US always identify themselves as "Patriot This" and "America That," in order to charge their opponents with being unpatriotic or "unAmerican." Can one imagine French politics where citizens are being charged with being "unFrench"?
this author has apparently awoken from a good long nap to find that something is rotten in the fascist state of america
his delusion with the illusion seems heartfelt but the fact of the matter is that he has been out oftouch for some time apparently
he asks: why do we watch these rambo trash movies - answer psyop - corporate media settng the sheeple on a crash course to militarism, simple as that
same goes for tv content - tv has become an unadulterated pile of shit punctuated by the most insipid and inane commercials about your breath, your hair, your colon etc
again corporate psyop
like so many others who seem to think they are looking for the truth in a desparate attempt to reconcile the fact of amerika with the myth of amerika - there is a disconnect, the dots do not line up
that is if you try to justify amerika as a good and kind force in the world
the illusion doesn't hold water at all anymore - as prez clinton used to say: that old dog aint gonna hunt
if you think of amerika as it truly is then you see the fascist murderous legacy of an imperial power gone mad, as they all do
the concept of amerika "the good" is so laughable (in a dark ugly way) so as to be absurd
you can pine for audie murphy all you want - there is no going back - its a matter of pysics - no gettin' around that old space time contiuum pal
there is nothing to go back to anyway - gary cooper was a myth as well - a cardboard cut out
john wayne was a bowl legged cowboy in a pink shirt and a often misplaced toupee
there is nothing new in any of this - amerika has been the world's biggest terrorist nation since the 1800's
right after they got finished with the genocide of the first nations they got wandering eyes and have been robbiong killing and stealing from peasants in the third world ever since
a quote from smedley butler may help to make my point:
"I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. `I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. `War is a racket.' – General Smedley Butler, former U.S. Marine Commandant, `Common Sense' in November 1935."
don't take my word for it
lastly, if you the author think steroids are out of baseball you haven't been following the game too closely
lebeau great post as usual you've said it all. nothing else to
else to add! where does the madness end? if we want to
continue to live here we have to find a way to get pandora
back in her box. i have a feeling it may start with camp
aign finance reform laws. control the politicians and
we will control the corporations!
In this militaristic, hypermasculine, patriarchal society, the media from TV, cartoons, films, video games, sports, is saturated with images and provocations to violence. And this whole process has accelerated in intensity and penetration of ever more areas over the past decades. An excellent examination of these issues is in the film Tough Guise in which the scholar Jackson Katz examines them in depth and shows their very real social consequences as young men are surrounded and immersed in this media driven notion of what it means to be male. Thus the film's title pointing out that young males are pushed to adopt a tough guise as anything else is condemned and punished harshly by other males acting as gender police. While overall crime statistics have tended downward in recent years---even while the US maintains the largest prison population in the world--crimes of gender violence have been increasing. The young are thus taught that the answer to nearly every social problem or conflict is violence or threatened violence. Exactly what ruling elites use as "foreign policy" and increasingly here at home with increasing police violence, tasering, and the rest of the increasing police state apparatus.
Smedley Butler's writings should be widely known and quoted. Too bad we don't have such a figure among us today as a public figure.