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US Empire Mocks Martin Luther King Day
I was watching the great Green Bay Packers game Saturday night, and
at half time there was a presentation of colors. The honor guard was
representing, we were told, the men and women in uniform who are
protecting us in 177 countries around the world.
177 countries?
As we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., that one fact tells you how just badly we’ve failed to put into practice the vision of Dr. King.
That fact of troops in 177 countries confirms that we are still “a
society gone mad on war,” as Dr. King noted in his magnificent speech at
Riverside Church entitled, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,”
on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated. (All the
quotes that follow are from this speech of King’s, his most profound
and radical one.)
That fact of troops in 177 countries confirms that we have yet to have
the “true revolution of values” that will make us “say of war: ‘This way
of settling our differences is not just.’ ”
That fact—along with Bush’s war in Iraq and Obama’s war in Afghanistan and the U.S. supplying two-thirds of the global arms trade--confirms that we are still “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”
That fact confirms that we still have failed to embrace “allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism.”
King said, “Our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole…a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation.” And so he talked of being “a citizen of the world.”
But we are as nationalistic as ever in this country today.
And the fact that we have troops in 177 countries means that we are “approaching spiritual death” because we as a nation continue “year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift.”
And the fact that we have troops in 177 countries means that we are an empire, and that we are still “refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.” Dr. King denounced in this speech the “individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries.”
That is still going on today, and it goes by the fancy name of “globalization,” but it’s the same old neo-imperialism.
Today, with troops in 177 countries, we still wrestle with “the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism.”
And today, with troops in 177 countries, we still have a “glaring contrast of poverty and wealth.” Actually, it’s even more glaring than when King spoke 44 years ago.
Dr. King urged us to have a “radical revolution of values.”
But with troops stationed in 177 countries, that revolution seems more distant than ever.
And note: President Obama on the campaign trail liked to quote a phrase from Dr. King’s Riverside speech, though he didn’t identify the speech itself. That phrase was “the fierce urgency of now.”
But Obama’s “fierce urgency of now” was not well defined, much less acted upon. Dr. King was clear, however: The urgency was about choosing between “nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.”
We have not yet made that choice.
And Obama has not made that choice.
In fact, he went to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, where he invoked King’s name but then quarreled with him and came out defending war.
So, today, the United States has troops in 177 countries. And that’s nothing to celebrate on Martin Luther King Day.
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71 Comments so far
Show AllFirst of all, i must say that the fact that Mr.R. got his insight while watching the 'Roman games' turns me off. But an insight is an insight. However, somehow he is missing something. Now all the football fans will be annoyed with me.....Ah.
Obama's "urgency of now" was, "How do i get these fools to believe i am 'the Promised Land'?" And sure enough, he succeeded. And the privileges and benefits of the empire aren't even trickling down to the 'citizens' here in the homeland. So all they got to sell it is all fear all the time.
"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery...."
And...Thank you MLK. Happy Birthday.
I think it is entirely possible to be a committed activist, concerned citizen and a sports fan all at the same time, but that's just me. Too many on the left are too quick to judge those who might enjoy the excitement of competitive sports, IMO. It's really not that bad. Just a game, you know?
But Mr. Rothschild is entirely right to point out the troubling nature of these militaristic displays that have become all too common at professional sporting events. And it is especially scary that suddenly the US empire is not just acknowledging but bragging about its presence in 177 countries around the world.
I mean, I thought that was supposed to be a dirty little secret that one could only find out about by reading books by Chalmers Johnson or Noam Chomsky! Now they are bragging about it? What's really troubling is the way that these militaristic celebrations are conducted at mass sporting events, and the pressure that is placed on people to celebrate this jingoistic madness.
It's all part of the mass conditioning and brainwashing process.
Absolutely true : sport has become a platform for the fascist , imperialist, amerikan empire to further brainwash the masses. The bulk of whom spend large amounts of energy over meaningless games, while their nation carries out terrorist acts against the World !
The games. Ancient Rome. Emperor Napoleon. Nazi Germany. Empire and Emperors. They need new recruits. Any body will do.
We can’t buy our way any more. What happens when power and influence fail? How many nations have we insulted, robbed or invaded?
Martin Luther King was a righteous man.
Yes, they had games in Ancient Rome, Imperial France and Nazi Germany. They have also had games in every other country in the world throughout history.
Surely we can work to fight imperialism, racism and fascism without doing away with the competitive sports that people of all ages enjoy across the country and around the world.
Martin Luther King was indeed a righteous man. He was also a sports fan: http://www.fanhouse.com/2010/01/19/hidden-side-of-dr-king-sports-fan/
Your here, I'm here, need we say more.
<
the mass conditioning and brainwashing process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUBOZtsyhfM&feature=related
"First of all, i must say that the fact that Mr.R. got his insight while watching the 'Roman games' turns me off. But an insight is an insight. However, somehow he is missing something. Now all the football fans will be annoyed with me.....Ah."
I'm not annoyed with you, rita, I'm annoyed with the Patriots for losing to the Jets. ;-D
Whew...now that I got that off my chest... We are still Empire. Empire R Us. That there is a presentation crowing about our military being in 177 countries, and that most people wouldn't make the connection to Empire, is the real story here.
But, that's the way it is. Bitching about it (as I am doing) won't change a thing. There has to be more.
>>readytotransform wrote: "...the fact that Mr.R. got his insight while watching the 'Roman games' turns me off."<<
I agree. The only insights I get when I stumble on to such commercial spectacles on TV is regarding the utter mindlessness and wastefulness, now exported to and well-entrenched in many Asian countries as well. These spectacles are NOT merely competitive sports. They ARE an integral part of the capitalist empires everywhere. The people who run these shows are not interested in your excitement, but in keeping as many people as possible hooked into watching these shows year after year, and to them it's nothing more than the filler material in between advertisements.
The more people who invest and expend their energy in watching these, the less there would be who can see through it all and would be willing to weaken the system. Those who claim to be on the left or those who think they're on the left too are human beings, and it is not easy for them to let go of things that they are already hooked on - whether it is commercial sporting shows or their daily meat consumption, EVEN if it can be shown that these are contributing to the destruction of the Earth through wasteful use of resources.
Resources do not come out of nowhere. What goes into running these commercial shows come at the expense of things more essential to life, and the money that goes into this industry is money that is taken from the larger society. Now, if the society is overflowing with abundance and affluence, with everyone having more than what they need for life, and if some of the resources are splurged on these shows, I wouldn't be complaining. And this is NOT a complaint against competitive sports - it is against the waste and the mindlessness that go with such commercial shows. And, I repeat, these are an integral part of the empire.
The larger versions of these shows are the Olympics and other international events. You can get a behind the scenes look at the Olympics from the book "Five Ring Circus: Myths and Realities of the Olympic Games" by Christopher Shaw. After I read it, I can see a similar pattern at work in the soccer world cup too. And my interactions with people from other countries who have been hooked on such sporting events and sporting rivalries tell me that there is a direct link between a lack of awareness about democracy, a lack of concern for the environment and an addiction to such distractions. And without a sufficient level of cultivated addiction, these shows cannot go on at this level. There may be exceptions, but they do not make the rule.
There are only 24 hours in a day. And these games go on for hours!
We could completely eliminate sports and meat eating without necessarily changing a thing about the political and social conditions.
The obsession with sports and the diets high in meat may well be symptoms of social and political problems, yes.
Oops, looks like we need to form a separate Common Dreams for Meat eating football watchers ! Yikes ! Who woulda thunk it ?
I have neither the courage nor the strength to pull you out from under the pile, readytotransform.
Every Empire needs its Coliseum, after all, to vicariously amuse and gratify the beast within.
And look at it this way-- if there weren't a cadre of highly-skilled millionaire athletic brutes to amuse the masses and serve as Role Models, we'd have to settle for major-league cockfighting.
And THAT's not going to happen; it's not economically viable. I mean, even with the dazzling advances in digital Jumbotron technology, there's no way you can get seventy thousand paying fans to fill a stadium just to watch two roosters whaling away at each other.
They're too SMALL, for Christ's sake.
Apart from that, it's a well-observed truism that the Amerikan Imperium's corporatized professional football field is a microcosm of the world at large. No perfunctory homage to Martin Luther King is going to come close to competing with, much less tempering, the atavistic chant that resounds in both the Big World and the Little: "Go, Team!"
Hooray for Our Side!
Well said, yohocoma. And excellent point about the "home team" loyalty which is just plain craziness. Supporting a commercial team is not the same as supporting your local school team. Some of the owners of the English Premier League football teams are actually foreigners - from the USA, Russia, UAE, Egypt and Hong Kong!
And Jim Balsille, the founder of RIM (Blackberry) has been trying to buy one of the NHL teams from the USA and move it to Canada. Just imagine! A team - his last bid was on the Phoenix Coyotes - getting bought by a rich businessman, moved from Arizona to Toronto or somewhere nearby, and suddenly the local people are supposed to get all excited and start cheering for their "local" team and buy the team merchandise junk?
You have NHL hockey teams in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona! Why doesn't it strike anyone as crazy - in the same league as the indoor ski resort in Dubai? Empires that indulge in such insanely wasteful pursuits will have to end. But when they do, the people who suffer won't be the owners - at least not in the beginning.
Predator O'Bomber drones on, saying little, looking stylsih, going through the motions, but all along defending the status quo left him by Bush and Cheney.
King's great brain came with a spine attached. The O'Bomber does not have a spine attached to his, and that makes for the difference between the two men.
Predator O'Bomber drones on, saying little, looking stylsih, going through the motions, but all along defending the status quo left him by Bush and Cheney.
King's great brain came with a spine attached. The O'Bomber does not have a spine attached to his, and that makes for the difference between the two men.
Troops in 177 countries include the Marine units guarding all the US embassies around the world. I guess the author neglected to mention that.
I didn't want to believe you, but that seems to jive with what I've found. The US has military bases in about 63 countries (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5564), which leaves about 114 nations in which we have embassies.
Who knows how they got the number of 177 or 63, but active duty Marine Security at embassies aren't what I consider to be military installations.
Now, when we consider that embassies (all embassies, of every nation) are in place not only for diplomatic reasons, but also for clandestine reasons (including destabilization), then the number 177 means something. Empire at work.
Dear Ted Markow::
If you start with the 63 countries , and then make the U.S. located ONLY in D.C., then add the 50 "satellite" states, and we're up to 133!
I saw that also 177 countries...Is amerika a great country or what..
Obomba still selling the KOOL-AID
The military, the branch of government that is instituted for our protection. Off around the world protecting us? Hmmmm. Yeah I go off around the world to buy my food too. Funny how the food never gets home though. Oh well in this story I'm not starving but my people are.
It's sad and telling that anyone believes this and not only that, with our military off protecting others which we pay for, we are paying the big price of not having them here to protect us. What do you think would happen in the event of a major world crisis that demanded they be here now? Well in that event we are out of luck. We do not get what we are paying for when we pay for protection from our government, we get nothing of the sort. Will we legitimize or accept the legitimizing of their absense until we feel the harsh consequences of it? Yes, it is only a matter of time.
Exactly. Right on. And you have to wonder who designed this bad plan and why? Surely no accident. So what is the plan for America? If we were invaded by an alliance of pissed off countries, there would be nobody home- witness Katrina.
We don’t have roads anymore much less civil defense. European countries actually take care of their own. We are such abusers- the elderly, the sick, the young, the poor.
Imagine if we had a real leader. What if Martin Luther King were president. Just imagine a truly great America! Awesome. Heaven on earth.
The plan is called 'Grand Area Strategy' and the organization that came up with it is the 'Council on Foreign Relations':
---
The basic principles of this new “imperial grand strategy,” as it was aptly termed at once by John Ikenberry, trace back to the early days of World War II and have been reiterated frequently since. Even before the United States entered the war, planners and analysts concluded that in the postwar world it would seek “to hold unquestioned power,” acting to ensure the “limitation of any exercise of sovereignty” by states that might interfere with its global designs. They outlined “an integrated policy to achieve military and economic supremacy for the United States” in a “Grand Area” to include at a minimum the Western Hemisphere, the former British empire, and the Far East, later extended to as much of Eurasia as possible when it became clear that Germany would be defeated.
---
http://bostonreview.net/BR28.5/chomsky.html
http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Brain-Trust-Council-Relations/dp/0595324266
CFR. Thanks. Somewhat familiar. But, how does it outline “an integrated military and economic supremacy..” for the the United States and call it economic supremacy when it is so inverted that the US is subsequently failing/weakening from within? Does the plan involve a greater/secret power or “winner” than the US? Or is this design the end of the world? Why bother unless the US is used as a front and is discarded with the consequences we are now beginning to see? What American would plan this for itself? Something I must be missing..
The interests of the class of people who created the CFR ("Imperial Brain Trust") are to a significant extent, transnational. And, although there is long term relative decline of the US compared with, say, Northeast Asia or Western Europe (something that's akin to, say, GM losing it's #1 spot, i.e. a complicated and actually expected result, as the situation of 1950 US supremacy was itself, just like that of GM at the same time, an artificial situation because of either WWII or bad decisions by rival companies), but it's not as if the US is turning into Haiti either. The ordinary American still has a standard of living that's undreamt of for 90%+ of human beings.
Got it. Still have questions..
It would be significant if we could address and go after those in the transnational class seeking this outcome. Can we identify them and hold them accountable for our stolen future and the economic disasters they have forced?
The standard of living may appear to be higher, yet pull back the curtain and it is Americans with no savings, whose pensions and social security are now targeted and Americans have no health care, in fact what the hell do Americans have?
On edit, I want to ask you if you conclude that America gained so much superiority after WWII because it did not have to rebuild as did most of the rest of Western Europe and Russia- countries whose toll from the war was catastrophic?
These are all good questions, and I can only take a stab at them superficially:
---
Bill Robinson has done interesting research on transnational ruling elites:
http://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/BillRobinson.mp3
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/robinson/articles.shtml
---
The standard of living may be high, but the level of happiness can still be low and there can be many unhealthy energies on the loose. Last year I saw a great movie on how a wealthy, educated, cultured society like that of Germany turned out the way it did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4iwMY7RxLw
---
US was already by the 20s the largest economy and WWII in which the economies of Germany, France, and UK went down the drain only made the result definitive.
m156- terrific link to Mr. Robinson’s abstract titled “Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites.”
Thanks for the reference. It is reassuring to know that academia is on it and I hope its a revelation.
Have the transnationals sacrificed the US? National elites appear to have lost to the global economic mercenaries. Again, Americans need to identify the global elite class members before its too late to survive them, don’t you think?
The toxic mixture of an ignorant population in love with violence, a gigantic for-profit defense industry and a thoroughly corrupt congress insures a permanent war mentality and Dr. King would be considered an enemy of the state in Obama's America.
I think Matt Rothschild could have just furnished a link to the text of the full speech, and let us rediscover just how far we have NOT come in turning away from war. There must be an enemy of America somewhere, and we're just gonna keep marching until we find one!
Once again it becomes obvious that when a country has troops in 177 countries, its domestic economy and standard of living are going to implode.
It underscores the hypocrisy of those political leaders in both parties who would cut or eliminate every government program that provides some basic sustenance to the American people, while ignoring the gushers of military waste that are the true sources of our impending demise.
Can everyone name 177 countries?
My friend can name all 194, and their capitals.
Ask anyone you can.
This could be a chance to educate people and sheeple that the world consists of more than just the USA and 'others'.
More incomplete sentences:
"the men and women in uniform who are protecting us in 177 countries"
Should be protecting us and the natural resources we require from 177 countries.
Unfortunately Matthew Rothschild misheard, they said "in" 177 countries not "protecting us in 177 countries"
Aside from which it's nitpicking like this, political colrrectness casrried to extremes that makes us look like fools to the average citizen.
This wasn't even worthy of internet space.
Consequently - in 177 countries, clots of snotty-nosed children wait excitedly for some Yankee troop to throw a Hershey bar onto the street, for which they can scramble competitively while photographers take fotos for the cover of =Stars & Stripes=. It makes you quietly proud.
Trylon
"...are protecting us in 177 countries around the world."
Yet, we don't have the resources or the will to protect our own citizens from poverty, disease, bankruptcy and the occasional random handgun massacre.
Nice.
As long as we have our priorities in order, right?
America, F*CK YEAH!!!
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke truth to power and was called a Communist ( today he would be called a terrorist ) and was mocked, demonized and vilified in the fascist, MSM when he came out against the war in Vietnam; he caused that power to become paranoid. That fascist power had him assassinated when they felt he was a real threat to that power. If he were alive today, he would be an anathema to Obama and be disgusted with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and our troops around the world. Martin Luther King Jr.: A rare, brave, saintly man that like this article points out, is still being mocked today. To me, an American Mahatma Gandhi.
Well said, thank you; always for peace and truth. tioche
"But Obama’s “fierce urgency of now” was not well defined, much less acted upon. Dr. King was clear, however: The urgency was about choosing between “nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.”
We have not yet made that choice.
And Obama has not made that choice."
It should be clear by now that Obama made that choice from day one in his administration.
Yes.
http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/my_dream_20110116/
the parasitic elites are loving you peons spending what little time and energy on quarreling over minute details, swallowing obvious poison pills dropped on a daily basis by cheap shills like mightymite and chameleon.
they are laughing their head off all the way to the bank, over how they focused your attention on the good ol "gun control" vs. "right to arm" shinnanigans, taking your eye off "the control of the people by the fascist government, on behalf of the parasites on wall street, in the middle of economic and political crisis".
I did not know mightymite and chameleon were making us peons and taking our eyes off the fascist government.
If that is your take on MLK Day, maybe you spend too much time here.
why comment on something you don't know about? did i hit it too close to home for you?
See Pat Tillman, football hero, dead U. S. Army Ranger. "They" burned his uniform and diary. Enough said?
177 is all but 17. Those must belong to the people we're being protected from.
probably tiny islands like Nauru and Maldives with no resources and no room for a C5A galaxy to land.
Along with China, Russia, North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.
I'm afraid that the days of being "against war" are long gone. The present American public does not, in general, find war to be immoral or even distasteful anymore. It wasn't like that when I was growing up in the 50's and 60's.
Even many "liberal" friends nowadays meet my protestations against ongoing perennial war with either silence or weak excuses for Obama's abominations. They clearly don't care much. Orwell's once horrifying predictions are now easily accepted realities.
Being "anti-war" is anachronistic nowadays, and anti-war people are stuck in a small frustrated minority.
help push the system go down faster
by withdrawing participation and contribution.
the reality will fast teach the masses what nice words can't.
How do you do it.. I mean fast teach the "masses" and us "peons"?
Who have you taught so far?
What does your family and friends think about being taught fast?
Bring America Back !!!!
The stark realities of Orwells book all came to be long
before the date title of 1984 got here on the calendar.
Assassinations and medical corruption played as tools by
which oppressive political controls were forced upon
we the sheeples===then and everomore as now we know them.