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Not Another War! Why Attacking Iran Would Be Untold Disaster
Do the people of the United States really want perpetual warfare? Just as we are struggling to extricate ourselves from cruel, expensive, and unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our country is hurtling towards another even more disastrous conflagration, this time with Iran. Iran is not a small, backward, or feeble country. It has over 78 million people (ranking 18th among nations), is 71 percent urban, and enjoys a life expectancy of over 70 years. Iranians are 84 percent literate, 1.8 million attend universities (60 percent are women), and they have a GDP per capita of over $12,000.
Although Iran (formerly called Persia) has not made a serious attack on another country for at least 200 years, it does possess a formidable military with over half a million regular armed forces and some three million combat capable reserves. It also deploys short and medium range missiles, and has developed "swarming tactics" by which numerous small fast boats neutralize technologically superior naval forces. After suffering a surprise attack by Iraq in 1980, Iran showed it could recover quickly from initial defeat and repulse a better-armed enemy. Although large numbers of Iranians despise the current government, a gratuitous attack on the motherland would surely provoke a unified and determined nationalist response. It would also guarantee Iran the sympathy and support of Islamic and Third World people everywhere.
All this indicates that an attack upon Iran would be anything but a cakewalk. A recent historian of modern Iran (Professor Ervand Abrahamian) concludes that such aggression "could easily escalate into a catastrophe on the magnitude of Europe's Thirty Years War."
Why is there danger of war with Iran? The basic reasons are two-fold. The United States has never accepted the Islamic Revolution of 1979 which ousted Shah Mohammad Pahlavi. The Shah was a repressive dictator, but a close American ally installed in 1953 by a CIA organized military coup. Ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, US administrations have preferred punishing Iran in various ways rather than engaging in honest diplomacy to resolve conflicts. The American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan have, entirely unintentionally, strengthened the position of Iran by devastating its regional rivals. Washington now fears that enhanced Iranian power (combined with the Arab Spring) will eventually undermine U.S. control of energy resources in the Middle East and, in particular, will destabilize the reactionary, but utterly faithful, U.S. client regime in oil rich Saudi Arabia.
The second reason for the danger of war with Iran is Israel. The state of Israel, engorged by bountiful U.S. military aid, is currently the pint-sized bully of the Middle East. It has dispossessed the indigenous population of Palestinian and it selectively assassinates their leaders. It periodically attacks neighboring countries and maintains a large but unacknowledged nuclear arsenal. Israel dearly wants to continue as the dominant power of the Middle East and fears that Iranian ascendance will challenge this coveted status. Tel Aviv argues that Iran's nuclear program constitutes an "existential threat" but this claim is surely bogus. Iran is not producing nuclear weapons and Israel is entirely able to deter any conceivable Iranian nuclear attack. Netanyahu's belligerent war rhetoric could be a bluff intended to make the United States even more aggressive towards Iran.
A war with Iran would be an economic and political disaster and, unfortunately, this is no hyperbolism. Such a war would escalate the price of oil and sabotage our tepid economic recovery from the recent recession. It would enormously elevate our perilously high national debt, and it could terminate the role of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Even more fundamentally, if human society has any chance of surviving the combined dangers of nuclear warfare and climatic catastrophe, it must be through the rule of robust international law. A preemptive attack upon Iran utterly shreds international law and grossly violates elementary concepts of justice. It thereby endangers not only the Middle East, but also the long-term survival of the human community.
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Show AllThe Beat goes on. I love reading all the pros and cons for starting another war. Very rare to hear it mentioned that it is JUST PLAIN FUCKING WRONG! It undermines our entire legitimacy to even seriously contemplate wreaking death and destruction on innocent people, folks just like you and me, with families and dreams and ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILITY for the crazy actions of their government! When will this madness stop?
+1
I completely agree with you, limeres. However, I do find myself having to give facts to misinformed people who are terrified of Iran because of the press coverage, and who automatically turn to military solutions. That's who we are.
Which is why USA must go to war.
A war against Iran will help eradicate the heavyweight of absurdity on our planet.
The dollar has to be demoted. Its status is a root cause of the insanity resulting in this patent absurdity.
Very few US people are in touch with this reality. American English proudly displays the colllapse of reason. Words like democracy, peace, justice, war, American, rights, and a plethora more are presently laughable when uttered in the US tongue.
The world is watching as the USA falls into madness. It is a very frightening thing to see.
Some are happy. Israel, for example loves it, profits by it and aims to supersede the USA believing itself superior. Its leaders firmly believe they have the USA tying itself in knots. They actively encourage the war that could be the final tie on the gordian knot. Their aim is not only to bow Iran but also to gravel the USA. Just look at Netanyuhu's face. He is so confident he does not bother to hide his contempt.
The knot can easily be untied.
Start at the one end by dropping the apartheid term American. On the US tongue it is an insanely exclusive name for a relatively small number of people of all those living in the Americas, effectively demoting the majority, such as Canadians, Brazilians, Argentinians, Peruvians, and so on, to the level of others just as the SA government once stupidly defined others such as Zulus and Xhosas to be non-Whites or non-South Africans. Israel does the same to non-Jews.
Start at the other end by dissociating the USA from Israel.
It is an easy knot to untie but such is the present gleeful and pompous greed of the USA that if another horrendous war is needed to put an end to it, so it will be. Nobody but those who stay away from the war profit from the war. A war will leave the great profiteer Israel and its likes to be dealt with and this is a very frightening prospect. There has arisen a twisted evil in Israel that makes the USA into a kingdergarten.
The world needs the USA to be sane but we will do without it if necessary.
>>"Do the people of the United States really want perpetual warfare?"<<
Can writers be any more naive? The American people do not determine policy. In our system of elite, top-down rule, those decisions are made by the oligarchs
"[American leaders] are perhaps not so much immoral as they are amoral. It's not that they take pleasure in causing so much death and suffering. It's that they just don't care ... the same that could be said about a sociopath. As long as the death and suffering advance the agenda of the empire, as long as the right people and the right corporations gain wealth and power and privilege and prestige, as long as the death and suffering aren't happening to them or people close to them ... then they just don't care about it happening to other people, including the American soldiers whom they throw into wars and who come home - the ones who make it back alive - with Agent Orange or Gulf War Syndrome eating away at their bodies. American leaders would not be in the positions they hold if they were bothered by such things."
(William Blum)
" Do the people of the United States really want perpetual war ?"
The short answer is yes! The people that control America's foreign policy love wars. In a nut shell: Perpetual enemies = perpetual wars = perpetual profits for the International Financiers, Defense contractors, Wall Street banksters and the rest of the 1%.
And a much of the 99% are either corrupt Congressmen and women, brainwashed, apathetic, or not bothered by perpetual wars; otherwise, they would do something about them. I rest my case.
Massive brainwashing by the empire controlled msm, plus fear mongering, amerikan racism, corporate driven imperialism, and bought war criminals in warshington... a deadly combination.
No....but the people of the united states have become cowardly sheeples.
I absolutely agree with you, but you have to consider the audience that this writer is appealing to. The "Daily Camera" appears to be a local paper in Boulder, CO. It's not like this article was written for the Socialist Worker or even Common Dreams. In that case, the writer might take a different tact.
Personally, I have been convinced for years that our only hope is an actual, bona fide revolution. We must recognize our own powerlessness and that we have absolutely no influence whatsoever over the policy determinations of the ruling class, i.e. the 1%. Then we must organize to overthrow this class, and do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.
Until we seize power from these criminals, these warmongers and fascists, we will be little more than an annoyance to them. We will continue in our assumed role of "dissenters", continue posting on blogs and protesting in the street, all the while watching the ruling class hurtle the planet into catastrophe. While protesting is important, it won't change anything until we take the power from the 1% and their two-party corporate duopoly. (Revolution.)
But I'm not writing for the local paper in Boulder. If I was, I would choose my words more carefully and appeal to the general reader who may not be quite as radicalized as I am.
limeres, this madness will never stop so long as we have the present arrangements obtaining in Washington, with the Democrats and Republicans supporting essentially all the same policies, especially anything regarding foreign policy. They may quibble for the sake of unending political theater over the intricacies of health care "reform" or Social Security, or whether the poor and dispossessed should be left to die on the streets or given the palliative of progressive sounding rhetoric backed up with meaningless action or no action, as the Dems do. But they are always in agreement about the fundamental necessity of attacking some country, for any reason at all, all the fucking time.
Militarism is the only constant now guiding US policy. The military-industrial-entertainment-technological-scientific-media-corporate-banking complex is pretty much the entirety of the US economy. If we aren't attacking, invading, drone bombing, ramping up the slaughter, covering up the incessant crimes, torturing, illegally detaining and torturing more, and basically acting the role of World Psycho-Killer every single day, then the American leadership mafia in Washington will have a nervous breakdown because there won't be any meaning to their insane lives.
So it can't stop until THEY are stopped. The first step toward stopping them is refusing to VOTE for any of them, from either wing of the duopoly destroying the planet. Then get involved in some aspect of Occupy Wall Street. There's literally nothing else going on to stop any of this murderous madness. Read Chris Hedges' "Death of the Liberal Class" for pointers. Americans who want to stop the psychotic policies of this corporatized government have nowhere else to turn.
'Read Chris Hedges' "Death of the Liberal Class"'
Wow. In the exerpt on truthdig, Chris Hedges is bat-crazy. He thinks das liberal klass was the only thing a society could possible have going for it. Unbelievable. In fact, it is the people themselves who contain all value in a society.
"An ineffectual liberal class means there is no hope, however remote, of a correction or a reversal. It ensures that the frustration and anger among the working and middle classes will find expression outside the confines of democratic institutions and the civilities of a liberal democracy."
How very loony of you to say that Chris. The death of das liberal klass means the people are on their own, and must depend only on themselves, which is actually the greatest thing that could happen to the people. But look how Hedges disagrees with this in his exerpt:
"Commercial artists peddle the mythical narrative, one propagated by corporations, self-help gurus, Oprah and the Christian Right, that if we dig deep enough within ourselves, focus on happiness, find our inner strength, or believe in miracles, we can have everything we desire."
As much truth that Hedges delivers in most of his writing, it boggles my mind that he would say something like that. He corrupts the image of the most powerful tool for good possessed by the individual - the human spirit, by mixing with it imagery of das korporatism, while simultaneously bashing the people's reliance on, and the potential of, the human spirit with the "mythical narrative" label.
I don't think Hedges was bought off, just I think he fell off the cliff. The mythical narrative label is reserved for das elite propaganda, ok, Chris? The people's need to rely on their own personal internal spirit is of utmost importance as you can see all around you that those who rely exclusively on their own personal mind, heart and spirit, while ensuring they are free from confusion, external indoctrination and conditioning, are in fact the most successful, in terms of true fulfillment. And those who fail this are the least successful.
Chris, we the people are not trying to rebuild das empire. We're letting it fall, and we're replacing it with The People's Priorities.
It's understood by most people that the elites are parasites who depend on the majority of people, their host, having some level of health, in order to be productive as slaves. Das konservative lunatics, who the liberals steward, have no idea, but the news today is that das liberals lost their marbles too, and fell right into the extreme right gutter, and now ride shotgun on the lunatics' imperial swamproller.
Hedges' ridiculous claim is that the liberal elites were serving as the backbone of the society, but it is really THE PEOPLE themselves who are the backbone. This has always been true. And NOW the people are taking it to its logical conclusion - Toward The People's Nirvana. Tough times ahead for the elites.
In my opinon, rtdrury's comments are sometimes off the wall in that they do not even vaguely reflect the contents of the article in question. We all do the same from time to time.
This comment above is a valuable and pertinent comment that correctly undermines premises most US citzens will not even know they have.
The Western educated class or liberal elite has a very bad history. It is self serving and self pretective; never really innovative but always claiming to be the inspiration behind any eventually effective innovators; vultures that scavenge off the carcasses of the Western conservative's kills.
This saviour assumption, this Jesus assertion; this self worship was the cause of the demise of the Confucian class in China. They fell for the West's admiration of them as the key to China's future. They became the equivalent of the Boss Boys in South Africa's mines and oppressed the people as required by the Western capitalist bosses. It took Mao to see through this self-worship. He crushed the Confucian what we would call middle class liberal because he saw its love of self that grew so prominent over the last few centuries of the Ching or Manchu dynasty. He correctly saw that they were useless. He thereby gained the hatred of the Western liberal/conservative who had been using the Confucian as a Boss Boy to make the Chinese people send the wealth of the China Westwards.
Mao said the people, or as he knew them, the peasant must rule; that the going was not easy; that many would die; that horrendous mistakes could happen; that there was no other way for if the pain was not borne there could be no progress, only a cyclical repetition of oppression. The South African ANC and Mandela said the same; the old people who had suffered the depredations of the white man would continue to bear the suffering so long as it meant their children would be able to live a good life.
This is a way of thinking expressed in the 2600yr old Tao Teh Ching, which like most Chinese Mao probably never read but which like Confucius himself and the vast majority of Chinese people he took for granted for it is a foundation on which the Chinese structure of relationship and hence meaning stands.
PS: For Confucius as for Mandela and Mao, the only useful Confucian or educated thinking person is one in service of the people. Enormous energy is expended in China to keep this traditon alive; to ensure this takes place. This is profit with Chinese meaning.
The fate of the world is in the hands of mad men. They are armed and dangerous; they froth and shout obscenities when confronted with dissenting opinions. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery. Alas.
Why attacking Iran would be yet another untold disaster.
The fate of the world has always been in the hands of mad men (and an occasional mad woman). The leaders nearly always run the scam of declaring themselves to be either gods or people specifically anointed by gods, which the soldiers and supporters of the warlord activities believe and buy into, and usually join in on the frothing and shouting of obscenities, and eagerly give up their lives and take other people's for "glory" or "the noble cause."
It is worse now because the world is more populated and interconnected than ever before. Prior to now a warlord could disrupt his or her little corner of the world and there would be plenty of people other places unaffected. Now everything affects everybody and the weapons aren't swords and clubs but scientific things of mass destruction that can quickly produce a casualty count beyond anything that could be dreamed of by Alexander, Genghis Khan or Atillla the Hun or even Hitler.
The only thing we who see war as destructive insanity can do is speak out, try to get people to see how self-defeating the whole process is, and hope folks wake up before it's too late, which it almost is.
The madness will stop when we change our government. We need to kick out the whole crowd of corrupted scum in office now. We need to enforce rules that persons with dual citizenship may not serve as officials in our federal government. This up coming war will be fought for the protection of the apartheid nation of Israel. The war will be funded with our tax funds that are so badly needed for our domestic programs---but they will go for our military forces, to the profits of the Military Industrial complex and to the state of Israel.
We, in the United States, are no different than the people in the nations we bomb and occupy. We have ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILITY for the crazy actions of our government. No one in office in Washington D.C. is in any way acting on the directions or with the approval of the citizens of this nation.
First thing to do to change this awful situation is to FACE THE FACT of the level of corruption in our government. Know too that THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO CORPORATE PARTIES. Both are evil and corrupt. You must let go of all your emotional connections to either of them. For any democracy to function, the people must be educated and informed so they can vote intelligently. Turn off the TV. Go join Occupy.
Changing government will not work. We try that every 4 or 8 years. SNAFU.
The two-party system is an utter failure. We need to change the Constitution, which is a shame, because it really is extraordinarily good.
I'm with limeres. It is just plain fucking wrong!
Two other points in this article struck me: One, "Washington now fears that enhanced Iranian power (combined with the Arab Spring) will eventually undermine U.S. control of energy resources in the Middle East and, in particular, will destabilize the reactionary, but utterly faithful, U.S. client regime in oil rich Saudi Arabia." BINGO! It's about the oil! What would the spoiled, gluttonous United States of America do if we couldn't bully our way into everyone else's natural resource reserves?
And two: "The state of Israel, engorged by bountiful U.S. military aid, is currently the pint-sized bully of the Middle East." I guess that makes us the Two Gallon special for the single biggest bully worldwide.
The author asks at the beginning of this piece, "do the people of the United States want perpetual warfare?" No we don't! And frankly, I don't remember anyone in government asking "we the people" if we wanted wars with Iraq or Afghanistan or any other country upon whom we've reeked utter devastation and death.
Somewhere in my heart I believe if it were left up to we common people, men and women who share in the daily trials and tribulations of life that somehow, all of us, whether from Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Brazil, Afghanistan, wherever, we could find a way to be a peace as a people. Maybe I'm dreaming but there is the commonality of what "limeres" suggested, we all know what it feels like to love, to lose, to dream and to hope. It seems that in that realm of shared living we could find a way to live together respectfully and peacefully on this finite planet. (Oh sure, there would be some scuffles. But all in all, empathy, compassion and diplomacy go a long way toward uniting even the most dire enemies.)
I say pick up the leaders of all these countries and dump them on one of the islands slowly getting reclaimed by rising sea levels. Let those asshole, power hungry intelligencia duke it out among themselves. Most of the rest of us would like to live in peace regardless of how map boundaries are designed to separate us. They're just fucking lines on paper. We are living, breathing, sentient beings whose hearts know no such barriers.
Not to mention the fact that US intervention in Iran would give China, or Russia, or both, instant diplomatic superiority in the region. At a billion dollars a week (or is a day?), another war in the Middle East is unthinkable and the precarious economic outlook for the US would almost certainly put it in a position of defaulting to China (or are we already in default?) economically. Additionally, Iran has every right to develop atomic energy for peaceful uses, and there is no proof that they are developing it for anything but peaceful uses. So sanctions, embargoes, military interventions are premature. The saber rattling itself is destabilizing, which, without a doubt, is intentional. The US has trained MEK forces to do its dirty work of internal destabilization for it. It has never recovered from the unceremonious removal of the Shah and keeps its tentacles up the proverbial ass of Iran as payback. Meanwhile, global warming--the ultimate determinant of world order or disorder--goes on apace, blah, blah...
The "war" that needs to be waged is to be within the USA. The majority of the population who didn't want war with Iraq, who didn't want war with Afghanistan, who don't want to be the world's empirical economic tyrant; the vast majority of the population who oppose fracking, oppose mountain-top removal, oppose "drill, baby, drill"; the overwhelming majority who oppose Citizen's United, corporate personhood, who are frustrated by the "window-dressing" politicians who ever make it to the final ballot; the tsunami of citizenry that is getting more active and engaged in the issues that matter, issues that affect their lives such as local food production, renewable energies, volunteerism, the 99% movement and the thousands of progressive, people-centered small organizations working to improve life on Earth rather than plan for the next paranoid divisive war on what? -- when these forces come together, perhaps "The Dream" can be reborn. But it takes action, involvement, participation, Resistance, and as Alan Grayson reminds us daily, courage.
http://bethechangeearthalliance.org/sites/default/files/content/BTC_SHAMBHALA%20PROPHECY-Joanna%20Macy.pdf
Amerikkka is on a suicide course. It seems unstoppable. Some regimes apparently have to hit to bottom before any change can happen. It ain't going to end well, that's a certainty.
A press report claims Russia masses troops near its borders to strike towards Iran if the United States attacks. Russia feels its national security imperilled if the USA occupies Iran and then uses that as a base to threaten the Caspian basin as Brezinski claimed the USA should do in the book he wrote.
According to this report they intend to occupy Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan as they feel with the USA occupying Iran they the US would then move troops into those three nations to "combat terror" bringing them to the border of Russia itself.
They well remember the claim of Madeline Albright that "Russia has more resources then it deserves" and are closely following the US Presidential elections where claims being made by the Candidates that Russia and China are enemies of the USA and must be contained.
The United States of America is on a ruthless course to war under the guise of "defending freedom" and are the worlds greatest threat to peace. For those that continue to claim it Israel that FORCES the USA to attack Iran, i suggest you have fallen for the propaganda wherein the USA uses Israel as a cover for its own base intentions.
Any attack on Iran by the USA will be solely on the head OF the USA. Any attack on Iran by the USA follows a doctrine and strategy outlined by Politicians in the US decades ago . to control the Caspian and thus the Eurasian landmass. If for any reason the atack on Iran does not go ahead, it will NOT be because the voices of peace prevailed in the USA. It will because Russia and China are both drawing a line in the sand.
MILLIONS of innocent people if not more will be sacrificed on the altar of Militarism by these war mongering "defenders of freedom and liberty" all over lies and fabrications. That they can even consider such an act and openly speak about it as they debate for the "Leadership of the free world" shows clearly that the USA is run by Sociopaths and the behalf of Sociopaths.
It also demonstrates that the system of Governence that allows such brutes to rise to power is an absolute and complete failure.
"For those that continue to claim it Israel that FORCES the USA to attack Iran, i suggest you have fallen for the propaganda wherein the USA uses Israel as a cover for its own base intentions."
Absolutely true. If the current Administration, wanted to keep Israel from attacking Iran, then it would simply tell the State of Israel, through its secret channels, that there will be zero aid in the future. Israel would back down the next day.
Well, we all agree that having a functioning democracy here at home would be a good start. We also all agree that neither the Democrats or Republicans represent the 99%. So what are going to do about it? Besides voting for a third party (if one actually appears on a ballot in a district you live in!) and joining OWS to try to get the 99% to wake up and realize who the enemy is, I have some other suggestions.
Boycott corporate media on the grounds that it is corporate and ask your community for an honest alternative. Protest your local district school board to abandon 'an allegiance to the American flag' on the grounds that nationalism/racism elevates one group (Americans) at the expense of everyone else (non-Americans). Just having a debate on such an issue would raise public awareness. Boycott any and all local corporations who are known to buy Washington influence to undermine democracy (such as Walmart undermining a raise in minimum wage, Coca Cola undermining water rights, Microsoft supporting ALEC, etc.) and encourage the passing of local and State laws that bar corporations from doing business there if they have been known to buy political influence in D.C. Encourage universal union membership at every corporate business you visit. Attend every Democrat/Republican/Tea Party rally with a poster that says support for anything other than universal healthcare is a vote for the 1%. Change the debate from right versus left... to democracy versus corpocracy. Encourage your kids to participate in anti-corporate demonstrations, graffiti and public disobedience. And finally spread the word that a voting for any corporate sponsored party, is a vote for your own enslavement.
Excellent post. Too diverse. Find the core and dig it out.
It is to be found in the language.
From an essay about Kaas a German schyzophrenic:
This essay sets out to investigate whether or to what extent the stories in Uhren und Meere can be understood as a document of the language of madness. It concludes that despite the biographical dimension of his schizophrenic experience, Kaas’s texts fail to voice an as it were unadulterated language of madness. However, when read in conjunction with his quasi-poetological interview statements, it is possible to determine the very nature of madness as a collapse of a logical system of language. Meaning that language cannot actively be used to express madness, while at the same time madness can express itself in a language that we necessarily fail to understand. The language of madness manifests itself as the madness of language.
US English is undoubtedly such a language. The US people have to dig deep and very quickly to avoid being responsible for a collapse of humanity that looks likely in the extreme to end human life on earth.
Let us be very, VERY clear. There is absolutely no evidence, NO EVIDENCE, either from IAEA or the latest NIE, then Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons technology.
The Obama Administration's rhetoric to the contrary have not even been able to produce fuzzy photo-shopped satellite images or aluminum tubes for Clinton to wave around at the UN.
Iraq "mushroom clouds" redux.
Not to worry. Those fuzzy images, tubes, or their propaganda equivalent will emerge on the scene as soon as they're needed to build yet another case for launching the next massive war crime.
The United States of Mandatory Fear, The United States of Amnesia, The United States of Lies--any of these are more accurate titles for what this pathetic nation has become.
Perhaps they can enlist Colin Powell to give another Oscar winning performance at the UN.
"Do the people of the United States really want perpetual warfare?"
Yes, it is part of the culture of violence so endemic in the USA. A candidate without a pugnacious warrior character doesn't stand a chance. Added to the MIC's need for perpetual war and all those paybacks, makes any alternative unthinkable.
If anyone doubts that addiction to violence just analyse TV and Hollywood -they only serve what sells.
Sanctuary says:
"If anyone doubts that addiction to violence just analyse TV and Hollywood -they only serve what sells."
You must never have studied how operant conditioning works, or how its darkest tools have been deployed by sophisticated PR firms. Appetites are conditioned into people and BIG MONEY goes into its apparatus. True, a small percentage is inured to these tactics and thus capable of flying over the consumer-oriented "Cuckoo's Nest," but that is not true of the vast majority.
Do you think the colorful, sugary cereal boxes carefully positioned for "product placement" and therefore apt to draw young children's attention are an accident?
The U.S. public is subjected to covert and overt pro-violence propaganda at EVERY turn. If the ways and means to such a ubiquitous campaign of pro-war (MIC-oriented) messaging were NOT underway, then your attempt to hold citizens accountable for an attraction to violence would be fair.
The culture of violence happens to be the direct progeny of patriarchy, a male-god, male-oriented societal view that's inculcated through religion, civics, law, sports, entertainment, and family conditioning... as has been the case for centuries.
After W. W. II the MIC came into full form and the U.S. public was warned against it by Eisenhower. Running parallel with this heinous development were a series of campaigns aimed at silencing peace advocates, socialists, champions of Green Technology and related ecological programs, From the McCarthy phase to the rise of Reagan to today's lawless incursions into Civil Liberties, those voices that oppose the rise of the insidious make-war state have been marginalized, defamed, and sometimes killed. In other words, key voices that might have challenged the elites' penchant for war were done away with. To the make-war state, a steady stream of soldiers is necessary... hence the conditioning that glorifies violence (from so many sectors).
Some in this forum ask how it is that many women go along with the oppressive teachings of fundamentalist religion. The answer is that it takes many generations to condition that response. The one topic that's seldom discussed in this forum and almost always avoided by serious activists on the Left involves the brutality of the full-scale assault on women that went on for centuries under the guise of "burning witches." When conformity is wagered on threat of death, most persons feel obliged to go along.
Look at the fate of peace activists in this country today? Beaten up by police, spied on, thrown into jail where possible. It takes a lot of sporting events added to the subliminal absorption of the National Anthem's proud testament to bombs, plus numerous Hollywood heros wielding weapons to make violence such a seamless, sexualized element of Amerikan life.
Those who blame citizens are covering for the 1% and its agencies that engineer conformity to a sick and deadly status quo.
In her book The Chalice and the Blade Riane Eisler states that: androcacy - (which she proposes as an alternative to the more dated term “patriarchy” and defines as a social system ruled through force or threat of force by men) - cannot meet today’s central human tasks - the survival of our species and the development of our unique potentials.
She argues that it cannot meet this requirement precisely because of its “inbuilt emphasis on the technologies of destruction [and] its dependence on violence for social control.”
Eisler and others have argued that, in a sweeping turn of events, early partnership societies may have been overrun and conquered by nomadic bands, whose own mode of social organization was based on the dominator model.
A fundamental characteristic of the conquering civilization was that it valued the destructive power of the blade: “[The invaders} characteristically acquired wealth, not by developing technologies of production, but through ever more effective technologies of destruction.”
As the centuries progressed humanity witnessed the emergence of kings, nation-states, social classes, standing armies, and slavery. One can imagine the grand evolution of this form of “civilization;” as a decisive historic leap from the Neolithic tribal community to a centralized state organization, it manifested in the birth of “cities” capable of dominating and ordering a whole river valley.
What was the purpose of these new forms of organization - fixed, vertical hierarchies of status and rigid systems of control, backed by coercive power? According to Philip Slater, it was nothing less than the management of enslaved tribes who would not voluntarily participate in the society of their conquerors.
Slater maintains that the authoritarian form of social organization is a male creation, founded in war. Since women play such a small part in war, their position underwent a sharp decline. Soon they were at the “bottom” of society and even the “lowest” male could be a dictator in his own home.
“Perhaps the males in some communities became intoxicated with the power potential of animal breeding… and took to a more bellicose life. Whatever the causes, authoritarianism began to appear as a dominant social form in many parts of the world 5 or 6,000 years ago - in the Far East, North Africa, India, and the Middle East - and has continued to be the prevailing mega-culture ever since, spreading to Europe, Africa, Meso-America and most of Asia.
"We begin to find kings, social classes, slaves, standing armies, weaponry, torture, and human sacrifice. Gods are put over goddesses, wives begin to pay deference to husbands and sons to their fathers. …Authoritarianism may in fact be defined as a highly centralized social organization developed in order to exercise coercive control over unwilling participants in the community.”
All part and parcel of the mental illness known as 'Civilization'.
Galenwainwright,
Have you read any of Daniel Quinn's books? He is best known for the novel "Ishmael," and has offered lots of other thought-provoking material on the serious pathology we call "civilization."
Authoritarianism began around 5000-6000 years ago. So did writing. So that is when occurred the first written reference to authoritarianism. Which is why it started 5000-6000 years ago.Circular argument. I have absolutely no doubt that autoritarianism in any social animal organisation began well before it was recorded in writing. Bullying and hen-pecking are not restricted to the human species, and please don't tell me that the female never acts as a bully (no doubt it only happens because of nasty male patriarchy...........). Conrad Lorenz made some interesting observations about female doves ripping each other to bits so that one would gain female dominance.
Authoritarianism can be defined in a clear and specific way. Although related to dominating behavior in general, it is a form of social organization that, to our knowledge, came into existence with the formation of city-states.
Prior to that, as it is now understood, the context for social existence might be described as a "power-with," rather than "power-over" approach. Notably, it would seem that the male/female dynamic was much more a relationship between equals, than it would become during subsequent millennia.
More to the point, it is a mode of being that underlies our social order - in the present - and increasingly so.
In this light it is interesting to contemplate the relationship between authoritarianism and "evil."
***
This from Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled:
"Evil people would be distinguished by
these traits:
a) Consistent destructive, scapegoating
behavior, which may often be quite subtle
b) Excessive, albeit usually covert, intolerance
to criticism and other forms of narcissistic
injury
c) Pronounced concern with a public image and
self-image of respectability, contributing to a
stability of lifestyle but also to
pretentiousness and denial of hateful feelings
or vengeful motives.
D) intellectual deviousness, with an increased
likelihood of a mild schizophreniclike
disturbance of thinking at times of stress."
Sioux, I respectively disagree on two of your points. For starters how would you know whether I have knowledge of operant conditioning or not? I don't even mention why the USA is addicted to violence so its cause is irrelevent to my comment and likewise your objection.
I happen not to believe that we are born with a 'violence' gene -it's far more complicated than that but violence stems largely from the social environment, education and peer expectations etc.
That the USA is a violent society can also be seen from the crime rates, homicides, incarceration rates compared to other countries. Certainly, some are more violent but there are so many that are far less and I suspect some of those are even patriarchal ones too -not that I agree with them.
"Those who blame citizens are covering for the 1% and its agencies that engineer conformity to a sick and deadly status quo."
There's no blame being assessed here -simply a statement of facts and getting huffy and defensive is unhelpful.
Perhaps you have not travelled outside N.America much?
SANCTUARY: Apart from whatever you do or do not know about operant conditioning, you didn't manage to counter a single point I made in my earlier post. And as for where I've lived: Puerto Rico, London, Singapore, Ojai-California, New York, and Florida... which makes for a pretty diverse cultural tapestry.
In the post I earlier responded to, you presented NO facts. Just your opinion presented as such.
Facts:
OK, the USA is not a violent country, doesn't incarcerate many people and Wiki is wrong:"The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
I am really unsure of your points that I need to counter? I have stated that the USA is addicted to violence and you say that is basically due to subtle conditioning by the MIC. As a major contributor along with exceptionalism etc. I don't disagree and my comment didn't either. I assigned no blame or cause.
CD is a forum to express your opinion. I see nothing wrong with that.
I don't wish to dismiss your travel, as any travel is enormously helpful in opening the eyes and seeing beyond the blinkers and I mean that sincerely. I can't help notice that those places you mention are mostly big cities and heavily influenced by the USA (London is a US lapdog now) and less diverse culturally than you might think. There's thousands of wider cultures, but try a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp for an example of a very different culture. Warm and friendly people too if they are not being villified by western MSM.
Sanctuary, sadly, your are right. A majority of Americans do like war. We like starting wars, especially the preliminary line up of forces, which side has how many tanks, missiles, ships, etc., always showing that we are more powerful. We like that. Then we like the start of the war. We like the pictures of missile launches in dark, the pictures of missile explosions, lots of martial music on the news, flags waving, retired generals explaining our winning strategy, lanky pilots in flight gear saying they are just doing their jobs, etc. Then we like little episodes of heroism. Two marines who kill 47 enemy will saving an infant from a fire. After a while, we lose interest, and the war becomes boring. Then we start thinking of costs, and about injuries to our soldiers. We never think of morality or legality, not before, during, or after our wars. But a war with Iran will be different. We are planning to blow up nuclear reactors and nuclear refineries in the very place from where comes half of the world's oil. That is, we are planning to permanently contaminate our world energy supply. This is not going to cause a spike in gasoline prices. This is going to cause a permanent doubling or tripling of prices, or more. Cars and trucks in the USA are not going to running, or rarely. A bookie could take bets, how many months after we start a war on Iran, will NY City or Chicago start a morning curb pick up services for dead bodies, dead from starvation or from the violence of urban lawlessness. Off hand, I would bet 18 months.
If the USA says to Iran, "Obey us or we will blow up the Bushehr nuclear reactor," or if Iran says to the USA, "Stop threatening us or we will blow up the Bushehr nuclear reactor," what is the difference? There is no difference. In both cases, it is mass murder and national suicide. In both cases, millions of Iranian, Kuwaiti, and Saudi civilians will die, and the US economy will crash into permanent chaos causing millions of Americans to die. We will know when the attack on Iran is about to start when the royal families of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia all take sudden holidays in New Zealand and South Africa.
It now seems quite clear that 9/11 was a covert false flag operation. As such it was extraordinarily effective: enabling the launch of the War (of) Terror abroad and the decimation of human rights at home.
IMO it would be wise to be on the lookout for another such operation vis-a-vis Iran.
Set in 2012, The Shell Game (2007) is a unique blend of previously hidden facts relevant to 9/11, and a fast-moving, fictional account of a second false flag attack on an even greater scale than 9/11. The supposed sponsor of this "inside job" is Iran.
This eye-opening book suggests that the world is running out of oil fast and that human civilization hangs in the balance. A true gift from award-winning novelist Steve Alten, this page-turner can serve as a real wake-up call re- the current geo-political realities of our world.
In September of 2000, I predicted that if Bush were elected, and had a Republican Congress, he would stage a bogus terrorist attack in order to pass laws giving himself dictatorial powers. I sent my brother a fax with that prediction, but he did not save it. Sure enough, less than a year after he was appointed President by SCOTUS following the indecisive, disputed election; came 9/11. If Jim Jeffords had not switched parties, depriving Bush of control of the Senate, who knows what would have happened.
Look at your dollar bill-it has a pyramid with an eye on top. That eye is the Elite watching us peons fight these wars. They don't send their sons and daughters to fight, only us.The United States goal, along with Israel, and Britain, is to surround the poor countries of the middle east and take their resources and kill anyone who gets in their way.We still in Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, Libya, Yemen and Somalia (because murder-by-drone doesn’t count as war) , and Unofficial-with Pakistan
Henry Kissinger said" MILITARY MEN ARE DUMB STUPID ANIMALS TO BE USED AS PAWNS IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS". He is an elitist,and so are Obama, Hillary Clinton, all the Bush family, and others, and this is very destructive to our Democracy and society. He is a member of the secret Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Affairs and makes policy decisions for us-when it comes to wars.
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Copy this link to your browser to view:
Truth Hurts Lies Kill. Real Truth Behind the Phony Wars by Dr Dahlia Wasfi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7VeWRrhEsk&feature=relmfu
*Parts of her awesome and truthful speech*
"All of this carnage has been done in our name. Since WWII 90% of the casualties have of war are unarmed civilians , a third of them children. They don't hate us because of of our freedoms, they hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so called "War on Terror " is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of resources of Western Asia.This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. The civilians at the other end of our weapons don't have a choice, but American soldiers have a choices, Our soldiers don't sacrifice for duty, honor, country, They sacrifice for Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) . They don't fight for America ,they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them because we put them in a war zone. They are not defending our freedoms. They are laying the foundation for 14 permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum. They are not establishing Democracy, they are establishing the bases for an economic occupation to continue after the military occupation has ended. Iraqi society today,thanks to American HELP--is defined by house raids, death squads, check points, detentions curfews, and blood in the streets, and constant violence. We must dare to speak out in support of those American war resisters , the real military heroes, who uphold their oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic including those terrorist cells in Washington DC more commonly known as the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches. Everyone of us must keep demanding ,keep fighting, keep thundering, keep struggling -until peace is served. No Justice-No Peace".
We need to publish what Kissinger has said and maybe, just maybe, our military men will put down their "weapons of mass destruction" and see the light. If you know of any American soldier who is fighting these illegal occupations, please share this with them. Please, for humanity.
Any war is an "untold disaster".
America's foreign policy has been an untold disaster since we slaughtered the so called savages and stole their country!
At least Iran gets discussed some on CD. But what about SYRIA? Another Libya is unfolding there now.
It's not Libya. Libya was orchestrated long beforehand to get the oil and destabilise the country such that it did not pose any risk; it was kept on a low boil until Gaddhafi tried to sell oil outside the $US. That would have threatened the dollar with potential to start a run on it. The speed with which what would otherwise be deemed as terrorists were supported and banks etc. were up and running and the proper debt imposed is indicative of this. The MSM is complicit in ignoring the strife now happening that resulted from intervention.
Syria is different in that there is no oil or sale in non $US; most importantly a de-stabilisation here hurts Iran which is the next prize for oil. It also destabilises Lebanon which of course assists Israel in neutralising Hezbollah.
Details, details! All part of the gangster class trying to control the world! I brought Syria up, because there doesn't seem to be nearly as much discussion about the rolling low intensity war there that is going on right now, while the Iran war, which is not quite so developed yet, gets all the attention. I worry that many people, even perhaps many who visit this page, may be willing to give Syria a pass because of all the hype about the "freedom fighters" and the violent actions of the government.