This was intended as a second short anecdote in yesterday's library post, but it grew of its own accord and took on a very different tone. As such, I am presenting it separately here.
We have a public puzzle table at the library, and it seems our teenage patrons managed to mangle the partially-completed picture. I repaired the frame off and on during the last hour as time allowed. We already had most of the returned items shelved again, and the flood of patrons dried up faster than the flooded carpet. It wasn't too bad as end-of-day tidying goes, but it also led to some deeper thought about the subject matter.
Fixed, but not finished.
I don't feel a patriotic thrill anymore at the flags and pageantry on display here. Instead, I feel an almost overwhelming grief at all the destruction this imagery celebrates. The United States of America has been in a lot of military conflicts. While there have not been any formal declarations of war since early 1942, the US has still managed to be embroiled in conflicts around the globe for almost my entire life. If I count the Cold War in general and the ongoing involvement in South Korea to fill in what few gaps exist, to say nothing of various black ops no doubt occurring without fanfare or even official acknowledgement, the US has been constantly engaged in military activity since before my parents were born.
"War is the health of the State."—Randolph Bourne (1918)
I realized with considerable concern that many people able to vote for the first time in 2020 had no memory of a time before the "Global War on Terror" and the domestic surveillance state expansion it justified. That is amplified now as we approach a year of conflict in Ukraine where the US has been meddling from the sidelines for many years, and is now dumping billions of dollars into the coffers of corrupt Ukrainians and corrupt US corporations.
"War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. The earthquake means good business for construction workers, and cholera improves the business of physicians, pharmacists, and undertakers; but no one has for that reason yet sought to celebrate earthquakes and cholera as stimulators of the productive forces in the general interest."—Ludwig von Mises (1919)
War creates wealth, they say. This is just rehashing the classic broken window fallacy through a focus on the massive wealth gained by the military-industrial complex and emphasis on the improvements which filter into the market as an unintended consequence as if this were manna from heaven. We see tanks, ships, jets, and bombs. We see jet engines, radar, and GPS. It is easy to turn a blind eye to the destruction, the waste, and the debt burden passed down to future generations. Most of us are fortunate enough to not see the mangled bodies and smouldering wreckage left in their wake. We certainly never see what people would choose instead if they retained control over their wealth. Who would choose this over all the alternatives if real liberty were allowed? Why do we believe such tangential progress is impossible without major military expenditure?
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."—USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler (1935)
Worst of all may be the way the Church abandons the Cross to take up the banner of war. Mark Twain even satirized this in The War Prayer. I cannot help but be reminded of the contrast between Christ and the State: The humble Prince of Peace versus the avaricious and vainglorious warlords. A man cannot serve two masters, so why do Christians wave flags, sing songs, wage wars for the State? Will you love your neighbor as yourself, or will you enlist to blow him to bits because the man who claims to rule him has a dispute with the man who claims to rule you?
Whether people are religious or not, we tend to hear the same excuse every time the government wants war: "I'm against wars in general, but this time we need to make an exception!" Always exceptions. Always invading foreign land in "self-defense." Always one more bloodbath before we can achieve peace. Always more sacrifices to Ares.
As you can see, that got dark. The stream of consciousness flows where it will. All I can do is drift along and try to mark my way as I go with references and citations. I'll try to write something upbeat again soon, provided I can find calmer water in my mind.
A lot of my redneck pals are really patriotic and pro-military and I do not join them in their "hoo rah!" attitude about endless wars with enemies that don't have a state anyway. I would love to see the return of isolationism and when your country is, what is it? $30 trillion in debt I can think of a lot of military-oriented ways to tighten the ol' purse straps. It's never going to happen though.
"Freedom isn't free," they love to shout, deliberately ignoring that it's a domestic police state and foreign interventionism that costs a lot, and leaving peaceful people alone does not.
I think a lot of people, including ex and current military, are starting to wake up to the fact that the politicians and other powerful people are using the military not for our national defense or anyone else's but for financial positioning that benefits the overlords who are in many different countries and a part of a big fucking club and you're not in it!
I posted a link to a Tom Lehrer song under your previous post, and you said some of his songs would also apply to your next post. I see what you mean. The Folk Song Army, The MLF Lullaby, Send the Marines, So Long, Mom, and Who's Next? all come to mind. I was just a little kid when my brother first introduced the family to his music, so I didn't grasp how anti-war many of those songs were. And in 60 years, much of what he sang about hasn't changed and his thoughts still apply.
The other day I was watching The Avengers End Game. Thanos has the similar kind of justification for mass killing. He does it for the sake of restoring peace
Everyone, who is into war has the similar claim. They are doing it for peace.
"Trust us, only a few more corpses until we achieve global nirvana! Now do as we say, or you hate freedom!"
A few more ........! 😔
I wonder how much a few refers to
Asking such questions is unpatriotic and treasonous and also you must hate the poor or minorities or something.
And what if I am myself a minority or something something 😶
Well, that's extra treason!
😭
All the wars are bankster's wars.
When you really get into where the wars started, you find banksters behind them.
And then the false flag to get America involved.
And the Military Industrial Complex makes lots of money
The war to really look into is the Vietnam war.
Which wasn't a war, it was a Cocain Import Agency operation.
And had rules of engagement that was designed to make the war perpetual.
When i got enough pieces together about this war, Nixon closing the gold window (1971) Kennedy being shot, the CIA paying military officers to make sure certain teams never came back...
The idea we were fighting for freedom and democracy was completely falsified.
This was more of a war to bankrupt and destroy America.
I would love to pin all the blame on Woodrow Wilson and his vision of paternalistic progressivism through state bureaucracy controlling everything in association with banks and other corporate interests since WW1, but it's a messier topic than even that explanation.
What irritates me in particular is how many people are anti-war but don't know the first thing about it, and perpetuate a completely distorted historical narrative that makes the entire anti-war movement look really stupid. "Reformists," for example, are the progressives of the military; they believe in nonsensically regressive martial doctrines that would cost more money and lives than the current policies already do. Their patron saint is Pierre Sprey (1937-2021), professional plagiarist and purveyor of equine excrement, to paraphrase LazerPig.
My shit-mouthed alter-ego has written a few articles about these "reformists." Interested?
Share away.
The founding fathers, for all their faults and disputes, were generally consistent in extolling the virtues of an armed and independent populace and warning of the dangers of military adventurism with a standing army.
Agreed. Of course, any centralised institution is a threat to a free society; I think it was Thomas Jefferson who once said "banking institutions are a greater danger than standing armies."
Anyway, the articles in question:
The Cathedral
You favourite weapon sucks
Stupid or Pysop? Anti-War Pundits
Asymmetrical Warfare, or more accurately, why you need a gun
Call me Mr. Grinch, because I ruined someone's Christmas Eve
BTW, you might detect a little axe-grinding going on. I do indeed have an axe to grind with certain people, in some cases for reasons way beyond just what I specifically mentioned.
Remember when there was an anti-war left? Of course, I would argue that people who want a centrally-planned society can't really be anti-war. The police they need to impose and enforce their vision is a standing army. They demand war against any who refuse to comply. I'm sure they would say I can't be anti-war and pro-market, because somehow economic fascism is the consequence of the free market sit stifles. Or that I somehow can't be pro-gun and anti-war. Never mind the efficacy of asymmetric warfare you discussed. Joe Biden even keeps doddering on about how you can't fight jets, tanks, and nukes with rifles while ignoring the abject failure of US militarism in Afghanistan for two decades.
The anti-war crowd was only "left" because the political establishment was "right." Similarly, the free speech warriors used to be "left" for the same reason, but now the roles have reversed. I went through this in an article that was, in some ways, a prelude to Propaganda and Subversion Part 2.
Long ago I wrote about the oddity of being anti-war yet a fan of war games. I know you discussed that in some of the posts you linked above. Do you have anything to add on that topic? A few of my own excuses:
No one dies on a tabletop or computer screen.
Players all play voluntarily.
Strategy and risk/reward gambles are stimulating.
Sci-fi and fantasy settings have no bearing on real life.