Friday, May 11, 2012

Perpetual War Anyone?

It’s often taken as a given that people want peace.

Yet when we look around and see armed conflicts in so many places it should make us wonder about that proposition.
Governments are fond of speaking of war as a last resort.  However many of the policy choices that they make put them on a sure path toward that very result.

And what about the people that live under those Governments?  I’ve seen reports of war protesters.  Where people are marching in the streets and making their opposition to conflict known.  How often have war protesters been listened to by their respective Governments?
Conversely, have you ever seen a march demanding that one country attack another?  A march led by citizens demanding war?  I guess there probably have been somewhere at some time in history.  But in our modern times the demand for war usually takes place on editorial pages of newspapers and magazines.  The Power Elite use the media in all its formats to manufacture consent of the public for the country to engage in war.  The “enemy” is demonized thoroughly, and the impression is left that something has to be done; otherwise our leaders must be weak or soft.

So, the voices of those against war are drowned out or marginalized by those who agitate for conflict.  But is it really a majority that wants conflict?
Why is it that opinion polls tend to show large majorities in favor of a conflict at its beginning, and then eventually over time that support steadily erodes?  And the conflict continues, even when polls show that an overwhelming majority no longer support the actions being taken.

Perhaps people like the idea of peace, more than peace itself?  Perhaps people prefer low gasoline prices and low priced goods more than the idea of peace.  In our modern conflicts the vast majority of us never have to take up arms.  That odious work is left to others.  We don’t have to see or hear about what’s happening if we choose not to.  And even when we do take an interest in the proceedings, our media provides for us the most sanitized version of events so that the true impact of the carnage taking place is lost on most of us.
Lip service dripping in hypocrisy is paid to the idea of peace by the war makers.  But when has war ever produced peace?  War produces death, destruction, misery, disease, dislocations, famine and more.  But I don’t think peace will make any honest list of wars’ intrinsic value.  Of course, I suppose it comes down to how you define peace.

Maybe most ordinary people do want peace.  But the interests of the Power Elite often lie elsewhere.  And with the control of the media and other centers of power, if the Power Elite determine that their interests will be furthered by war, then it is war we shall have, irrespective of the will of the people.
Until there is a change of the order of things.

2 comments:

  1. The Power Elite sends off other's people children to fight and die in their wars of choice. We should never forget Iraq and that the people sounding the drums of war evaded it themselves (Cheney, Bush). Even Mitt Romney (who seems like he would like a war with Iran) was off in France trying to convert people to his religion. Consider that many disadvantaged children without the access to wealth turn to the military for a chance at improving their lot, only to be deployed 4 or 5 times to a war that America has largely ignored.

    With no draft, our citizens become complacent! I am against the draft, but I am also against perpetual war. How to stop it?

    Waging wars these days in the USA is just too easy.

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    Replies
    1. I think re-instating the draft would at least provide the prospect that perhaps some of the sons and daughters of the power elite would be faced with actually serving.

      And maybe this might provide a moment of pause.

      Ultimately we need a more engaged citizenry. I think part of the reason that there aren't more protests against our wars, is that the majority of us are able to remain relatively untouched by the misery. And what little we see of it is sanitzed.

      And we're provided with plenty of distrations to keep our focus away from these wars.

      But the "misery index" continues to rise in this country and there is a definite connection with our perpetual state of war. Maybe when the misery is high enough, we'll decide that we've had enough.

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