Until some budding sociopath with an unhealthy attachment to hoarding money figures out how to monetize peace, it’s not going to happen. Dennis Kucinich, former boy mayor of Cleveland who stood up to the Illuminating Company, proposed establishing a Department of Peace when he was running for president in our recent past. He was roundly ridiculed.
Know why?
Because, deep down in shameful hidden places, we like war. We pay peace lip service and then go see the latest CGI fest featuring people blowing up each other. We march with our peace signs and then stand, hands on hearts, to sing along about “bombs bursting in air”. How poetic. And a couple of times every year we predictably line up to (ahem) Support Our Troops.
Author, activist, and Presbyterian minister, Chris Hedges nailed in his best-selling book, “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” when he observed that:
‘’There is a part of me — maybe it is a part of many of us — that decided at certain moments that I would rather die like this than go back to the routine of life,’’ he says. ‘’The chance to exist for an intense and overpowering moment, even if it meant certain oblivion, seemed worth it in the midst of war — and very stupid once the war ended.’’
I came of age during the United States’ shameful and stupid war in Southeast Asia and remember reading how many of the guys who made it back alive turned right around and reenlisted. Somehow they didn’t have any sense of a meaningful — not to mention exciting — life that consisted only of marrying, having kids, and holding down a decent paying job. Personally, I get that.
My out wasn’t going to the far side of the world to kill other people, however.
I simply opted out of the whole ‘Merican Dream biz and have managed to eke out a reasonably stable existence here on the fringes with part time jobs, stints of getting by with unemployment benefits, and the pin money I earn with my writing. For excitement I take the New York City subway daily.
That clearly wouldn’t work for most people and it sure doesn’t ding the right bells for — I’ll say it — men. Especially young men.
Again, Chris Hedges nails it:
“Many of us, restless and unfulfilled, see no supreme worth in our lives. We want more out of life. And war, at least, gives a sense that we can rise above our smallness and divisiveness.”
True, men aren’t the only ones who feel that ordinary life is boring and unfulfilling. A helpful AI gnome tells me that “As of 2020, there were 74,592 women on active duty in the US Army, representing 15.5% of the total active duty force”. And a not insignificant number of those women have opted for combat duty.
Those of us who really do want peace and really do find everything about war to be abhorrent, useless, and obscene are sadly a minority. We live in a society that begins the indoctrination towards violent solutions before our kids hit kindergarten (what lesson do you think that spanking just instilled?).
On a recent walk in Central Park we were startled by a thunderous roar overhead and looked up to see about ten different sized military helicopters flying just above the trees.
“Wow, Daddy, look! What’s going on” from a nearby eight-year-old.
“They’re here to protect us.” from Dad.
Sure they are.
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Whenever someone uses "we" in a title, I have to ask myself, "Who is this 'we'?"