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David McElroy

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‘War is the health of the state’ — but the death of the people who serve it

By David McElroy · August 7, 2011

We learned Saturday that 30 American troops (along with seven Afghans) were killed Friday night when Afghan rebels shot their helicopter down during a raid. The obvious question: Why are U.S. troops still there?

Afghanistan is no danger to the United States today, and it’s not our business to fix the country’s twisted political situation. I don’t see any evidence that it’s even realistically possible, especially considering that Afghanistan has a long history of humiliating invaders. Ask the British and the Russians about that.

So why are U.S. troops still fighting over this inhospitable piece of land where the people don’t like each other very much and like us even less? Many people would give many different justifications for the continuing war. (You do realize that it’s been going on for almost 10 years now, don’t you?) Some people would claim that if U.S. troops pulled out that terrorists would be able to go back to using the country as a safe haven. Others would say the U.S. needs to stay there to build a stable and democratic government. Others would be more honest and just say that since we started the fight, we have to gain a complete victory or else lose face.

All of the listed reasons are bogus. The real reason the U.S. military is still there is that war itself is good for the state, even though that’s not necessarily the conscious intent of the politicians making the decisions. In fact, many of them have spent their careers opposing U.S. involvement in wars, but when you reach a position of power — especially something such as the U.S. presidency — you frequently end up making decisions that reflect the permanent interests of the state.

There are a lot of things I wouldn’t agree with the early 20th century progressive writer Randolph Bourne about, but Bourne was among those on the left who broke from their fellow progressives (including John Dewey) who supported World War I as a way to spread democracy around the world. In an essay published after his death in 1918, Bourne explained why war is what makes the state so powerful:

“Wartime brings the ideal of the State out into very clear relief, and reveals attitudes and tendencies that were hidden. In times of peace the sense of the State flags in a republic that is not militarized. For war is essentially the health of the State. The ideal of the State is that within its territory its power and influence should be universal. As the Church is the medium for the spiritual salvation of man, so the State is thought of as the medium for his political salvation. Its idealism is a rich blood flowing to all the members of the body politic. And it is precisely in war that the urgency for union seems greatest, and the necessity for universality seems most unquestioned. The State is the organization of the herd to act offensively or defensively against another herd similarly organized. The more terrifying the occasion for defense, the closer will become the organization and the more coercive the influence upon each member of the herd. War sends the current of purpose and activity flowing down to the lowest level of the herd, and to its most remote branches. All the activities of society are linked together as fast as possible to this central purpose of making a military offensive or a military defense, and the State becomes what in peacetimes it has vainly struggled to become — the inexorable arbiter and determinant of men’s business and attitudes and opinions.”

War is what politicians use — consciously or unconsciously — to force people who live in the territory of the state to unite behind their rule. In times of peace, it’s easier for people to believe they don’t need the politicians and their control. But when people are afraid — as many in this country were after Sept. 11, 2001 — it’s easy to get people to go along with almost anything. (The various laws passed shortly thereafter which gutted many traditional protections of individual rights are perfect examples.)

You hear people mindlessly defending any war with the mantra that the military is “defending our freedom.” It frustrates me that people are willing to support pretty much anything done by the state as long as they’re told that it’s about “defending our freedom.” That’s simply a matter of allowing long-running propaganda (which starts in most schools, government or private) to override the ability to think. (As for “supporting the troops,” the best way to support them is to bring them home and let them get on with normal lives of supporting themselves as productive individuals instead of paying them to kill people in foreign lands.)

Returning to the deaths of the troops in the U.S. helicopter Friday night, I do feel for the families of the men killed. I seriously do. But I’m frustrated that people are so callous about the lives of the completely innocent Afghan people who are being killed over there — because of the U.S. presence — and nobody makes a big deal about them. It seems to be a tragedy when Americans are killed, but when innocent Afghans die, that’s seen as “just part of war.” That is an obscene attitude.

What people don’t understand — and don’t want to understand — is that the U.S. government has gone around the world meddling for the last hundred years or so, and that’s created a lot of enemies. People don’t want anyone (whether Americans or anyone else) to come to their countries and force their will upon the locals.

The U.S. government has done vicious and ugly things in our name — and then lied to us about it, in many cases. It’s no wonder so many people around the world hate us. It doesn’t justify their murders of Americans, of course, but it’s easy to understand what created their anger. Whether it’s accidental killings by the U.S. military or intentional killing of wounded and unarmed people, if people from another country were in the United States doing that to our friends and family, we would be angry and eager to strike back. If the foreign power were too powerful to fight, we would turn to some kind on unconventional resistance. Why are we surprised that people in other countries don’t like having their friends and families killed for no reason, either?

It’s time for us to quit making new enemies. It’s time to pull the U.S. military back to the territory it’s supposed to defend — and leave the rest of the world alone until and unless that territory is attacked.

Note: If you’re interested in the ways that the United States has used misused its military over the last 50 years or so, I highly recommend, “Why We Fight,” a 2006 documentary. You can watch it online here.

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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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