We are pretty amazing in the area of collective and individual deceit. Collectively we manage to think of our country as the saviors of idealism and democracy and care for human life on this planet. All facts point to the opposite picture. We think we know what is good for everyone else, even if we have to kill them to show them the way.
Now we are using our client state, Israel, to make the next play. We already saved Iran from itself once and how did that work out? We have saved Haiti too many times to count. What shape is Haiti in today?
Hillary Clinton has the balls to go in front of the world and deplore governments who kill innocent civilians. Has she forgotten Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the bombing of Dresden? Who got killed in our overthrow of the Arbenz government in Guatemala? Who has died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam? There is certainly a pattern, everywhere we profess to have a righteous interest in seems to break out in horrible devastating conflicts with massive loss of civilian life. Who are we kidding?
Ourselves. We helped South East Asia and how many people got killed before we had enough? After that we got really interested in bringing the light to Central America. Sorry about the 230,000 Mayans killed. And Nicaragua. The Contras tried to help them undo the revolution they had fought for. And poor dear El Salvador.The 30 year 'civil war' stopped there that day we stopped funding the military.
What blows my mind is that we still fall for the line that this is righteous, high-minded, 'in their best interest' business. It would be very interesting to see some country try to work it out on their own, without our mercenaries, our CIA, our arms sales, our 'advisers', our instigation, our propaganda.
How do we believe in ourselves? Next week is the Spring Equinox of 2012. The ancient Mayan predictions said that this time could be a turning point for humanity. They did not say whether it would be a bad one or a good one. It is our choice. There certainly are a lot of people who would love to be using our genius to care for Mother Earth, for each other, for the downtrodden in the world. But, as long as we lie to ourselves and justify the insane idea that mine fields, drone attacks, nukes, depleted uranium bombs and so on, are in the best interest of the world, we can't make the essential shift to be more human.
Before he died, right before, Mahatma Gandhi identified the blunders that lead to violence in society.
1. Wealth without Work
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Knowledge without Character
4. Commerce without Morality
5. Science without Humanity
6. Worship without Sacrifice
7. Politics without Principles
8. Rights without Responsibilities
When Ghandi met Winston Churchill in England, Churchill asked him, "Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of Western Civilization?" Ghandi replied, "I think it would be a good idea."
Julie (and anyone else out there)
ReplyDeleteGhandhi's ideas really speak to the way I am raising my kids. My current plan: to keep them in public school (instead of joining you in the vida loca) until the oldest is ready for middle school. Since the school basically has time only for building knowledge (no character) and we live and worship commerce (without morality)I can't really imagine that middle school, where the only influence will be his peers, will encourage him to consider empathy as a motive for action. P.S. I miss you. Less is more, right? Human interactions grounded in the presence of both humans still exist, right? I would love to take the kids to Nicaragua, but I think Asia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam spcifically, are next on my list. Elijah wants to learn Chinese. wtf.