AP photo / Morry Gash"Troops training for and fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are firing more than a billion bullets a year."
Chris Hedges, seminarian and anti-war columnist at Truthdig, challenges us - and our new American President - to rethink our power in the world in his column today titled "America's Wars of Self Destruction."
"The most destructive evils, however, are not those that are externalized. The most destructive are those that are internal. These hidden evils, often defined as virtues, are unleashed by our hubris, self-delusion and ignorance. Evil masquerading as good is evil in its deadliest form."
This reminded me of Sharon's post today, because I was thinking after that good thought provocation that it's what we project onto others that gets us in trouble. (Jung said "The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.") Fundamentalist beliefs that WE are right and THEY are wrong, to the point of a billion bullets on either side has got to stop. But will we keep stopping it with more bullets? (Ha, right, more like keep trying to stop it, because you can't win this one, folks. - I just noticed that when I posted this I had mistyped "can win this one" -yikes!)
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We have to change on the inside. And I hope Barack Obama's attention to political solutions will start down that path, even to change his own intention to escalate the criminal war in Afghanistan. It seems to me it begins with listening, and imagining how it is to be in someone else's shoes.
9 comments:
And it's not just the myths of the citizens of empire, believing in exceptionalism and the city on a hill. It's also the myth of the rebel facing the Yanqui imperialist. Jorge Castaneda of NYU makes an interesting distinction between the pragmatic left, people like Lula in Brazil and Vazquez in Uruguay; and the "swashbuckler" left, exemplified by Hugo Chavez. Castaneda puts Evo Morales in the latter category, but I heard Evo on Amy Goodman last night and he really seemed to be a person looking at the world without blinkers. But the demagogues who think that one can challenge empire through posturing are as silly as the imperialists.
Someone in Z magazine was criticizing Obama for saying you can't stop globalization. But Obama is right - we can look for ways to mandate safety nets for environment or labor, but if anyone in UAW thinks that the US auto industry can be saved through protectionism, they might as well be King Cnut waving at the ocean.
Empathy is in short supply on the planet today, whether you're the imperial manager or its victim.
What a great quote. I'm off to go read the entire article.
Ruth, Thank you for acquainting me with Chris Hedges. I must read more of him. Obama should give him a desk next to the oval office and he should talk to Hedges every day. Why do we never use the intelligence we have around us but rely on the lunatic fringe. At last someone I can trust with the truth. He is the anti-venom to Bush. Everyone should be vaccinated.
Larry, Chris Hedges also has an interview in The Sun magazine this month. The online version is always a month behind, so it's not here yet. But here is the online mag:
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/
Larry, sometimes Chris can be annoying - his book, American Fascists, suggests that it's dangerous to walk down the streets in Colorado Springs. That's simply not true - I live there, I'm radical, I say what I want. But his book, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a must-read.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Watching Obama from over here in the UK I like what I see very much. Let us hope he can bear the weight of the expectations upon him, not just in the US but worldwide.
And he is right, you can't stop globalisation!
Yes, it's too much to make everyone happy. Thanks for coming by, Elizabeth.
Which empire has lasted Ruth ? None. The decline of others was slow and steady as there was no one to tell them to stop the folly of domination through conquests. Now the decline is fast and you have right thinking Americans and rest of the world to guide America to stop and take a fresh look.
rauf, I hope so. I hope so.
Slightly unrelated, I saw a piece about the CEO of Japan Air Lines who takes only $90,000 for his annual salary (compared to the millions CEOs of the Big 3 automakers take, for instance). He said in Japan's economic bubble they realized companies that were only interested in making money were doomed to fail.
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