I agree with what you wrote, but it always amazes me how many people, especially working class people, place military service on a pedestal. If a man (usually a man), has served in the Army, he automatically gains enormous respect from his community. That’s the problem: mass indoctrination runs very deep.
Dominic, you’d like this post I wrote yesterday. In fact, there are many who served who have woken up from their mass indoctrination and don’t want to be thanked for their “service”. Totally agree with you here. Here’s the piece: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/short-thoughts-may-25-memorial-day
Well in order for society to be able to keep fighting wars, especially for the benefit of the 1%, they have to spin it as honorable and create give out special status and benefits and create entire holidays and rituals around it romanticizing it. Most people think the wars their country fights are like the wars fought on TV. But notice how in movies and TV, all the wars fought are defensive or honorable. Pick a show, any show, and 9.8 out of 10 times the military in that show/movie is fighting a righteous war - be it Star Wars or Star Trek...rarely do we see movies where the plot is this celebrated military that in actually just goes out there bombing the poorest people in the world on behalf of the empire.
That propaganda creates the myth that all these wars are for some higher, noble, liberation causes as opposed to wars of aggression and choice to secure more resources for the global West.
Well said, Ginnie 👍. Unfortunately, the addiction to that status gets passed down through generations. Trying to change the minds of such people is an uphill struggle.
How comes you ignore the fact that the people of Iraq never had asked for your help?Same goes for Ukraine which is being sacrificed for evil aims and cashflow in the pockets of those you presuambly follow blindly.
"...did you know Canadian soldiers, men and women, have trained 47000 Ukrainians to protect their own country?"
I wouldn't be so quick to trumpet your country's ill-advised participation in the training of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine - as if it was something to be proud of. Or to exhibit pride in having "actively served" as instruments of Western imperialism. But then, I am strongly anti-Fascist and am in possession of a moral compass.
I never said that you-or others who have served in the military or other forces-have no value. We all have value, including people who never served. Be offended if you like. I was simply pointing out my own perspective.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
$7.25 minimum wage, 7% of jobs unionized, college costing big bucks, healthcare unaffordable and political/historical conscientiousness virtually non existent. It is not surprising desperate kids “volunteer “.
Very true Iggy.........but what are they signing up for: killing and decapitating leaders/bleeding sovereign countries! There is absolutely NO moral reason to fight.
People from underprivileged communities - that come from poverty, and that suffer victimization and brutalization from their police force - make the calculation that by joining the army and accepting a small amount of controlled war crimes they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and make a life for themselves.
Somebody ought to show these vulnerable people that participating in the crimes against humanity perpetuated by the elites - and the various monopoly business interests of their country - is not the answer to their problems. They need to be made aware of how their country treats them after they are done with them (for those that are unaware, it's not very well). They need to understand that by participating in the system that has immiserated them they become culpable in it's crimes.
Western Imperialism is a complex of moving parts that grinds the vulnerable - both at home and abroad - into fuel for the system. Don't be the fuel. Be the friction. You aren't going to vote your way out of this mess, but you might just friction your way out.
There’s that, but consider this: if conscientious people didn’t join the military, there would be no conscientious people in the military at all. Imagine nobody disobeying orders at all, nobody to say, “ no, this is where I draw the line.” Remember that aircraft carrier where they stopped up the sewage system? Like that. Now spec ops, they’re going to be psychopaths, with little exception. It’s in the job description. But everything outside of that, you’d better hope there are people capable of conscience in there. You don’t want the only people capable of making war to be pure psychopaths.
The military indoctrination makes being conscientious very difficult and dangerous, nice public words to the contrary notwithstanding. Why join the storm troopers if you already know you will join the resistance?
On Memorial Day, I honor the victims of war. The victims include, not only the innocent people killed, but those who pull the trigger and kill them, for the actual combat soldiers are immature boys, whose brains and full adult judgment will not mature for another 10 years. They are, as in Vietnam or Israel, 18 or 19 yrs old, too uneducated to understand the narrative they are told is a lie, too reckless to stop and consider, and so the victimizers are also victims, for if only those with mature brains, let's say 30 yrs or older were allowed to fight, there would be no wars. For the mature mind knows that combat is insane while war itself is profitible, AND so those who send young boys into war are older and stay safe, and those who command them are also older, staying in back and pushing them into the madness of war.
And so there are two levels of victims: the innocents caught in the crossfire, or sometimes deliberately killed to force regime change by causing mass suffering, the collateral damage are pure sacrifice for the gods of war, which are the financial elites which finance wars, the politicians paid to promote wars, the fossil fuel tycoons who fuel war, and the merchants of deeath who grow fat producing killing machines.
The boys (sometimes girls) sent to kill and be killed are the second level: chosen because they lack the mature brain to see thru the lies and because they are too young to have gained the authority to say no.
They kill both the innocents and those, on the other side, about whom they know nothing, who have been manipulated to kill them.
This is a level of victimhood compromised by the fact that it is conditioned by coming to kill.
So on Memorial Day, I remember the boys sent to slaughter and be slaughter but I not glorify them; I pity them and reserve my mourning for those they come to kill, 3/4 being civilians, innocents.
I AM lying. On Memorial day, I grow angry at the insanity of war, at the sacrifice of our youth, at the obscene evil of the old men who profit from war. I cringe when I see the flag; I shirk in horror when I see people saying, "Thank you for serving." I draw back into myself, an utter stranger in world where killing each other is normal. I shudder at the very idea of honoring those who "died so we could be free" knowing that if I openly expressed my dread of this day in the presence of those executing the ritual, I would be erased with a violence that is the hidden message of Memorial Day.
25 million soldiers spend life practicing killing. If all practiced saving lives instead of taking lives, nuclear Armageddon would be relegated to the archives of human history.
The problem here is that joining the military is for young adults from low-income families the only feasible way to escape poverty. In our wars of aggression we send our poor to kill the poor of victim nations.
Peace be upon you by Gaza and Jerusalem - Honour and victory are the allies of the axis of resistance and its allies, and humiliation and shame are for the axis of evil, Epstein Class (USA, Britain, France, Turkey, Qatar, UAE, NATO Governments, Masonic, Zionist and Israel) and its allies.
Oh yes. Spot and and so well put. In the current Western context, joining the military is for psychopaths, rapists, pillagers and the like - doing the bidding of a satanic cult.
On a slightly digressory not, I feel like posting this again from the archives:
Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen because poverty’s hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you; and even if it seems that you never had so much; that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in when they pat you paternally on the shoulder and say there’s no equality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight; because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and their granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect their gold in wars who’s weapons’ rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can, with a flick of their fingers, tear a million of you to pieces.
I suspect the USA is causing a worldwide depression to contain China and pressure young men to enlist in the military. If so, there will be no peace in Iran and the Middle East. The USA has moved troops into Poland, and has contacted Indonesia about permission to fly warplanes over their soil in order to blockade the Strait of Malacca.
I agree with what you wrote, but it always amazes me how many people, especially working class people, place military service on a pedestal. If a man (usually a man), has served in the Army, he automatically gains enormous respect from his community. That’s the problem: mass indoctrination runs very deep.
Dominic, you’d like this post I wrote yesterday. In fact, there are many who served who have woken up from their mass indoctrination and don’t want to be thanked for their “service”. Totally agree with you here. Here’s the piece: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/p/short-thoughts-may-25-memorial-day
Thanks, Franklin 😁. I’ll take a look at your piece.
Well in order for society to be able to keep fighting wars, especially for the benefit of the 1%, they have to spin it as honorable and create give out special status and benefits and create entire holidays and rituals around it romanticizing it. Most people think the wars their country fights are like the wars fought on TV. But notice how in movies and TV, all the wars fought are defensive or honorable. Pick a show, any show, and 9.8 out of 10 times the military in that show/movie is fighting a righteous war - be it Star Wars or Star Trek...rarely do we see movies where the plot is this celebrated military that in actually just goes out there bombing the poorest people in the world on behalf of the empire.
That propaganda creates the myth that all these wars are for some higher, noble, liberation causes as opposed to wars of aggression and choice to secure more resources for the global West.
Well said, Ginnie 👍. Unfortunately, the addiction to that status gets passed down through generations. Trying to change the minds of such people is an uphill struggle.
How comes you ignore the fact that the people of Iraq never had asked for your help?Same goes for Ukraine which is being sacrificed for evil aims and cashflow in the pockets of those you presuambly follow blindly.
"...did you know Canadian soldiers, men and women, have trained 47000 Ukrainians to protect their own country?"
I wouldn't be so quick to trumpet your country's ill-advised participation in the training of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine - as if it was something to be proud of. Or to exhibit pride in having "actively served" as instruments of Western imperialism. But then, I am strongly anti-Fascist and am in possession of a moral compass.
Bootlicker,aye
Informed,huh
I never said that you-or others who have served in the military or other forces-have no value. We all have value, including people who never served. Be offended if you like. I was simply pointing out my own perspective.
You will be glad to know that conscientious objections have skyrocketed in the US recently, by a factor of ten: https://www.dawn.com/news/1990665
just because some guys have come home with legs in front and in a coffin...
Most likely!
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
$7.25 minimum wage, 7% of jobs unionized, college costing big bucks, healthcare unaffordable and political/historical conscientiousness virtually non existent. It is not surprising desperate kids “volunteer “.
Very true Iggy.........but what are they signing up for: killing and decapitating leaders/bleeding sovereign countries! There is absolutely NO moral reason to fight.
If soldiers fought social injustice instead of each other, nuclear Armageddon would become a footnote in history books.
Of course, but they are signing up out of desperation for college benefits , health care for their children and a shot at a decent standard of living…
They are still mercenaries.
People from underprivileged communities - that come from poverty, and that suffer victimization and brutalization from their police force - make the calculation that by joining the army and accepting a small amount of controlled war crimes they will be able to lift themselves out of poverty and make a life for themselves.
Somebody ought to show these vulnerable people that participating in the crimes against humanity perpetuated by the elites - and the various monopoly business interests of their country - is not the answer to their problems. They need to be made aware of how their country treats them after they are done with them (for those that are unaware, it's not very well). They need to understand that by participating in the system that has immiserated them they become culpable in it's crimes.
Western Imperialism is a complex of moving parts that grinds the vulnerable - both at home and abroad - into fuel for the system. Don't be the fuel. Be the friction. You aren't going to vote your way out of this mess, but you might just friction your way out.
There’s that, but consider this: if conscientious people didn’t join the military, there would be no conscientious people in the military at all. Imagine nobody disobeying orders at all, nobody to say, “ no, this is where I draw the line.” Remember that aircraft carrier where they stopped up the sewage system? Like that. Now spec ops, they’re going to be psychopaths, with little exception. It’s in the job description. But everything outside of that, you’d better hope there are people capable of conscience in there. You don’t want the only people capable of making war to be pure psychopaths.
The military indoctrination makes being conscientious very difficult and dangerous, nice public words to the contrary notwithstanding. Why join the storm troopers if you already know you will join the resistance?
Consider something I wrote years ago in my online book: https://lifes-purpose.info/11LoyaltytotheKingdom_Part1.html#taxes
On Memorial Day, I honor the victims of war. The victims include, not only the innocent people killed, but those who pull the trigger and kill them, for the actual combat soldiers are immature boys, whose brains and full adult judgment will not mature for another 10 years. They are, as in Vietnam or Israel, 18 or 19 yrs old, too uneducated to understand the narrative they are told is a lie, too reckless to stop and consider, and so the victimizers are also victims, for if only those with mature brains, let's say 30 yrs or older were allowed to fight, there would be no wars. For the mature mind knows that combat is insane while war itself is profitible, AND so those who send young boys into war are older and stay safe, and those who command them are also older, staying in back and pushing them into the madness of war.
And so there are two levels of victims: the innocents caught in the crossfire, or sometimes deliberately killed to force regime change by causing mass suffering, the collateral damage are pure sacrifice for the gods of war, which are the financial elites which finance wars, the politicians paid to promote wars, the fossil fuel tycoons who fuel war, and the merchants of deeath who grow fat producing killing machines.
The boys (sometimes girls) sent to kill and be killed are the second level: chosen because they lack the mature brain to see thru the lies and because they are too young to have gained the authority to say no.
They kill both the innocents and those, on the other side, about whom they know nothing, who have been manipulated to kill them.
This is a level of victimhood compromised by the fact that it is conditioned by coming to kill.
So on Memorial Day, I remember the boys sent to slaughter and be slaughter but I not glorify them; I pity them and reserve my mourning for those they come to kill, 3/4 being civilians, innocents.
I AM lying. On Memorial day, I grow angry at the insanity of war, at the sacrifice of our youth, at the obscene evil of the old men who profit from war. I cringe when I see the flag; I shirk in horror when I see people saying, "Thank you for serving." I draw back into myself, an utter stranger in world where killing each other is normal. I shudder at the very idea of honoring those who "died so we could be free" knowing that if I openly expressed my dread of this day in the presence of those executing the ritual, I would be erased with a violence that is the hidden message of Memorial Day.
Well said, thank you!
25 million soldiers spend life practicing killing. If all practiced saving lives instead of taking lives, nuclear Armageddon would be relegated to the archives of human history.
And if you mention any of this, it's like you just stabbed the most sacred cow of all.
Hell, the loopy-ass QAnon conspiracy theory prominently featured the military supporting Trump.
The problem here is that joining the military is for young adults from low-income families the only feasible way to escape poverty. In our wars of aggression we send our poor to kill the poor of victim nations.
The word ghoul comes to mind in reply to Polly's question.
Peace be upon you by Gaza and Jerusalem - Honour and victory are the allies of the axis of resistance and its allies, and humiliation and shame are for the axis of evil, Epstein Class (USA, Britain, France, Turkey, Qatar, UAE, NATO Governments, Masonic, Zionist and Israel) and its allies.
Caitlin more brave than I am in openly declaring the moral ambiguity of joining the US military today.
If I hear one more "ultimate sacrifice" or "fought for your freedom" trope, I'm gonna slap someone.
Oh yes. Spot and and so well put. In the current Western context, joining the military is for psychopaths, rapists, pillagers and the like - doing the bidding of a satanic cult.
On a slightly digressory not, I feel like posting this again from the archives:
Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen because poverty’s hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you; and even if it seems that you never had so much; that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in when they pat you paternally on the shoulder and say there’s no equality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight; because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and their granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect their gold in wars who’s weapons’ rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can, with a flick of their fingers, tear a million of you to pieces.
Jean Paul Marat (1743 – 1793)
I suspect the USA is causing a worldwide depression to contain China and pressure young men to enlist in the military. If so, there will be no peace in Iran and the Middle East. The USA has moved troops into Poland, and has contacted Indonesia about permission to fly warplanes over their soil in order to blockade the Strait of Malacca.
The Strait of Malacca 😬…
Most ships to/from China go through that strait.
Patrick I know! All bad…
I'm writing for people in general, many of whom do not know.