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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: (The Love of) War's Culture Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed Columnist for the NYTimes wrote about Mythic Reality and war. Quoting a book by Chris Hedges, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Krugman comments: War, Mr. Hedges says, plays to some fundamental urges. 'Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours,' he says, 'is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver.' When war psychology takes hold, the public believes, temporarily, in a 'mythic reality' in which our nation is purely good, our enemies are purely evil, and anyone who isn't our ally is our enemy. This state of mind works greatly to the benefit of those in power. You know anything that talk about Mythic Reality is going to get my attention. So I sought out more information about Mr. Hedges book and came across this interview with him at http://TomPaine.com. Hedges is talking about a lot of the same things I am discussing here, the myths of war and how they dominate in a culture (Hedges says they destroy culture, but I'm not sure I agree with that point). Here is what he says about the myth we are currently engaged in: We become the embodiment of light and goodness. We become the defenders of civilization, of all that is decent. We are more noble than others. We are braver than others. We are kinder and more compassionate than others -- that the enemy at our gate is perfidious, dark, somewhat inhuman. We turn them into two-dimensional figures. I think that's part of the process of linguistically dehumanizing them. And in wartime, we always turn the other into an object, and often, quite literally, in the form of a corpse (Hedges) It turns out that Hedges is not merely a veteran war correspondent, he is also a graduate of Harvard's Divinity School and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his participation in war coverage. Part of Hedges' discussion is about the love of war. Which is, a favorite subject of James Hillman. Hillman's most recent book, A Terrible Love of War reminds us that War and Love, go hand in hand in mythology, paired as Ares and Aphrodite. Both of these immortals represent a desire and a passion that is irrational and life-changing. But it goes deeper than merely passion. Ares & Aphrodite represent social constructs that seem outside of culture (and thus they are civilized in Hephastus' golden net in the Odyssey). But the truth is, war and love and their entanglement is at the roots of Western culture. Who you went to war with and how you treated them had to do with whether or not you would exchange women. That is a cultural construct that is deeply embedded in our notions of war. It is, I contend, a central construct of cultural itself. We can no more give up wars than we can give up love. Both are pathological. George W. Bush's Acceptance Speech 2004In this regard, I'm not convinced, as Hedges suggests, that war destroys culture. I would rather say that war reveals culture and that Western culture is itself a war culture. Our western ego with its self-other split reacts favorable to the passionate stirrings of war, easily jumps on the notion of "the other" as the "evil other". And this experience of the abject other fuels our passions. If you have any doubt of this, look at how the Republican convention highlighted itself as a war party and how favorably the people responded to the images of a war-time president whose decisions must be supported at all costs. The selection of John Kerry as the opponent of George W. Bush reflects an idea of warrior versus warrior in a timeless battle for leadership of the troops. The stirring of war-time images interwoven with patriotic images is a staple or our culture. There is no doubt in my mind, that our culture loves war, thrives on war, and develops around the notion of war. Myths of war foster the adoration and the illusions of a nationalist fervor that becomes pathological in its excesses. The images and our reactions to those images reveal the truth of what we as a culture, really are about. The truth is, we abhor peace.
Poster Comment: Ares loved war but was a coward. When you combine Ares and Aphrodite, you get the Chickenhawk -- the false patriot whose patiotism is the first refuge of a scoundrel, who barks for war while safely in the rear...and who is the weakest link who squeaks the loudest.
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#1. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
The author of this piece no longer has to put up with any of this nonsense we are having to endure. Maggie Macary, Ph.D (1954-2006) She is at peace. For the rest of us, the "war" goes on forever in this vale of tears.
The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government. - Sam Houston
Dozens, if not hundreds, of her articles were lost. Some are available in the Google cache, so I am posting what I can.
Chickenhawk: the weakest link that squeaks the loudest.
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