Reflections on Veterans Day

Going through my e-mail this Veterans Day morning I was swamped with message after message urging me to thank a veteran, remember a veteran, or express my appreciation of and gratitude for veterans. Most of these e-mails were from progressive groups opposed to endless war, American imperialism, war crimes, and a militaristic foreign policy, not to mention the budgetary consequences of said militarism. Why is it, I asked myself, that progressives who condemn American militarism, are so grateful to those who implement and carry out these very policies and practices?

The convenient piece of ethical doggerel is that we cannot expect soldiers to be responsible for the wars in which they kill and maim. They must take orders from those society deems their superiors. This argument might even hold water when we had the draft. Even then a common protest mantra was “What if they had a war and no one came?” As conscientious objectors became objects of abuse there was flight to Canada. The point is that these days there is absolutely no excuse for serving the aggression of an imperialistic state, which launches unprovoked attacks and subjects prisoners and its own citizens to torture. Yet, we are told to honor the veterans who visited these horrors on enemy and civilian alike.

These are the self-deceptions and their brutal consequences of a mindless, hype-saturated, highly delusional society after 14 years (and counting) of continuous war.

Somebody has to break this highly destructive cycle. Progressives, with their concern for human welfare, should be the countervailing force. That they are not is testament to the power of societal brainwashing.

Even Bernie Sanders has refused to connect the dots. He is against our endless wars, yet he prides himself on his record of supporting veterans’ assistance. Even he will not publicly ask himself whether volunteering for military service to imperialism should be a cause for honor and concern.

A democracy is ultimately governed by its people. This means that citizens of a democracy have a responsibility to evaluate evidence just as those whom they elect to carry out their wishes are expected to weigh all the consequences of their decisions. Submitting ourselves to continuous conventional propaganda instead of looking at things as they are, obviously results in unacknowledged crime and violence.

I realize the above argument expects a high level of citizen responsibility, but with the future we have before us, the unprecedented threats to humanity and its continued existence require unprecedented actions on the part of humanity. The response we must undertake in dealing with these, makes child’s play of changing our attitudes regarding war and those that fight them.

Bob  Newhard 

Bashing Bernie - Uncouth

One of the more fascinating things about this presidential campaign is how the attacks on Bernie Sanders so frequently reflect the hand of corporate America.

The latest attack on Bernie is that he shouted at Hillary. According to some of the media Bernie is, in general, a loud mouthed boorish and uncouth individual. The implication is, of course, that Hillary is a lady and speaks in a softer more refined, voice. While this has nothing to do with Bernie’s focus on the gross inequality in this society and the responsibility of Wall Street for that condition, it is intended to portray Bernie as uncouth.

This alleged low-class behavior psychologically segues to the working class whose interests Bernie promotes and to his Brooklyn background. Madison Avenue, from which Hillary is drawing her campaign strategy, has long studied the cultural memes in the American public mind and is well-versed in the prejudices that lie there. 

In sum, by simply implying that a lower class man from a working class background has offended a wealthy society lady, one of the old political games, Hillary’s campaign managers are attempting to convert the social issue of gross inequality into a personal issue.

The extent to which Hillary Clinton is relying on the marketing expertise of Madison Avenue and Wall Street is indicated in the following article. It reports that Hillary has added to her advisory staff two marketing experts to rebrand Hillary for the 2016 presidential race. One of these experts manages the Coca Cola brand for a major advertising firm. Her specialty is reviving old brands in danger of becoming passé. Please google the article’s title to get an appreciation of the depth of the shallowness that pervades the American political process and how irrelevant it makes that process to mankind’s unprecedented problems. The article’s title is The making of Hillary 5.0: Marketing wizards help re-imagine Clinton brand.

It is difficult to imagine a greater contrast between Democratic presidential candidates than Hillary’s focus on politics as advertising and Bernie’s focus on eliminating the major sources of human deprivation that untrammeled wealth is visiting upon the American people and the rest of the world.

Bob Newhard