Imagine if you grew up surrounded by members of a religion that taught that the ultimate noble thing you could do would be to sacrifice your firstborn to a bear-headed god named Krangg. All your life, everyone you knew did this. (Their subsequent children were allowed to grow up.) It was often heart-breaking, but everyone around you really and truly believed that the future of the human race depended upon this happening, and so, as difficult as it was for new parents to murder their first child, they would do so, to the deep praise and adulation of friends and family. For they had performed a profound, noble sacrifice for the common good. So when the time came, and you had your first child, you did the “right” thing, as much as it pained you to do so, and valiantly and selflessly slaughtered your own child.
Then imagine that at some point, years later, you left that screwed up cult, and found out that it was all a lie. There is no “Krangg,” and the widespread murder of innocents served no good purpose at all. It was just mass murder, and nothing else. It didn’t make you noble and brave. It just made you an ignorant, duped murderer. Sure, you could say you didn’t know any better, but still, how devastating would it be to face what you had done, based on your past beliefs? In fact, how desperately would you want to cling to your past beliefs, just to not have to face the reality of what you had done?
Well, something just as bad as that hypothetical is a big part of mainstream American culture. But the false god isn’t named “Krangg.” The false god is named “national security,” or sometimes “fighting for freedom,” or sometimes “spreading democracy.” And it’s an absolute lie, start to finish, but many millions of well-intentioned, devout believers sacrifice their offspring to that false god, and their offspring commit all manner of terrorism and murder on the other side of the world in the name of that god, often losing their lives (or limbs, or sanity) in the process.
And, unfortunately, they are often just as unwilling to hear the truth as a “true believer” in “Krangg” would be. And this is understandable. If you had proudly encouraged your son to join the Marines, and then he died in some ditch on the other side of the world, you would have a very big incentive to cling to the belief that at least he died doing something great, heroic, brave and noble. Every ounce of you would desperately want to believe that he gave the “greatest sacrifice” for his country, or for freedom, or democracy, or … well, something other than the random whims of megalomaniacal politicians and the bottom lines of the huge corporations that own the ruling class.
And what could be more insensitive, rude and mean that someone (like me) coming along and telling you that your son died for nothing? Actually, for less than nothing. Not only did his “service” accomplish nothing worthwhile; it contributed to violence and evil, victimized and harmed innocents, and empowered and enriched sociopathic monsters. But even if that is the case, isn’t it nicer to just let the true-believers believe the lie, so they can feel better about things?
Actually, no. It’s not. If the war machine was dead and gone, and it made no difference what people believed about the past, I might not bring it up. But this is not the past. This is right now. Today, duped parents proudly continue to send their duped sons and daughters off to act as unwitting pawns, to murder or to be killed on the other side of the world. Is it doing them a service—or doing society a service—to let them believe that lie, and repeat that lie, and perpetuate and spread that lie, to the detriment of themselves and everyone else?
No, it isn’t. Sometimes the truth hurts. In fact, sometimes it hurts a lot. Some people zealously and emotional resist the truth, because it hurts too much to face. That is why, in response to articles and videos like the one below, a lot of people who have been indoctrinated into the “troop-worship” mentality will post comments that are emotional, irrational, even hateful to the point of being incoherent.
They will vehemently insist (often while wishing a horrible death on me for suggesting otherwise) that veterans are brave soldiers for freedom, that without their “service” we would all be dead, or enslaved, or oppressed. They will proclaim that those who criticize the military only have the freedom to do so because of the military “fighting for their freedoms.” That, of course, is a ridiculous lie, which is why they never get into details or substance. They just parrot the mythology they were taught—lies they swallowed, hook, line and sinker—and then emotionally insult and condemn anyone who doesn’t (and usually wish them harm in the process).
It’s bad enough to find out that you donated to some charity that was a fraud, or endorsed some candidate who was a liar, or believed in some “guru” who turned out to be a crook. People even resist admitting things like that. They don’t want to look gullible, or stupid. Now multiply that by a thousand, and you almost have what members of the military, and those who “support the troops,” are faced with. It’s one thing for someone to fall for some little trick or sales pitch. But to acknowledge that noble, brave, well-intentioned people went off to some other country and killed people, and/or got killed themselves, for a complete and utter lie, is too much for a lot of people to face.
No, the veterans who died in combat do not deserve our thanks. They have done exactly nothing to protect or defend the lives or the freedoms of Americans. Nothing.
They do, however, deserve our pity, because they threw away their lives in a pointless war game that benefitted only tyrants. They may have thought they were doing something brave, noble and heroic—at least to begin with. But in the end, they died for less than nothing. Neither pointing that out, nor vehemently denying it, will bring them back, or will undo whatever pain or death they inflicted on others. However, pointing it out loudly and often might stop future would-be mercenaries from “bravely” volunteering to be thrown into the meat grinder.
If any “We support the troops!” types have read this far, I might as well end on the most depressing, devastating truth of the matter—the one they really don’t want to hear, but should anyway.
The media and the military try hard to drastically under-report the sky-high suicide rate among members of the military (active and otherwise). In several combat zones and military conflicts, U.S. soldiers have killed themselves (intentionally) more often than they have been killed in combat. Think about that carefully: if you proudly wave goodbye to your son as he ships off for some military deployment somewhere, you should probably worry more about him killing himself than you should worry about him being killed by “the enemy.”
And here is the part that pro-military people really don’t want to hear, or don’t want to think about: many of those suicides are not because those soldiers saw horrible things, but because they did horrible things. They realized, far too late, that being obedient order-followers, and acting as loyal hitmen for Uncle Sam, doesn’t make them righteous defenders of freedom. It makes them thugs, invaders, terrorists, murderers. It makes them monsters. And when the humanity still left inside them sees the monster they have become, it decides that that monster has to die.
So no, parents shouldn’t proudly send their children off to become monsters. And no, we shouldn’t “thank” or cheer for people who commit violence for politicians. Nor should we pretend that what they are doing has anything to do with freedom. And even if the alternative is offending others, decent people who understand the truth should not remain silent while others continue to feed innocents to the war machine.
(Larken Rose is a speaker, author and activist, having advocated the principles of non-aggression, self-ownership and a stateless, voluntary society for over twenty years. Donations to help support his articles, videos and other projects can be made by PayPal to "[email protected]" or by Bitcoin to 13xVLRidonzTHeJCUPZDaFH6dar3UTx5js.)
This is the message I'm trying to get across in my novel To Coin a War (which I'm serializing on Steemit). But in order to avoid the cognitive dissonance that people experience when it's shown to them in modern terms, I've couched the story in medieval Ireland, full of imps, faeries, and an angel named Gavenleigh. But the story is the same: a war is being "coined" by a poet who happens to be a faery and runs an underground central bank. This war will give her something to fund and profit from, so she's busy in the first half of the novel fomenting strife, suspicion, and hatred. Great post @larkenrose and I hope my story will get across the same message.
I suspect Larken's (actually Socrates) 'mirror' (candles in the dark) question and answer approach is a more effective way to manage cognitive dissonance and get the message across.
Great article, as usual. I love reading your stuff.
"But in the end, the died for less than nothing.": 'the died' > 'they died'
Good catch! Thanks!
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Spot on as usual Larson. I like the point you made in the linked video, that compares US imperialism abroad to a hypothetical Chinese occupation of the US, and how you, and many others, would take up arms and defend ourselves from their attacks on our liberty. This really makes it easy to see the US invasions for what they are. But the US government is already restricting and attacking our liberty right now. But one point I struggle with. Why should we only attack the Chinese aggressors?
What's funny is I assumed it would be an anti abortion rant but then it was an anti military rant.
“More veterans succumbed to suicide than were killed in Iraq.”
THANK YOU for continuing to say the things that people NEED to hear, even if they do not want to.
tip!
We hear so much about veteran suicides I was surprised to find out that their suicide rate is only like 15-20% higher than the general population.
The shocking part is how much higher suicide rates are across all demographics since the introduction of "antidepressants." They don't help, they take some people from sad to suicidal, and they are the ONLY thing modern "mental health" offers.
Indeed, they say right on the label, even when prescribed as smoking cessation aids, "May cause suicidal thoughts or actions" but that is a big business. Blame the guns.
There is some hope though, states that have legalized cannabis see a 5% reduction in suicide rates and young men see a 10% reduction.
If they go nuts and kill a bunch of other people (almost EVERY mass murderer was on them) they will blame the gun. When they just kill themselves, they blame the "depression" the person was trying to get help for when some professional "care giver" gave them a "happy pill" that causes suicidal thoughts.
C'mon, that's not fair, sometimes they blame bullying.
I salute you @larkenrose for telling the story that most people don't know, for driving home the truth about the kind of machine we're all subjected to - by default. Upvoted.
You should read Utopia, in Utopia they encourage all the violent young men to enlist and then send them abroad to kill off the violent young men elsewhere to get rid of the stupider of the violent young men.
Yeah, it's bloody sad talking to people in the military. You can see they are often decent people but they have no idea what they are doing or why.
Americans love to believe in things!
Such a religious country...
Good post! Funny how I have thought that for many years but didn't want to express it publicly.
As always, you are the very voice of reason. It is sad that denial is so commonly in conflict with reason.
Given that all the duplicity and denial you discuss in this essay is very real, I recommend leading with your best, that which no parent, nor prospective mercenary, might so easily deny.
None of the propaganda they have been sold will cause them to ignore this particular facet of jingoism, and the consequences of 'service'. The fact that it is what they DO, and not what they see, that causes them to despair of life and commit suicide more often than they are killed in action, has no counter in the propaganda.
Lead with that, and let the rest sink in after they accept that first.
Or even lead with that, and let them tell YOU about the rest, as they realize it themselves. It is often best to lead a horse to water and let it drink when it is thirsty, rather than trying to force water down it's neck.
Even a thirsty horse will resist being forced to drink.
Thanks!
Yes you are right.. I am with you.. Thanx for sharing.. No war no war
I support you until the end very nice post @larkenrose
Thank you, @larkenrose, for stating this. It’s not comfortable to people when their idols are belittled, but the truth needs to come out. Gladly, the coming generations haven’t accepted the radio/tv propaganda that the older generations were indoctrinated with. We can change it!
This is so on point! Thank you!
I have tried to put this point into words and failed, but you have succeeded. It is a harsh truth many do not want to hear. I often think these things when rememberance day comes around, because it seems like we are celebrating people dieing in war rather then doing anything to stop it!
Why remember and thank when people are still killing each other for no good reason?
"I'm for the war but against the troops." - Bill Hicks
I agree with majority of article except the part "that being obedient order-followers, and acting as loyal hitmen for Uncle Sam, doesn’t make them righteous defenders of freedom. It makes them thugs, invaders, terrorists, murderers. It makes them monsters." some are. Others are trapped by an insane contract that makes them the "property of the united states" as you say disposable humans. So imagine you are asleep (lets face it many of us have been) full of wanting to save the world and you sign that contract. Once you've signed it you are their property and then you begin military life full of hope, many haven't even reached adulthood yet. Their brains literally haven't finished thats why they like them young and this happens
or they see it happen to your friends and co-workers. Have you ever studied what happens to those in military that speak out? I was married to a marine. He was a good man with good intentions, fed misinformation like the rest of us. So maybe the suicides are desperation to being trapped in a system that ok'd you being guinea pigs and isn't there to support you as you come back from the trauma of the military complex.
I truly hope people understand the military members have no choice and the support our troops while hiding caskets bush era was a mockery and insult to intelligent people. Its been admitted habeaus corpus hasn't applied in USA for a long time now. How many military members talk about it? Why not? Why do they follow orders to spy on americans? Because americans keep giving their consent and they are contractually bound.
They keep no numbers on cop related shootings or missing children but miltary either. Maybe we should all chew on that in 1984 while Gitmo is active again. We also keep giving our consent for these wars by not stopping them. We the people of each nation funded and contracted those wars.
Everyone has a choice. Signing a "contract" to do evil stuff doesn't make it okay to do evil stuff, nor does it make anyone "have no choice." If someone CHOOSES to commit aggression, he is acting immorally, regardless of whether he agreed to do so before.
You've obviously never met the mob or been in the military. Its unfortunate the glossing over of how much of guinea pigs they are. Mind control is a real thing and it happens in suddle ways but even with historic abuse of soldiers within their system people choose to pretend its not what turned them into those depressed suicidal no hope humans. Some of them joined not out of "pride" but out of lack of family, future or resources and many never see combat or its short lived.
I am going to hope you are just lacking in knowledge about Military structures, high sexual assault rate not addressed, the spy kids they cull and raise to be super soldiers and all the information so well supressed yet currently available about a military gone completetly wild and a government of wolves benefitting from it. Not to mention fact Hitler didn't die gave them tesla tech for protection and gifted USA with their best psychos who implemented nazi mk into US military.
What does any of that have to do with the fact that human beings have free will, and are responsible for what they CHOOSE to do? I know quite a few anarchists who are former Marines, and I know a bit about the soul-crushing and mind-numbing indoctrination and torture they go through to make them unthinking machines. But I also know that some CHOOSE to not do evil crap anyway.
You've lumped everyone into a homogoneous bubble. No I don't think everyone chooses their circumstances. The idea of free will is great until you try and exercise it. Then try and exercise your civil rights and then you will know you are not free. The military is even less. Free. Ha.
This comment is SPOT ON. I agree 100 percent. The evil of the military is pervasive in many aspects of our lives. Take geoengineering and stratospheric spraying for example. If I'm not mistaken, the Navy is responsible for a good part of that.
People should look/listen to Kay Griggs tell all about what high military ranking officers are expected to do for confirmation of the sexual assault and more that goes on there. Her husband was/is a Colonel in the Marines in charge of Special Operations and he was embroiled in it.
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STOPGuys like Larken have caused military enlistment to dwindle - once you get a few hundred or a few thousand or a few million to give up the monster called 'Statism', what is the next step??
Re-focus energy and resources on constructive activities ...
@damono - Really? I hope that is the case. I'd love to see statistics on that.
Tremendous post sir.Upvote and resteem done.
Larken you encouraged me to join here. Thanks for continuing to smash down the mental disease that is statism!
https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket