War

Preface to a Preface: This was intended to be a simple preface for a link to some articles I happened upon on the web, but in typical fashion, the following preface (I think it's the first time I've ever had a following preface) turned into a full fledged, WAAAAY to broad of scope, rant. Soooo� keep that in mind as you roll your eyes at some longwinded diatribe about the nature of life as I see it and remember�I Warned you!

I think that to be a truly "informed" citizen of the United States, and of the world at large, it is important to seek the truth by viewing all sides of an issue. We all know that our nation's politicians have mastered the art of the "spin." Despite popular opinion, it's not always sinister. Hell, we have PR firms and Ad Agencies that are based on it. The American culture, generally expects, and indeed in many ways, relies on various manipulations of the truth. I think it would be na�ve to think that our collective media, itself an entity expected to be entirely objective, conscious or not, is exempt from the practice of playing to the crowd a bit. We all see the world through our own tinted lenses, and in this age of 24 hour, multi-media, in your face, news/entertainment, I think we owe it to ourselves to seek as many different angles as possible to vector in on the elusive point called the truth. So here I offer some viewpoints we in this country rarely see in our media.

Now, before I am accused of being anti-American, unpatriotic, or down right treasonous let me say that the views expressed in these articles are in most cases far from my opinion. While they have many valid points I think they have to be looked at with at *Least* the same criticism and objectivity as what we call for with our own media. The language is often openly hostile, deliberately obtuse, simplistic, and reactionary. Things that we get in our own media all the time, but living in a relatively opulent, secure country, I think that the majority of people here are generally able to discard most of our extremism. We are a nation infatuated with the middle out of comfort, but war and poverty almost always breeds extremism. Imagine you lived in a country where you could not go to work, had little food or shelter, lost friends or loved ones to violence almost daily, and in fact had felt no real purpose for existing other than hatred. Then imagine reading some of this stuff? The results turn people into warped versions of themselves. Hatred is not natural. It is learned. I mean there are people in *this* country who talk about "bombing all the Arabs" based on their own preconceptions mixed with what they see in *our* media. Now I certainly don't say this to justify terrorism or any extremist views at all, but I believe it is important that we realize the struggle we are in for.

This "war against terrorism", while important and valid in itself, is so much more than that to so many, and we have to recognize that. It is the latest installment of an ongoing battle against western opulence and cultural imperialism that many, right or wrong, blame for the deaths and injustices in their own lands. We need to fight for the hearts and minds of people on a case by case basis, and we aren't going to win that fight with bombs. Like any conflict, we need to start with ourselves. We have plenty of hate and anger and simplistic reactionary thinking in this country that needs to be eradicated before we can really claim to be a beacon of justice and truth in the world. That being said, I think we are the most suitable candidate for the job. George Bush was right when he said this was going to be a long war. It's one we've fought from the beginning of time, and it has *nothing* to do with ancient religions and lines on a map. Those things are constructs created by men to facilitate and motivate fear and hatred, things that served us well back in the Stone Age. "Us vs. Them", the old game. Yes we have to fight for our defense. Yes we have to eradicate terrorism where we see it. I believe in that, but this conflict is a necessary stopgap, it's like pulling weeds. Hatred has infested our little garden and we're forced to do some tending, but unless you kill the roots they will always crop back up, and the more we pull and dig the more polarized the rest of the world and our attitudes will become, until the whole of the world is barren and raped by the strife of something that started as simple "justice." The roots of evil are killed by a dedication to peace, and the acceptance of others, and a total commitment to seeking out the truth of all things unfettered by the pain, bitterness, anger, or fear infused into all of us that clouds our vision. Is that possible? Maybe not. I believe that absolutes don't exist in this life, but does that mean we shouldn't try?

The beauty of human beings to me is that we have the capacity to imagine that which does not exist, and because of that imagination, sometimes create amazing facsimiles of those ideals. A man silenced by violence once sang, "Imagine there's no countries�it isn't hard to do�nothing to kill or die for�and no religion too�Imagine all the people�Living life in peace." We have it in us to pick up the song and sing out with a voice that will crumble oldest walls of our base natures. A song of hope and peace to echo in the hearts of those who have known only hate. The evolution of mankind demands it. I hope to hear it one day.