THE LAND OF FREE SPEECH ~ HOME OF THE BIG PICTURE!!!





The thoughts/ideas expressed in this blog are the sole responsibilty of the author. Links to outside resources do not constitute agreement with or endorsement of any of the content of those sites, they are there for reference purposes only.



If you'd like to contact me, email bigpicguy@hotmail.ca



Thanks,

Mark McCaw ~ twitter's @bigpicguy

Author of "Insights Inside a Mind" ~ blogging the big picture








Saturday 27 September 2014

They Didn't Die For This

They Didn't Die For This


     While figures vary, it seems reasonable to go with the Wikipedia estimate of 60 Million dead in World War II. Not all were soldiers, sailors, or airmen who signed up to fight. Many were innocent civilians. Women, children, disabled people, old people, anyone not fit to fight, yet in the way of the horror of heavily mechanized, indiscriminate war machines, grinding up human life in a battle of ideologies. The "Free World" versus the "Axis Forces".

     Moral high ground. Dammit, we had it in spades. When it was over we mourned, yet we celebrated the ultimate victory of good versus evil. Of course we were the good, we always are. Of course the German, Italian, and Japanese forces were told by their leaders the same kinds of things we're told. The bad guys are fighting us. They hate us because of who we are. They are envious of our successes and obvious moral superiority. Most of all, the evil people want to impose their way of life on us.

     So, 60 Million died so "Freedom & Democracy" could triumph over "Fascism & Imperialism". That, at least, is the narrative we are supposed to have firmly implanted in our psyche. Why wouldn't we? This is the message that has been employed forever in the name of war. Your side is Good. The other side is Bad. Eventually, when we ran out of countries with formal armies to bomb or invade or provide arms to one or both sides of a conflict, we massaged the message so we are taking on shadowy terrorists. If you are invaded in the name of "Freedom & Democracy" and you dare try to fight back, you are an evil terrorist. Fighting back is not allowed if it's us attacking you. BUT WAIT! You can redeem yourself. You can become "ONE OF US"!! If someone else is attacking you, or we don't like your leader, or you have something of value to our billionaires, we're very happy to immediately recognize your sovereignty and we'll make sure you're armed to the teeth. We are always happy to help fight against "evil forces" in the world. All we want is control of your resources, and no matter if you've lived under some other system of governance for centuries, you must become a "democracy" which means you must install the person we have chosen for your country as leader.

     Keep in mind, that 60 million is just the dead. Not the families forever torn asunder, some missing a child or children, some children missing whole families. It's not those who came back, many physically scarred, all of them changed mentally, forever. Many more would die, eventually succumbing to injuries, addictions, suicides. My own father lasted until 1967. Others died earlier, others later. Most of them are gone now. Now I find myself looking at the world asking: What did they die for?

They Didn't Die For This

     There would be an uphill battle for you to get me to believe our parents/grandparents died so we could become the bullies of the world, so our "Western-style Democracies" somehow have the right to do the thinking for the rest of the planet. That it's our way or no way. They died to preserve a way of life, not to export it to places that never asked for it. We're a heavily armed version of the Christian Missionaries out to save the savages by showing them the right way to live, which, of course, is our way.

 They Didn't Die For This

     Meanwhile, on the home front. Our free democracies that so many died to preserve, have been turned into benevolent dictatorships, where we have a semblance of freedom. You're free to go to work. You're free to spend your money. To a certain extent you're free to say what you want, when you want to, unless it is damaging to the ruling class. No matter how much we believe in our various "Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights" when it comes to exercise them, and exercising them is at cross purposes to the large moneyed interests, even if you are defending your own land, if you are defending the future of your children, if you gather in groups of larger than one person, you will be considered a threat and dealt with as such. Increasingly, governments are spying on your every move. The minute you express dissent in the wrong way, when you perhaps decide to protest whatever you see as wrong or unfair treatment, you will be met by fully militarized police and/or private for-hire armies. They will hurt you, they may even kill you, and in the end, some, if not all of you will go to jail for your crime of fighting back when attacked by these overwhelming forces with their chemical weapons like tear gas, pepper spray, snipers with rubber bullets and when they get close enough they'll deploy tasers and batons and fists and if they feel like it, they shoot you dead in the street.

     This is just the tip of the iceberg. We aren't truly free. We are the instruments of violent corporate rule. Every few years, those of us who still want to believe we don't live in a society where we're powerless get to mark an "X" on a paper dreaming something more than cosmetic will change. I only hope we wake up faster. I hope we can come to our collective senses before we receive the same lesson every bully has to face. Sooner or later someone, or ones, will stand up to us and beat our ass into the ground. We have to stop trying to rule the world, learn to rule ourselves, and play well with our neighbours no matter the rules they wish to live by. If we do not learn this simple lesson, history is going to repeat itself, and chances are good, like it or not, WE are the ones on the wrong side of it this time. Dragged here, by the massive greed of a tiny portion of our collective populations.

     One thing I know for sure...

They Didn't Die For This