Once there is a state, there are policies. The policies necessarily advantage one group and disadvantage another. We all love a system that works for us. It is all too easy to view those for whom the policies are necessarily a disadvantage and object as somehow wrong. "Why it works for me, what is wrong with you?" Any explanation of what is wrong argues for elimination of privilege. Such pleadings land on deaf ears.
We hear people praise the opportunity and freedom in USA. Yes, if you are 21, white and free. And you like capitalism. If you do not care for capitalism, being 21, white and free does you no good.
There are people inside and outside of the USA who are on the losing end of policy. Most people just live and let live, work around it, or accept that there has never been a time in history when there was not some injustice to bear. Some people get violent about it, and only make matters worse. The most common reason it gets worse is the violent people do not want change, they only want to be in charge.
States exploit other state policies by fomenting and financing minority resistance. And here a wicked pattern plays out. Before USA invaded Iraq, we encouraged the Southern Arabs and Kurds in the North to rise up against Saddam, promising aid from USA. We did not provide it. The strongest best opposition to Saddam was wiped out. Later, when we invaded Iraq again, the strongest best opposition to oppression was wiped out. Invasion was easier for us. This pattern plays out again and again.
When the nazis were on the ropes, the Soviets encouraged the Poles to rise up against the nazis in Warsaw and elsewhere. The soviets promised to support the uprising. The cream of Poland's youth rose up. The Soviets withheld support. The cream of Poland's youth was wiped out by the Nazis. When the Soviets later rolled in, there was little to resist the move.
The damage being done around the world by the wars the USA started in the Middle East over a decade ago, and the new ones popping up, are not problems for me to solve. Fixing the problem belongs to those who created the problem, brought the problem into existence, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, the Bushes, etc, and now that they are out of the picture, their assigns.
Now we can say it is up to those who foment such damage to sort it out, make it right, that such wickedness is not down to us. Not quite right, since the policies benefit us, in the forms of rare materials we mulct from the Congo for our cell phones, the oil, the creativity of mexican genius we draw out of Mexico, etc. We all benefit so we cannot quite escape complicity.
We need to restructure the polity so there is not the leverage for so few to bring all 350 million Americans along for the ride. Step one is to eliminate the standing army. We had no such thing until after the Civil War. We would do well to rid ourselves of it again.
Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.
We hear people praise the opportunity and freedom in USA. Yes, if you are 21, white and free. And you like capitalism. If you do not care for capitalism, being 21, white and free does you no good.
There are people inside and outside of the USA who are on the losing end of policy. Most people just live and let live, work around it, or accept that there has never been a time in history when there was not some injustice to bear. Some people get violent about it, and only make matters worse. The most common reason it gets worse is the violent people do not want change, they only want to be in charge.
States exploit other state policies by fomenting and financing minority resistance. And here a wicked pattern plays out. Before USA invaded Iraq, we encouraged the Southern Arabs and Kurds in the North to rise up against Saddam, promising aid from USA. We did not provide it. The strongest best opposition to Saddam was wiped out. Later, when we invaded Iraq again, the strongest best opposition to oppression was wiped out. Invasion was easier for us. This pattern plays out again and again.
When the nazis were on the ropes, the Soviets encouraged the Poles to rise up against the nazis in Warsaw and elsewhere. The soviets promised to support the uprising. The cream of Poland's youth rose up. The Soviets withheld support. The cream of Poland's youth was wiped out by the Nazis. When the Soviets later rolled in, there was little to resist the move.
The damage being done around the world by the wars the USA started in the Middle East over a decade ago, and the new ones popping up, are not problems for me to solve. Fixing the problem belongs to those who created the problem, brought the problem into existence, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, the Bushes, etc, and now that they are out of the picture, their assigns.
Now we can say it is up to those who foment such damage to sort it out, make it right, that such wickedness is not down to us. Not quite right, since the policies benefit us, in the forms of rare materials we mulct from the Congo for our cell phones, the oil, the creativity of mexican genius we draw out of Mexico, etc. We all benefit so we cannot quite escape complicity.
We need to restructure the polity so there is not the leverage for so few to bring all 350 million Americans along for the ride. Step one is to eliminate the standing army. We had no such thing until after the Civil War. We would do well to rid ourselves of it again.
Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.
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