77 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 21 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds   

Anti-war Movement? Americans Interested in Egoism, Scrooge Not Jesus

By       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   1 comment
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Jay Janson
Become a Fan
  (59 fans)

Scrooge promises harsher war for Afghanistan, a longer troop presence for Iraq, continued war for Somalia, continued isolation and threats for Iran, continued economic war for Cuba, and has a Christmas season history of worse offerings to Vietnam and other places.

Why is the anti-war and justice movement in America so weak and invisible, and especially so during the shopping season that marks the birth of the great teacher of "turn the other cheek" pacifism and "love thy enemies?"

The nation that hails selfish indulgence has long not had enough citizens who believe in humanity.

Americans, if anything, are more inclined to look forward to seeing more of the planet's population being suckered into the commercialization of spirit and the commodification of all aspects of life which has taken Americans as its first victims.

Americans watched on TV, the decades long crucifixion of the population of the French Indochinese colonies and the many dozens of other U.S. foreign policy crimes against humanity since the end of World War II, and they go on watching the latest U.S. imposed calamities.

They go along with hero worship of their military personnel who participated in these homicidal attacks on defenseless nations of the third world, and proudly hail recruits for today's wars of occupation.

Why pretend otherwise?

Where is a sincere anti-war movement? Can one be anti-war, but not anti-the imperialism that requires it, and without being anti-the capitalism that requires the imperialism?

An anti-too-many-American-military-personnel-causualites movement is not a true anti-war movement.

American lack of compassion for, or even notice of, the deaths of millions of innocent 'foreigners', who, in their own 'foreign country' fall 'in harm's way' of U.S. military, is now legendary.

In America, peace is merely an abstract theme, a utopian concept for a philosophical discussion, hardly worth mentioning in a society that now hyped into believing in perpetual war and eternal capitalist economics.

On the community level, organized religions are in complete subservience to war promotion by government and media. Spiritual hypocrisy is widely understood to be a normal and unavoidable American reality. Peace is unpatriotic. Military death and maiming is heroic. Massacres are tragic but acceptable as human mistakes within the war heroism that America prides itself in.

A prerequisite for a meaningful American anti-war movement would have to be an Anti American Indifference movement, an Anti American Selfish Apathy movement, or a movement Against American Citizen Political Irresponsibility and for Accountability for the Deaths and Maiming of Millions since Truman initiated the National Security State, anti-democratic neo-colonialist wars and imperialist world domination that is still ongoing.

George Bush didn't bomb, invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, America did!
 
Perhaps a movement Against America's Feigned Ignorance of Law and the Human Right of Others to Live would would be basic to all in depth citizen movements against U.S. government violence.

Today's insipid in-house peace movement is made up of various organizations that separately beg for a reduction in homicide, begging the mechanical behemoth of a  financial-industrial-military complex heading up corporate governance through a conglomerate owned entertainment/news/and information cartel that promotes an amoral thieving capitalism and international hegemony through war.

The goals of these political within-the-system peace movements are to save the day for the insane power-elite that cruelly tortures the human race and what is left of the world of nature, that this elite might survive to go on to more and greater travesty and ignominy.

The leaders of these organizations, that do contain some amount of sensitive and conscious stricken members, do not avail themselves ofMartin Luther King Jr.'  powerful and unanswerable Beyond Vietnam speech that condemns U.S. international war crimes and predatory capitalism. They permit commercial mass media to continue to black out King's anguished cry and scathing criticism of America wars and foreign interventions.

Now that the election has been won, serious anti-war organizations should be appropriating, imitating and repeating Rev. Jeremiah Wight's honest outcry that 'God damn America where it deserves to be damned in order that Americans can be worthy of America's bountiful blessings.' Corporate controlled media put Rev. Wright's furious cry into mainstream consciousness for its own pro-war reasons, figuring that America's tiny and unimaginative anti-war movement would never make use of media publicizing this revival of MLKjr' roar of righteous anger by Rev. Wright.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Jeremiah Wright and any other renegade clergy, who, in the name of Jesus, incite movement toward peace instead of confining themselves to praying for peace, will be attacked, slandered, misrepresented and scourged in media as anti-American, and just as much out of line as the marginalized community of anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, socialist and dissident progressive intellectuals, academics and small populist groups of politically aware working people.

Americans have to change a lot before America can have a successful peace movement - change, for the better - for the more merciful - take a clue from the demeanor and social education of third world people, as yet not desensitized by TV taught values, noble and gracious though their children have been killed and are being killed and maimed by American air strikes on most days during this writer's life time.

Somehow, Americans have to just get back loving children; loving children above everything else - everybody's children - and the children's fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and families - get their humanity back, and respect American business values and their country's financial and military might LESS than those lovely murdered children.

The first change necessary, to allow for all the rest of the liberating changes for opening the American mind to take place, will have to be an awakened realization of public gullibility regarding the conglomerate owned mass media industry, and to know that corporate media, through selection and blackout, half-truths distortions, taking out of context, misinforming, dis-educating, and fear mongering, is exercising a not so subtle consummately dominating influence over public opinion and attitudes of the vast majority of Americans starting from kindergarten.

Only then will a popular peace and social justice anti-war movement arise all by itself - spontaneously, out of a normal and natural urgency for loving and compassionate life preserving action.

There are many uncompromising internationally famous and dedicated American humanist activists who could provide brilliant leadership in such an America of politically aware mentality, of citizen education, kindness toward the rest of the world and mindfulness of the America's true potential. Educators like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore along with a great many alternate media journalist professors, concerned professionals and workers and our most prominent defectors from the criminal establishment, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, who are writing to educate an American public that has been put to sleep about its citizen capacity to affect its own governance - all these conscientious objectors, so to speak, are ready to be called upon.

Maybe a grand American moral awakening to the homicidally unfair and now almost inoperable system of capitalism will precede the establishing of a genuine mass movement for peace and make it superfluous.

Intelligently run, successful, healthy, fair, strong, confident, and equitably working democratic societies are by nature ethical in behavior, peaceful toward their neighbors and have no need for economic terrorizing, destabilizing, assassinating, overthrowing, conquering, occupying, invading or bombing activities in other nations.


 

















Must Read 2   Touching 2   Well Said 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

Jay Janson Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India, in Germany & Sweden Einartysken,and in the US by Dissident (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

What Tony Bennett Said About 9/11 Martin Luther King Jr. Would Have Also

Demonic David Rockefeller Fiends Dulles Kissinger Brzezinski - Investor Wars Korea thru Syria

So How Many Poor Vietnamese Did McCain's Bombs Kill in 23 Runs?

Ask Hillary Who Buys ISIS et al Terrorists Helping US Oust Assad NewToyota Trucks/ Heavy Weapons

Girlfriends? Petraeus Oversaw the Slaughter of Thousands and He Will Face Trial:

Carter Had CIA Armed Fundamentalist Terrorists War Against Afghan Women's Liberation & Education

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend