Tag Archive for 'propaganda'

Remembering Soldiers as Victims of War

Written by Colin. Published on May 31, 2010 ago in Politics. 15 Comments

When Veterans Day rolled around in my current country (the UK), I posed this piece: The Soldier Gives Us Neither Freedom Nor Peace. I want to be clear that in this piece and my short remarks to follow, that I desire to accent my displeasure with war itself and an aggressive philosophy of militarism, rather than soldiers.

Today is memorial day in my country of birth – the United States. In this country, so often the soldier is seen to be the archetype of American heroism. Much like in ancient Rome, an individual hero, made of moral selflessness, who submits himself to the collective, ordered machinery of the military to provide for the defence of his family, community and nation.

I see things quite differently.

Throughout history, the soldier has often come from the poorest of backgrounds, having been told by the propaganda of the state that the military is his best option in life. His individuality is broken down, and his is used on behalf of those elites which control and direct the military to kill other people who have been similarly conditioned.

We should remember soldiers as victims of the state. The state lied to them with false promises, and exploited their very lives as the means to control some resource, obtain some territory, advance some ideology or, at worst, eliminate or subjugate some peoples. We should mourn the American soldier as we mourn the German Soldiers from 1939-1945: men and women who could have produced so much for the benefit of humanity, but who were instead sucked dry, and summarily discarded like so much trash.

There is nothing glorious about the military. There is nothing glorious about war.

We should mourn and weep for the soldiers who have died. We should see them as the victims of sinful, fallen man and cease to demand their service, except only in the most dire need of defence.

Links: FDR’s New Deal Propaganda Back Again

Written by Colin. Published on December 19, 2008 ago in General. 2 Comments

This is really worth the watch. Propaganda video from FDR’s America, explaining how they are going to save the country by inflation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Dzdc1H0wM[/youtube]

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teeheehee a really good News Pun 

Pirates – not just a thing of the past

On War Veterans and What Should be Remembered

Written by Colin. Published on November 12, 2008 ago in Politics and Religion. 45 Comments

Because this issue is tremendously sensitive for so many around the world (for a variety of reasons, I might add) I want to place a few fundamental points directly at the top. First of all, I have a rich tradition of veterans in my own family – my grandfather in the US was drafted and served in WWII. My father fought several years in the bloodiest era of the Ireland/UK conflict. My grandfather-in-law, whom I consider as my own flesh and blood, fought in three wars. My Grandfather in England was a conciousness objector during WWII – and probably bore many scars from this experience as well.

I have to note this at the start because, sadly, many readers struggle with separating abstract positions from specific persons (“how dare you say that about my grandfather who…” ). Secondly, they have difficulty separating tradition, ideology and propaganda from historical reality (“We were good and we were fighting evil…”).

The Premise
My only major assumption from which I am deriving my argument is that the State is not a morally neutral entity. Every single person, family or organisation that comes into contact with the state is either a victim or a collaborator with an entity that is wholly and entirely premised on theft, murder, lies and subjugation. If you have problems with this premise, then you might have problems with this piece. Please take the time to view these resources (1, 2, 3, 4) to give this argument a fair shake, as it will not be dealt with here.

Veterans are Primarily Victims
Veterans have similar ambiguity about their situation. Many are victims of the state – they were threatened with jail, fines even death unless they killed other men they otherwise would have no conflict with whatsoever. They were/are forced to commit crimes against others in order to prevent crimes being committed against them by the state. Many who sign up willingly are also victims – as these have been deceived by the state in order to engage in a cause that they might originally believe to be just, but only much later might realise was wrong.

Veterans, for the vast majority, are victims and should be remembered in the same way we remember those affected by murder, genocide and persecution. But we must also remember who did this to them – we must remember who is responsible for so many widows, fatherless children and a legacy of lost life – namely, the State.

It is one of the greatest ironies that it is the state which pushes for the celebration of veterans. The state wants us to remember “the sacrifice” of these men (as though most went to war willingly or without being deceived) and not the fact that many of these victims were in fact sacrificed.

There is No Moral Legitimacy in Aggressive War
I have reflected on this recently, as I have become good friends with a German my age here in England. We have remarked several times about how we would be on opposite sides of a conflict, quite possibly trying to kill each other if, by chance, we happened to be living in the 1940′s. I want only the best for my good friend – and how many men, who otherwise might be friends, whose wives would be friends, whose children would grow up together – wantonly killed one another under either the threat of aggression against them by their own nations or because their government led them to believe that their fight was one for the greater good.

There is no morality present in the philosophy of  “the end justifies the means” – that by committing evil, we can bring about good. It is morally bankrupt. Morality is absolute and unchanging. It is not subject to men – it is above them. Any “morality” that can be bent, broken or adjusted based on the relative morals of society or by the designs and strategies of men is not morality whatsoever.

Soldiers Give Us Freedom?
Lastly, there is a tremendously erroneous idea propagated as part of this subject – that soldiers are somehow responsible for “our freedom.” In many instances, nothing is further from the truth.

The soldier, by his very nature, is contrary to freedom – his job exists to destroy property and life, as well as subjugate the freedom of individuals. Consider that if freedom comes from the military, then it is no better than mob-rule and might-makes-right. Is this a moral philosophy?

We do not gain our freedom from the military or as a gift of a benevolent state – as though our freedom were a welfare check or a gun.  We obtain our freedom, as Thomas Jefferson eloquently wrote, from “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Freedom is a gift from God, and choice and responsibility are given to men from His hand. Nature speaks of the greatness of God to do this and also testifies, in how He ordered it, to the fact of freedom as the inherent state of all men.

Aggressive war is a crime – a blasphemy against God’s order and purpose for men. This is what should be remembered. Offensive war (or pre-emptive, to use the new term) is sin and cannot bring about good, which only comes from God (James 1:17). In fact, the same passage reaffirms the moral objectivity of God and the absoluteness of his order: “with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” If we dare to view wars and veterans in the same light, than we have to re-evaluate our support for wars, the way we remember veterans and the legitimacy and morality of our current authorities.