Justification, dripping with blood
A recent online post by writer Caitlin Johnstone, "Serious Question: Have You Done Everything In Your Power To Prevent This?" brought to my attention another recent article by John Pilger, "ON THE BEACH 2017. THE BECKONING OF NUCLEAR WAR."
Like Caitlin, I would like to urge everyone to read Pilger's piece. I feel it's one of his best.
Sometimes a thought enters one's consciousness after reading such powerful words. In this case a song written over 50 years ago came to me. Here are the lyrics to that song:
With God on Our Side
Oh my name it ain't nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I was taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side
Oh, the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh, the country was young
With God on its side
The Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War, too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I was made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side
The First World War, boys
It came and it went
The reason for fighting
I never did get
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side
The Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And then we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now, too
Have God on their side
I've learned to hate the Russians
All through my whole life
If another war comes
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side
But now we got weapons
Of chemical dust
If fire them, we're forced to
Then fire, them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side
Through many a dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ was
Betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
That if God's on our side
He'll stop the next war
Bob Dylan, 1963
Comments
Thanks, will check it out. n/t
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Pilger is spot on, Johnstone
Pilger is spot on, Johnstone is right to urge and beg for us to fucking do something.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
No brakes
What to do is the question. Both of our major political parties are engaged in what Pilger calls "... an evangelical drive to war." It now seems full-throttle. In my mind's eye, I visualize the USA as a wild, careening vehicle, driven by a drooling insanity-gripped madman, heading straight for a cliff. That psychopath behind the wheel in my vision isn't even Trump, but rather some generic political buffoon, dressed like an evil circus clown. That vehicle is now at 90 miles-per-hour, and about two hundred yards from the cliff's edge.
There seems to be no anti-war component in either the Republicans or Democrats. Further, if there is one in the lesser parties, they sure are quiet.
Is this the calm before the storm?
We have a hyper-abundance of issues that should be motivating people to do something. Instead, nearly nothing is happening. Either we are all brain-dead or all hell is about to break loose.
- Nuclear Armageddon
- Climate Armageddon
- Economic Armageddon
- Geopolitical Armageddon
- Health Care Armageddon
- Destruction of the middle class Armageddon
- Complete US Internal political party Armageddon
- Complete US government, Executive, Legislative and Judicial, Armageddon
This makes the problems of the 60s look like a birthday party for kiddies.
Maybe after the smokesceen of "Russia did it" wears off people might actually wake up.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
I am beginning to think it's just that,
the calm before the storm. And the storms are coming but I'll be damned, people have simply chosen to ignore the warnings. One friend told me last week at lunch that she feels people are now getting too spoiled, they want too much, and they don't work for it....and how grateful she is to her employer to have a job.... Jeebus, how in hell to counter that attitude from a "Democrat?" I tried because I cannot help myself and it's almost impossible for me now to shut the fuck up. But it doesn't get through. I get that pained look that says "oh, lizzy's gone crazy CT now" and then a subject change.
I just finished Nancy McLean's "Democracy In Chains" all about the Koch freaks and their wet dream of a constitution change. They're almost there and when that happens, I just wonder how many really wake the fuck up. As long as they're still in the bubble, I'm betting not enough will even notice until it's far too fucking late. And then what? I guess as long as these people aren't the full on serfs, they're fine with that. After all, people just want too much, ya know? Those ordinary little lives they want to lead, how dare they ask for that?
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
But always "God Bless amerika"
some god it is.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Wow, thanks for the essay and
Wow, thanks for the essay and links! Gotta love those few remaining who tell it straight! If only the world could hear and comprehend... and act.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.