This was intended as a second short anecdote in yesterday's library post, but it grew of its own accord and took on a very different tone. As such, I am presenting it separately here.
We have a public puzzle table at the library, and it seems our teenage patrons managed to mangle the partially-completed picture. I repaired the frame off and on during the last hour as time allowed. We already had most of the returned items shelved again, and the flood of patrons dried up faster than the flooded carpet. It wasn't too bad as end-of-day tidying goes, but it also led to some deeper thought about the subject matter.
Fixed, but not finished.
I don't feel a patriotic thrill anymore at the flags and pageantry on display here. Instead, I feel an almost overwhelming grief at all the destruction this imagery celebrates. The United States of America has been in a lot of military conflicts. While there have not been any formal declarations of war since early 1942, the US has still managed to be embroiled in conflicts around the globe for almost my entire life. If I count the Cold War in general and the ongoing involvement in South Korea to fill in what few gaps exist, to say nothing of various black ops no doubt occurring without fanfare or even official acknowledgement, the US has been constantly engaged in military activity since before my parents were born.
"War is the health of the State."—Randolph Bourne (1918)
I realized with considerable concern that many people able to vote for the first time in 2020 had no memory of a time before the "Global War on Terror" and the domestic surveillance state expansion it justified. That is amplified now as we approach a year of conflict in Ukraine where the US has been meddling from the sidelines for many years, and is now dumping billions of dollars into the coffers of corrupt Ukrainians and corrupt US corporations.
"War prosperity is like the prosperity that an earthquake or a plague brings. The earthquake means good business for construction workers, and cholera improves the business of physicians, pharmacists, and undertakers; but no one has for that reason yet sought to celebrate earthquakes and cholera as stimulators of the productive forces in the general interest."—Ludwig von Mises (1919)
War creates wealth, they say. This is just rehashing the classic broken window fallacy through a focus on the massive wealth gained by the military-industrial complex and emphasis on the improvements which filter into the market as an unintended consequence as if this were manna from heaven. We see tanks, ships, jets, and bombs. We see jet engines, radar, and GPS. It is easy to turn a blind eye to the destruction, the waste, and the debt burden passed down to future generations. Most of us are fortunate enough to not see the mangled bodies and smouldering wreckage left in their wake. We certainly never see what people would choose instead if they retained control over their wealth. Who would choose this over all the alternatives if real liberty were allowed? Why do we believe such tangential progress is impossible without major military expenditure?
"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives."—USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler (1935)
Worst of all may be the way the Church abandons the Cross to take up the banner of war. Mark Twain even satirized this in The War Prayer. I cannot help but be reminded of the contrast between Christ and the State: The humble Prince of Peace versus the avaricious and vainglorious warlords. A man cannot serve two masters, so why do Christians wave flags, sing songs, wage wars for the State? Will you love your neighbor as yourself, or will you enlist to blow him to bits because the man who claims to rule him has a dispute with the man who claims to rule you?
Whether people are religious or not, we tend to hear the same excuse every time the government wants war: "I'm against wars in general, but this time we need to make an exception!" Always exceptions. Always invading foreign land in "self-defense." Always one more bloodbath before we can achieve peace. Always more sacrifices to Ares.
As you can see, that got dark. The stream of consciousness flows where it will. All I can do is drift along and try to mark my way as I go with references and citations. I'll try to write something upbeat again soon, provided I can find calmer water in my mind.
