#Hashbrowns

What is our obligation to nations that we have done harm? For decades, in the name of democracy, we have propped up dictators, for their violent opposition to communism, even overthrowing democratically elected leftist governments. What do we owe these people? Clearly we owe them our support, and an attempt to make things right. But how do we do this?

Do we oust the brutal thugs our own government installed and propped up? We have a military that dwarfs all others. We have the biggest hammer. These nails deserve hammering down. There are dissidents in these nations, some already rising up. If we ask, they will ask for more and more support for their incursions against the powerful. Which makes our obligation to refuse military force all the more teeth grating.

The Neo-Conservative Impulse, that if we have power, we should use it, is understandable. We want to make amends, using the military that supported the monsters feels apropos. But the consequences of exercising supreme force are more complicated than the superhero fantasy would inform us. We could use our unconscionably expensive military to support the Arab Spring, which would only begin to make up for our sins. But we cannot predict consequences. Rather than risking doing harm, we should do nothing. Oppression is not the same mechanism as a mugging. In using force, we are not Superman, swooping in to save the Kitty Genovese’s of the third world. Initiating force is instead responding to violence by triggering upheaval and destruction, like a natural disaster, and we can only hope that our Hurricane of Earthquakes will kill those that do evil, and few others. But others will die.

So what shall we do? Shall we wash our hands, fall into isolationism, acting only out of the sociopathy of “national interest?” Clearly no. But our action requires a light touch; Education, information, aid. Since Vietnam, thinking on military victory have included two components. The ground war, and the war for hearts and minds. This second war is the only one worth fighting. And we do not spend our resources on it well.

First we came for the landless, and we spoke up for them, because the suffering of the poor among us is the suffering of all.

Then we came for the enslaved, and we spoke up for them, because no man has the right to own another man.

Then we came for the the immigrant, and we spoke up for them, because we are the land of opportunity, where all can build a new life.

Then we came for the women, and we spoke up for them, because gender does not determine value.

Then we came for the people of color, and we spoke up for them, because there remained issues of the past which had not been resolved.

Then we came for the homosexuals, and we spoke up for them, because love is a virtue to be honored and cherished.

And so we have come for all: the rich and poor, man and woman, all races, all creeds, all identities.

And so we will continue to come for our brothers and sisters. Where ever there are chains, inequities, and hatred, we will speak and we will fight. There are voices that align against this, saying they enjoy the status quo, that raising others to their elevated status in fact diminishes them. Or that we cannot change the world.

On this last point, they are right. The world needs improvement. It will always need improvement. It will ever be enough.  And so, we will come to the aid of those that need, forever. Equality moves at the speed of Zeno’s Paradox. We can, and must, walk those infinite steps.

Stand up, speak out, and keep walking. For Liberty, Equality, and Brotherhood. Until the end.

In ancient Rome, among the bloodsports of the Arena, there existed classes of Gladiators. Enemies were paired off based on balancing strengths and weaknesses, or for the sake of quasi-reenactments. Two of the more common types, the Hoplimachus and the Thraex, were based on Greek and Tracian soldiers, using their arms and armor of the same style. These would be pitted against gladiators representing Romans, and the audience could vicariously live out the thrill of these prior conquests.

Every time we load up Call of Duty to re-battle the German Army, we engage the same behavior. the Modern Warfare series, portraying fictional conflicts with modern enemies, indulges the same cultural chauvinism without having to first win a war against that foe.

I refer you to this little tidbit wherein we celebrate our recent military history.

The attachment of the notoriously corrupt band of murderers makes this more uniquely vile, but the problems presented here arise industry wide. And this industry is symptomatic of the most vulgarly Roman Imperial habits of our nation. Of course we are superior. We won the war. Even wars we lost, we won. Just ask us. And so we collect these victories, and live in the nostalgia, celebrating our history of violence.

Francois Truffaut said “There is no such thing as an anti-war movie.” The same is true of video games, but perhaps to an even heightened intensity. Games thrive on shallow conflict. Not only is a war glamorized, it is mandatory.

Rapture people, I totally feel for you. You really don’t need anyone making fun of you.

Normally, I’d be inclined to sanctimoniousness in the face of being completely right about something, especially something where you are telling me to my face that you are better than me, and that for this reason I deserve to die horribly at the hands of Satan himself.

But that’s not where you are right now. Right now, far more important to you that I and the countless others like me were right was that you were wrong. Something you believed, really and truly, with all your heart, was false. You had accepted it on faith. Some of you took dramatic steps acting on this certainty you had for the end of your mortal life; emptying bank accounts, quitting jobs, in some cases giving away or putting down family pets. There’s another set of people who go through the same actions: Suicides.

You have lived your life with the meaning hinging on what you were certain would be this one day and now that’s gone, leaving nothing but a hole. You’ve endured an absolute disappointment. For this, you have my sympathy.

Please do not go back to waiting for the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It never arrives.