By declaring war on concepts, you keep the word "war" alive and active in the public psyche. After a time, the word begins to lose its raw and bloody reality. People forget that the first goal of war is killing the enemy by whatever means necessary.
Therein lies the problem with declaring war on concepts and things. There is no yardstick with which to measure success in war other than the amount of corpses lying about when the gun smoke clears. How do you know you have won the day when fighting a concept?
Technically speaking, there is no winning a war on concepts. Poverty has existed since man first devised trade by way of money. Hunger has been a perennial visitor to our world since life began. Drugs are a big business, both for the doctor and the pusher alike. They will be around as long as Homo sapiens continues to dump feces on the planet. Terrorism has existed and will continue to exist in us as long as our reptilian brain exists. All of these concepts are immutable; an indivisible part of reality. Working to abate them as problems is one thing. Declaring war on them is another thing entirely. One option will work like a charm. The other will become a joke.
The Earning Of The Green
There has to be a reason why we continue to do dumb things like declaring war on concepts. It can be seen that the war on drugs has helped the bottom line of the American Judicial System. I hear and see people quoting the statistics of the damage wrought upon society by drugs; things like seventy percent of the people in prisons are there for drug related charges. That is usually followed up by saying that because of this glut of humanity rotting behind bars, those who are committing violent crimes are gaining early release, along with the less or non-violent drug offender.
Let's take a moment to look at the judicial system, shall we. A long time ago, human justice was done quickly. It was required that for societies to continue to grow, those that go against the rules of said society were to face punishment in some form or fashion, from being ostracized, to banishment, to death. The only idea was protection of the greater social good. This worked well enough to keep us banded together as we moved along the time line of reality.
Eventually, someone discovered that people would pay to keep themselves out of trouble, and away from the worst of the punishment to be meted out on them. At the same time, it was discovered that the amount some people would be willing to pay to avoid punishment would be very good for the bottom line of those who decided to be the payees. Hell, that kind of money could pay for a city's existence. Some people discovered you could debate points of law, and make even more money for yourself. Thus was born the lawyer.
Lawyers and others in the judicial system stand to make money hand over fist because of the existence of the drug wars. Considering the amount of money to be made from fighting a war on drugs, it is clear that certain members of society stand to make huge sums of money on the suffering of people who just want to get high without alcohol.
Trust me on this. I have a case of my own pending. It's a misdemeanor charge, but in order to avoid huge fines and probation, I have to hire a lawyer. So far, this has cost me three hundred bucks (bail). The lawyer is going to be two thousand. At the final dispensation of the case, I will most likely have to pay some sort of fine and court costs. Let's say, the fine and costs is another thousand dollars. That will be thirty-five hundred bucks from one small incident...one small misdemeanor charge.
Imagine the money being dumped into the system for people with drug felonies. When I was sitting in arraignment, there were people getting slammed for felony drug offenses to the tune of twenty thousand dollar bails...just bails. Fines for these offenses are high as well. As for the cost of lawyers to get one's ass out of the sling, or at least not so tight in said sling has to be out of this world. If my charge is worthy of two grand, I can only imagine how much money would be demanded to defend one from a major drug felony; whether or not there was any violence involved. When one considers the sheer volume of people routinely incarcerated for felony drug charges, the money to be made in the war on drugs is out of this world.
Wars on concepts make money. Working to eliminate the desire an addict has to use their drugs, a much more socially aware way to deal with the drug problem, costs money. The best way to eliminate a market is to dry up the demand for the product being peddled. Clearly, working to eliminate the addiction would dry up demand for drugs. It would take the profit out of it for the pushers and the judicial system. We simply can't have that, now can we? Ending a profitable business is simply NOT the American way!
Hey, maybe that's why we are inextricably stuck in the hell that is Iraq. We could get out any time. There'd be some anarchy, but eventually, it would force the Iraqi government to actually govern. Of course, that would mean we'd lose our stakes in that oil under the Iraqi soil. We simply can't have that, now can we?
A Report Card On Our Progress
So, how has the war been going? The drug war has been fought since Anslinger and company had their first success with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. That's exactly seventy years.
So how are we doing? Follow this link to the DEA's (http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/statistics.html)facts and statistics page, and see that the numbers stay pretty constant. To me, that means that the war on drugs is a sham; a waste of time, money, lives, and other resources. That doesn't bode well at all.
Ah, but I have mostly concerned myself with the war on drugs here. Maybe the war on poverty is going better. Perhaps it is if your definition of poverty is the difference between having a million dollars or a billion dollars in one's bank account. For the rest of us saps, things aren't going so well.
Great article Pappy. People are tribal in nature, and war is something that most people feel is necessary to deal with other tribes. Plus it is very lucrative for some.
Too bad the peace pipe hasn't made a comeback.
John
by
John R Moffett (80 articles, 14 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 610 comments)
on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 9:10:57 AM
Great article Pappy. People are tribal in nature, and war is something that most people feel is necessary to deal with other tribes. Plus it is very lucrative for some.
Yes, as I said in the article, "wars on concepts make money." Expanded outward, it can be seen, especially if you follow the profit and loss statements from companies like Halliburton, that war is big business. As long as war remains a source of unlimited income (at least as long as the oil flows), we can rest assured that someone with an axe to grind, or a point to prove will do so in a military fashion.
This is pitiful! There are so many other ways to make money in an illegal fashion without resorting to war. I guess the fact that wars are so easy to wage is part of the appeal. All you need to do is make an enemy. It matters little if that enemy is made of flesh and bone, or is a straw man. As long as the population at large remains blinded, there will be an unending supply of people in love with the idea of war.
Which is the surprising part of the Iraq War. It is clear that everyone is over the idea...however, the money flow still keeps the Republi-fux on the war...er I mean money path. One would think that the public outcry would be enough to shut the money valve. Unfortunately, the Demo-creeps are sold on the idea that the straw man against which we fight is a real construct. I guess it's true; stupid is as stupid does...and stupid lives in Washington DC.
Too bad the peace pipe hasn't made a comeback.
Interesting analogy...since it is by the violation of accords and treaties drawn under a peacepipe that decimated the native Americans. Of course, it is clear that the European interlopers knew that there was gold in them there hills. The only thing in their way were those pesky aboriginal inhabitants of the land. Since they were seen as "dumb children", "savages", or otherwise "less than" the newcomers, it was easy...very easy to lie to them, steal from them, and turn the plains red with their blood.
It's sad that in the high tech age of the twenty-first century that no one is yet smart enough to devise a better way to deal with the rest of the world by means of war. For all the good it has done in insuring the continued survival of the species, the reptilian part of our brain will be our downfall. Unless we try to rise above that evolutionary glitch in our reality, we can rest assured that we will turn this planet into a cinder. Then again, considering how pissed off Mother Nature is at us, she might welcome our help in shaking the scourge of humanity from the surface of the planet.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 2:48:46 PM
I'm sorry to hear of your encounter with your government. Your government has attacked me with its concept of do-gooding. It is truly an evil government that tries to disguise its evil by claiming it is doing good. Your government has also killed more people than drugs could ever kill.
So, Whom or what concept should "WAR" really be declared against?
Maybe Alkida is not really an enemy?
Maybe they see your government for what it really is?
Or maybe your government is just a bunch of lost "do-gooders".
by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 608 comments)
on Monday, July 16, 2007 at 12:32:52 PM
I'm sorry to hear of your encounter with your government. Your government has attacked me with its concept of do-gooding. It is truly an evil government that tries to disguise its evil by claiming it is doing good. Your government has also killed more people than drugs could ever kill.
While I am the first person to love a bit of overstated hyperbole, and while I also see the present iteration of the American federal government as evil and corrupt to the core, to say that America has killed more people that drugs is simply incorrect. America has only existed as a country for a little over two hundred years. Opium and other plant-based pharmacopoeia has been around much longer than that, and would therefore have more corpses clicked up on its Butcher's Bill than our silly little country.
As far as my run-in with said government, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of an issue. While it's true that if I do nothing, I will be in bigger trouble than if I fight it, I'd hardly call it a reason to be completely down on the government.
AND even though what Scooter Libby did to America is far more pernicious than anything I have ever done, will ever do, or could conceive to do, at least I can say that I worked on the problem and was willing to face whatever music I must as a result of my actions.
I still love America. I don't love the assholes that are currently fucking it up, but they will be gone soon enough, one way or another. America will recover from this, as it has recovered from other such things. It may take a while, but it will happen.
So, Whom or what concept should "WAR" really be declared against?
NO ONE! Declaring war on a concept is, for all intent and purpose, a stupid game of semantics. Further, declaring war just for the sake of declaring war winds up making the person making the declaration look like a war monger. Obviously, this is the case with DUBYA.
Maybe Alkida is not really an enemy?
Technically, Al Qaeda is a database file; nothing more than a list of names. One need only press the "DEL" key and then empty the recycle bin in order to eliminate a database file, or any file for that matter. Those of us who are graduate-level geeks sometimes hold the "SHIFT" key while pressing "DEL" so we don't have to clear out the recycle bin. Either way, the elimination of unwanted or unneeded files is an easy thing to do. One hardly needs to declare war on bits and bytes.
As far as being at war with the people whose names appear in the Al Qaeda file, that's an entirely different matter. We were at war with them, until we ran headlong into Iraq. Now they are back to their full strength...and for what; so that DUBYA could jack his cock over the thought of doing something his daddy couldn't? We might have been able to deal with Al Qaeda if we would have stayed focused on Afghanistan...but no, that wasn't to happen.
Maybe they see your government for what it really is?
Or maybe they are tired of imperialist fucks damaging their little slice of Terra Firma. As I said in the article, the Middle East has been at war in some form or fashion since humans decided to live in that goddess-forsaken desert.
Christopher Columbus went looking for a way around the area when he "found" North America. Europeans of the time knew that the area was dangerous in the extreme, and costly to get through. They wanted a way to get stuff from India without going through the Middle East. Why is it Europeans from five hundred plus years ago knew to give that area of the world a wide berth, but we more modern types just can't leave those people alone?
Or maybe your government is just a bunch of lost "do-gooders".
Or maybe, they are a bunch of Baby Boomer idiots who didn't have balls enough to have conviction like the hippies among them who did.
From Ronnie Ray-gun's comment about hippies sounding like Tarzan, looking like Jane, and smelling like Cheetah, to South Park and Eric Cartman's one kid war on hippies, there is one overriding truth. The hippies had strength of conviction. This is something that few who follow in their footsteps today have. Hell, it's something even the Demo-creeps can't find within their ranks.
The hippie movement brought much in the way of social change, some of which remains today. And even though issues such as gay rights are attacked as being "morally wrong", every gay man and lesbian that enjoys even the smallest amount of respect from their peers while living a life that is out and proud can thank the hippie movement.
I have spent much time in my head trying to figure out why the architects of doom that dwell in DC are so fucked up. I have to admit that I am at a loss because I simply can't bend my mind into a shape that will believe that war is the only solution to a problem.
Some may criticize this particular article as being a nothing more than quibbling over the word "war"; nit-picking an issue I am powerless to change. I don't agree.
Words have power. When a word with serious negative connotations such as "war" is bandied about as though it were a Hacky Sack bouncing around a circle of hotties, the power in the word is lessened. People forget that war is synonymous with bloodshed, serious injuries, and death. People forget the turmoil and destruction that is war. That's true whether or not we have real wars waging at the time to keep reminding us that human blood is red, and if it's drained from the body with a knife, a bullet, or an IED, we die. Goddess knows, I have yet to know one year of my forty-four so far that didn't have a war in it.
I was born in the Vietnam War Era. I grew up during the time of the six day war. I lived while we fought secret wars all over the world. The Cold War was also a "friend" from my earliest memories. I watched the first Iraq War, followed closely by the war in the Baltic region. That gave way to fighting in Rwanda. Sometime in there, the USSR fought in Afghanistan, ultimately bankrupting themselves in the process. And now war continues to boil over in Iraq and other areas.
My eyes have yet to behold a year without war. I won't say this is absolute proof of my belief that overusing a word kills its power is correct, but you have to wonder why it is war remains a perennial favorite...especially when you hear so many saying, "we didn't want to go to war, but we had to."
What a cop out!
DUBYA wanted war with Iraq from day one! I'll not believe anything less. There is proof of this in the Downing Street Memo. The statements of certain people who used to be a part of the DUBYA administration shows that war was on the table even before the 9/11 attacks. It was only a question of how to get people behind the idea. In other words, when someone says "we didn't want war," what they are TRULY saying is "this war is going to make my friends (and family members) LOTS of money, but I can't let you know how happy I will be when the first shot flies!"
I realize that my stand on this issue is just another example of Don Quixote tilting at windmills. So what? His motives and intentions were pure, even if he was mad.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Monday, July 16, 2007 at 3:12:45 PM
7 comments
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