(Note: My regular, "diary" post is in a separate entry below.)
WIDER: Chris Floyd, in his "Empire Burlesque," writes very often on the horrors of our war-loving society, but this essay, "Unnatural Acts: Breaking The Fever Of Militarism," is so powerful, so passionate, so over-whelmingly true, it took my breath away. It must be read in its entirety at http://www.chris-floyd.com/, but here's a part:
"(After a time...), war is no longer seen as a vast, horrific failure of the human spirit, a scandalous betrayal of our common humanity, a sickening tragedy of irrevocable loss and inconsolable suffering – although this is its inescapable reality, even in a "good" war, for a "just" cause. (And of course no nation or faction has ever gone to war without declaring that its cause is just.) Instead of lamenting war, and girding for it, if at all, only in the most dire circumstances, with the most extreme reluctance, the infected society celebrates it at every turn. No national occasion – even a sporting event! – is complete without bristling displays of military firepower, and pious tributes to those wreaking violence around the world in blind obedience to their superiors.
Oddly enough, when a modern nation consciously adopts a 'warrior ethos', it casts aside -- openly, even gleefully -- whatever virtue that ethos has historically claimed for itself, such as courage in battle and honor toward adversaries. In its place come the adulation of overwhelming technological firepower and the rabid demonization of the enemy (or the perceived enemy, or even the 'suspected' enemy), who is stripped of all rights, all human dignity, and subject to "whatever it takes" to break him down or destroy him."
How fervently I wish this man had a larger forum for his work. Along with Arthur Silber ("Once Upon A Time"), he embodies the highest and finest thoughts and ideals I can imagine.