Sunday, May 3, 2009

What war?

The last I heard, we are still fighting at least two wars. But, you know what? To watch/read/listen to the mainstream media, you wouldn't think so.

We are still blowing the hell out of the cradle of civilization, still killing people, still sending kids and adults to be used as corporate cannon fodder and convincing them that they are somehow defending our country by doing so. But I don't think I've heard anything about the wars in so long I can't remember when the last time was.

Sure, it's covered by the alternative lefty media that I frequent, but only us diehards read that stuff - Alternet and Buzzflash and stuff like that. Nothing from local, state, or national news that was notable enough to notice.

On a related note, I recently read a quote from boxing great Muhammed Ali. A recent quote for a magazine article, he said that one thing he does not understand is war.

That is a very interesting statement coming from him, I think, because I'll bet he actually understands war better than most people do. See, you can kind of think of boxers as analogous to different countries. Ali, as a "country", fought for two different reasons. First he fought to get something. Once he had it, he fought to keep it. He didn't just fight because he enjoyed it. He fought because he was trying to acquire something or to defend it - the same reasons we fight wars (I'm leaving out the third reason - to destroy something - for now). Ali knows all about war, including how to win one, but perhaps he is unwilling to accept that the brutal, ugly aspects of boxing can be applied to entire populations. I guess it is hard to understand why entire countries can be made to behave like two pugs slugging it out to win a gaudy belt or some money.

4 comments:

Grandpa Eddie said...

I think part of the reason the MSM isn't saying much about either war is because it's "old news." They need fresh vibrant stuff to keep the attention of their viewers/readers. Stuff like torture (which has kinda died out) and the swine flu ('cause they can scare the shit outta people with that).

Grandpa Eddie said...

BTW, They will stay on the swine flu until people aren't scared anymore.

Mike of the North said...

Hey GPE, check out the article I linked to on my blog, fear is the motivator.

"Without popular fear, no government could endure more than twenty-four hours. David Hume taught that all government rests on public opinion, but that opinion, I maintain, is not the bedrock of government. Public opinion itself rests on something deeper: fear."

http://www.rense.com/general85/itswl.htm

nunya said...

I want to know why things are being stepped up in Afghanistan when it hs been known for years as the "Graveyard of Empires"