| Mar. 13th, 2006 @ 01:57 pm Angry Young Man |
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Current Mood:  angry
My father asked me why I'm always so angry, why I generally hate people that I know and meet, and why I have condemned the majority of the world without meeting them. Here is a basic transcript of the discussion, supplemented by citations and with dates added.
"I hate most people because they are liars and hypocrites who are in denial about themselves and the world. I hate them because they live in a highly selective reality, one which they refuse to acknowledge even exists. There is nothing wrong with a selective reality, in day to day life I live in one myself - without it the world becomes too much to bear while doing the laundry or eating dinner or talking to your friends. The flaw, the terrible mistake, is in refusing to acknowledge that this false reality exists, in refusing to even step out of it for a moment.
"The people of the United States in particular, since they are who I largely deal with, are guilty of these things. We talk about the crimes of other countries like they only happen there. We went to war because we believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, because on several occasions Iraq had refused to allow UN inspectors access to certain buildings. The United States, in the years of build-up to the war with Iraq, has done the same thing. It has denied UN inspectors, on at least two separate occasions, access to areas inside the United States because they were 'national security centers.' Since then, in more recent memory, we have denied UN Inspectors access to Guantanamo Bay.
"The cry goes out 'But they ignored other UN declarations!' The UN has voted to End the US Embargo on Cuba by a wide majority. They have done this five times, and five times we have not listened.
"We complain because the Iraq government had enough weapons of mass destruction to destroy the world several times over. The United States has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several hundreds of times over, and most likely leave it unlivable for complex organisms for a thousand years, not because of radiation, but because the destruction will be so complete.
"People ignore this fact, all of these facts, and remain blissfully behind a veil of 'Invincible Ignorance'.
"Ask people who the last US Citizen to win the Nobel Peace prize was, and get a befuddled response. The answer is Jody Williams for her campaign against the use of land mines. Ask them, however, who the won the 2004 edition of American Idol, you will universally be told that it was Fantasia Barrino.
"You must see these things, look at them, acknowledge them! Make them a part of your life, even if you push them aside at times so you can function. But how can you not go home at night, and wail and grind and gnash your teeth in anger and frustration? Denial and ignorance makes you complicit, you are not innocent. There are no innocents. Not any more. We are all involved, each of us. We are all liable.
"I am told that we live in a time of unprecedented peace and that war is on the decline. We are, however, in an extremely violent age. The United States is in a war, and discussing another. We are occupying two countries. In the Congo, a thousand people die daily. Peace? Stability? Show me.
"We want to spread freedom. That is why we are in Iraq, right now, isn't it? That is why we have given them a brand new government, with free elections and all the glorious aspects of a democracy. (We, by the way, live in a Republic, though you will rarely hear this acknowledged.) However, as President Bush said, free elections cannot be held under foreign military occupation.
"Our enemies in the Middle East often surround themselves with civilians, hoping that we will not attack them and kill innocents. We often do anyway. How can we claim to be noble, to be fighting the good fight, when we do not even hold ourselves up to the standards that our reviled enemies hold us to? 'But they attack innocents!' as the generals say. That is true. The bad guys attack the innocents."
"Alright, but assuming all of that is true-"
"It is."
"Allowing that all of that is true, there are still governments and countries out there that are far worse than the United States."
"I hear that a lot. All the time, in fact. It may well be the most common response to criticism against the United States government. Compare us to the worst, and we are among the greatest. Let's do the opposite. Compare ourselves to the best. To the ideal. To Utopia. How do we stand up, then? As liars and hypocrites, who have not even climbed out of the muck before we turn on others and attack them for their failings. We save lives by killing soldiers and innocents. We create security by blowing up buildings and stirring up turmoil. We create stability by removing governments and putting in our own.
"The United States, since 1950, has supported every right-wing dictatorship in the world, in one way or another. We have trained them, supplied them, and encouraged them. Years later, we have on occasion, attacked them and replaced them.
"In our home country, the constructionists have it right. We have no right to privacy. I believe we should have one, I believe that it is necessary for a free and secure country. I also believe that it is a very different from the right against search and seizure. These rights must be democratically put into our Constitution. If they were, the debate would not exist. If the right to privacy concretely existed, there would be no illegal wiretaps.
"If Roe v. Wade had not happened, and instead the right had been passed into law several years later, the debate against abortion would not exist today. People might still resent it and attempt to over-turn it, but the argument that they got it wrong when they put the case through would not exist - and they would be right. Passing laws or adding rights through courts always has a back lash. In the case of Gay Marriage, the federal government has allowed states to refuse to recognize legitimate gay marriages.
"If we were to wait ten years so that the younger generation would enter the voting populace, a generation which has vastly different ideas on the subject of gay marriage than current voters do, the scene would be very different. But for the government to continue to function in a stable way, we must allow for the democratic process to work. Otherwise - the Supreme Court and the President both will soon have too much power.
"People remain ignorant of all of this. They remain blissfully ignorant that these things are happening, that rights are being given and taken away illegally, that we are holding a double standard to ourselves and our enemies, that we are lying to ourselves and our citizens about what is happening and what we are doing. They know that something is happening, but they do not know what. And they do not care to know.
"These illusions need to be shattered. Reality needs to be seen, needs to be embraced, and needs to be recognized for what it is. Everyone of us must see it, think about it, and discuss it. Inaction, silence, and indecision - these things are all actions by themselves, and make us all complicit.
"There are no more innocents, and you have no idea how angry that makes me." |
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