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We Aren't All Amnesiacs—Yet! There's a battle underway to remember or forget how millions of Americans turned away in revulsion from militarism and genocide. It's difficult to recall, but weren't there a few other stops on the road to this giant Empire we seem toa hve constructed overnight?... something about Chile, Nicaragua, Colombia orone of those other Latin American countries? Or was it in Asia? Something about a "Vietnam Syndrome"...? A lot of propaganda is blowing in the wind, trying to hide the simple truth that the United States is destroying another country. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are war criminals and should be removed from office and imprisoned for life. The soldiers in Iraq should refuse to fight and insist on a complete, immediate withdrawal. The fake paternalism that even John Kerry endorses when he says the U.S. must stay and "stabilize" the situation in Iraq is condescension at its worst. We take no satisfaction in knowing that the longer the U.S. occupies Iraq, the worse it will get, not just for the Iraqi people, but for the U.S. too. More and more casualties and deaths, more and more psychologically destroyed people who will be haunting our streets for decades to come. It might seem far away, but it's coming here with a vengeance! Terrorist bombs, probably. But human time bombs, wrecked by the pathology and barbarism they've been forced in to by chickenhawk war criminals, that's the real price of this madness. We are bound up in a collective madness, a mass psychosis, that is shaped daily by a media wildly out of touch with reality. Between the instant gratification mentality induced by split second advertising and the incessant drive for maximum short-term profits, the rhythm of human life and the long view of history are overrun. Events within our recent memory get blurred and forgotten in the incessant chatter and banal overexposure of the scandal-of-the-week. But millions of Americans, and tens of millions of world citizens took to the streets on February 15, 2003 to refuse this madness. We knew perfectly well what was going to happen, and sadly, we were right. Nearly everything predicted by the anti-war movement has come to pass, and it just gets worse with every passing day. As we face one of our most important battles, defending the biodiversity of this planet, we would do well to remember to defend the diverse memories inside our own minds… Now more than ever we have to cultivate a knowledge of our histories. We cannot forget how many times the plans of madmen have been overturned by the concerted revolt of ordinary citizens. We are at one of those urgent turning points in world history. There are many paths from this moment, some lead to more barbarism, others lead to a renewed, hopeful human project, one that learns to live with eco-logic and not against it. Please join us!
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The Committee for Full Enjoyment |
