...the brutalization, moral coarsening, corruption and concentration of elite power that attend every war do not simply disappear from a society when the fighting stops. They persist, like microbes, in myriad forms, working with slow, corrosive force to degrade and deform the victors. Indeed, victory in battle often leads a society to enshrine war's most pernicious attributes: violence is ennobled, and becomes entrenched as an ever-ready instrument of national policy. Militarism is exalted, the way of peace dishonored: cries of "Appeasers! Cowards! Traitors!" greet every approach that fails to brandish the threat of extreme violence, that fails to "keep all options on the table."
in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism
by Chris Floyd from his blog, Empire Burlesque.