Look in the Mirror

Trey Smith

As a perpetual emotion machine — producing and guzzling its own political fuel — the “war on terror” continues to normalize itself as a thoroughly American way of life and death. Ongoing warfare has become a matter of default routine, pushed along by mainline media and the leadership of both parties in Washington. Without a clear and effective upsurge of opposition from the grassroots, Americans can expect to remain citizens of a war-driven country for the rest of their lives.

Across the United States, many thousands of peeling bumper stickers on the road say: “End this Endless War.” They got mass distribution from MoveOn.org back in 2007, when a Republican was in the White House. Now, a thorough search of the MoveOn website might leave the impression that endless war ended with the end of the George W. Bush presidency.

MoveOn is very big as online groups go, but it is symptomatic of a widespread problem among an array of left-leaning organizations that have made their peace with the warfare state. Such silence assists the Obama administration as it makes the “war on terror” even more resolutely bipartisan and further embedded in the nation’s political structures — while doing immense damage to our economy, siphoning off resources that should go to meet human needs, further militarizing society and undermining civil liberties.
~ from Perpetual Emotion War Machine by Norman Solomon ~

While there should be no question whatsoever that much of popular opinion is shaped by political leaders, the mainstream media and the corporate elite, that doesn't let the rest of us off the hook! If we blindly allow others to think FOR us, then WE are as much the problem as they are.

Each one of us has been endowed with a brain. While it is true that different brains have different capabilities, most of us should be able to think independently.  We, of course, take in information from a variety of sources, but at the end of the day, what we make of this information is our own. If you choose not to exercise your own natural brain power, then you become a dog that is led around on a leash!

One of the main reasons that we live today in a perpetual state of war is that there is little public backlash. Our leaders plot and connive and we passively allow it. This is not to suggest that, if the public grew a backbone and demanded that we seek an end to war-making today, it would happen tomorrow. The monied interests would fight us tooth-and-nail. But if we stood in solidarity against both perpetual war and the growing police state, our leaders would find themselves in a tough position. For one thing, the elected ones would be fearful of being voted out of office!

So, while much of the blame for the state of things as they are must be laid at the feet of the powers that be, we bear a lot of the responsibility as well. If you are tired of the perpetual war machine, I have a question for ya. 

What are you going to do about it?