just allowing my mind to ramble, I was thinking about the fact
that the U.S has been at war 93% of the time since 1776, or
222 years out of 239 years…… and that fact got me to thinking,
about what it means to be in a democracy while having gone to war
93% of the time? as for the UK, since 1707 which is when the union
began, it is almost impossible to tell how many years of war because
the UK too has been in constant war… for example, during Queen Victoria reign,
in those 64 years, the UK fought in roughly 230 wars… every single year of her
reign was involved in some sort of conflict…
so given that the two leading constitutional democracies in the world have
constantly been involved in wars over the last 200 years, what does
it say about these countries that they require to be in war…
recall the basic premise of the American “experiment” is that the the power
of the goverment derived their consent from the people… did the people
actually given their consent to be in continuous wars over the duration of the
last 200 years?
is it the mark of a constitutional democracy to constantly be at war?
I am haunted by the words in the Declaration of Independence:
“… that to secure these rights (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness)
Governments are instituted aong Men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed__that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
or to abolish it, and to institute new government laying its foundations
on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness……”
if our democratically elected officials keep taking us into war, perhaps
that government has become destructive and we the people, have the right
to alter or, or abolish it and institute a new government that will engage
in such principles that will keep the peace and engage in our happiness…
to engage in constant war over our entire history is not conducive to the
safety and happiness of the people in question…
the long war in Iraq and Afghanistan reminds me of nothing more then the
foolish Peloponnesian war Athens fought when they sent an expeditionary to
attack Syracuse Sicily which depleted the resources of Athens and brought about
its fall…
we too are wasting resources in a foolish and unnecessary war across the world
and the end result will simply be the destruction of America just as the final
result of the Peloponnesian war was the destruction of Athens…
As a democracy, are we so committed to war or should we try a different
tack and pursue peace with the same energy we have pursue war over
these last 200 years.
must democracies have wars to even exist? this seems to be the lesson
of the last 200 years of our American democracy… to survive we must
engage in wars of all kinds, is that the reason for our existence?
to engage in wars? I found it really hard to believe that the only
way democracies can exist is by engaging in wars……
when the very basic point of democracy is to hold certain principles
in common… we hold these principles in common with our fellow
citizen… we voluntarily agree to these principles and we agree to
obey the law and suffer the consequences of disobeying the law…
democracies exists because we commonly agree to consent…
and yet we seem to be unable to come to some sort of agreement with
other countries or peoples which has lead to the constant wars of America…
“we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal”
if this is true, then why the constant wars? I would suggest another factor
is involved besides the consent of the governed… and that is
our foolish belief that we are somehow special as American’s…
and this American exceptionalism allows us to act as we please with
no possible consequences for our actions…….we are not inherently
different then other countries… for we have proven that by our constant
warfare over our entire history… we don’t have a unique mission to transform
the world because we have forsaken our principles by our actions over
these last few years, invading countries that had nothing to do with 9/11,
suspending constitutional rights in some vain attempt to secure our safety,
which does nothing to secure our safety… our sense of our history and
our mission gives us some superiority over all other nations…
and yet, we have engaged in the practice of torture of prisoners in Iraq
and we have systemically stripped people their right to vote and
we have elected a president who violates every single decent
rule of being a human being… we now tolerate lies from the president,
we now tolerate sexism and racism in America, the KKK is on the rise,
radical nationalism is on the rise, all the lower values are the ones we
now celebrate… not the values of the “better angels of our nature”
we celebrate the lower values of hate and anger and lust and greed
and violence by our silence to those who practice those values…
we cannot be silent to those who engage in the debasement of American
values…………
“we the people in order to form a more perfect union”
we the people… we the people must fight for the
rights and values of our democracy… but that leads us
back to the constant wars of America… so we are left with
a quandary… a question…… which America is the “real”
America? is our America, the America that is the shinning
city on the hill or are we simply the country that has spent
our entire history engaged in wars?
what is our “real” morals and values?
are we really so debased that we must fight war after war after war,
or do we practice what we preach and begin the long struggle to find
“peace in our time” and not only peace in our time, but peace for all time…
that very contradiction that lies in the heart of America,
must be engaged with, understood, before we become the latest superpower
to collapse under the weight of our own contradiction……
are we a peaceful nation or are we a warlike nation?
are we going to bow down to the lower forces of our nature or
are we going to rise to the better angels of our nature?
are we going to practice what we preach or
do we continue to engage in hypocrisy?
which America do you want?
Kropotkin