In Memory of those Killed by the State
Monday, May 30, 2011 at 5:52PM It's Memorial Day in the US today and it's nearly impossible to avoid all the rhetoric. You can't flip through the TV channels in the US or see a sporting event without some announcement or event to honor the fallen soldiers.
But, what are soldiers in today's day and age? If they are paid to be in an Army then they are basically hired guns. People hired to murder other people. And if they are forced into an Army (conscription) then they are the victims of forced labor - forced to kill. And if they join voluntarily and kill others without compensation they can only best be described as brainwashed or demented people.
In any war in the last 50 years in the US there has been no justifiable reason for going to war or the justification to go to war has been a lie. So, if anyone were to volunteer to kill people in other countries for no good reason or for a lie, there can be no other description other than they've been brainwashed.
The US Needs No Standing Army
Of all countries on Earth, the one that needs a military the least is the US. Why? Gun ownership. An estimated 34 percent of the citizens in the United States own firearms, and there are thought to be more than 200 million firearms in private hands.
The world's largest army actually deploys to just a few States every fall in the US and they have nothing to do with the US Military. They are hunters. 600,000 in Wisconsin, 750,000 in Pennsylvania and 700,000 in Michigan. That, combined, is bigger than any other army in the world.
Yet, despite not needing a military whatsoever the US spends more than 50% of its annual Federal Government budget on military industrial complex expenditures.
These troops are deployed at 700 to 800 military bases worldwide with US military personnel in 156 countries and US Military bases in 63 countries. They are indiscriminately killing men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and more. Who is the commander of all of this war and killing? Barack Obama... he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Unbelievably, according to this interview with Wesley Clark, the US has had plans drawn up since 2001 to attack numerous countries, including Libya (1:20 mark of the following video). According to Clark, it isn't for any reason other than "We've got a big military and we can take down governments".
The US Military, by far, is the biggest enemy of freedom and peace on the planet. Yet despite the fact that the military industrial complex alone has nearly bankrupted the country many people in the US have been brainwashed into supporting it!
Anthems, Flags and Pledges of Allegiance
Stalin, with his famous quote about giving him your children for four years and the seed he plants will never be uprooted, probably could never have imagined in his wildest imagination having children in the state system for 12-16 years!
Between the media constantly playing nationalistic news and war movies, the schools indoctrinating children to chant the pledge of allegiance from a young age and grown adults made to sing their countries national anthem before every sporting event, the people have become brainwashed into thinking their own tax farm is a good thing.
In fact, people are so brainwashed, they will kill you if you do not adhere to these rituals. Just try staying seated during the singing of your national anthem at the next NFL game and see how long you last.
The following video is a funny look at just how ridiculous the Pledge of Allegiance is:
Expatriation Helps You See Outside of These Systems
Travel and even leaving your "home" country can help to quickly relieve the brainwashing.
It doesn't take too many things like having to rise and stand at attention before seeing any movie in Thailand and paying your respects to the King, to see how silly it is. Or, getting arrested for insulting the King!
As well, expatriation allows you to rebuke the brainwashed. As example, if you have expatriated to, say, Argentina, and you return to your "home" country of the US and get into a conversation about the military on Memorial Day, someone will always say, "You are alive and have your 'freedom' thanks to these soldiers". When you respond, "I don't even live here anymore. How is the US military protecting me in Argentina?" they will be left speechless. These arguments make no sense once you get your mind and body outside of the borders of the country in which you were born.
Countries are just an Artificial Human Construct
Countries don't exist. They only exist in the minds of men.
As Stefan Molyneux (who I recently enjoyed a video conversation with) once put it:
"The best way to look at countries on a map is like a chalk outline drawn by the police when someone dies… what you are seeing with the borders are just outlines of historical crimes… past warlords… empires… its nothing to be loyal to. Have loyalty to reason, to evidence, to ideals… not to lines drawn up mostly by criminals”
One of the biggest downsides with adhering to this nation state concept - a concept which Doug Casey says is thankfully on its way out - is that it makes wars possible. Nation states appeal to the caveman parts of us that still see the world as us versus them. It's the reason why professional sports are still so popular - because it appeals to our pack mentality, as Fred Reed so nicely said recently in an article about nationalism/patriotism.
So this Memorial Day
So, on this Memorial Day, don't just remember the fallen soldiers. Remember the hundreds of millions killed and the billions oppressed by nation states. And also remember that no large wars are possible without another construct of the nation state: central banks.
And the next time someone says to you, "Gotta Support the Troops, Right?"
Tell them that you are like Doug Stanhope. Tell them you support the troops on an individual by individual basis. Because, some troops are assholes!
Reader Comments (8)
I refused to go with family to an airshow this Memorial day weekend. I told my relatives "I dont support the military, I think it should be de-funded and slowly phased out." "These planes are relics of a bankrupt, tyranical government." In their American flag shirts and FDNY hats they chastised me as a freak and traitor. I laughed in their faces and called them sheep. Told them to buy metals, and smarten the fuck up, the dollar is dead.
You say, " They are indiscriminately killing men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen and more."
I'd have given you more credit than so demeaning young Americans. Your statement more reflects those who fight under islamic mindset, but to so degrade American boys is disgusting. Being against war, when you think the war is not for the sake of fighting for freedom - is one thing. But to so denigrate good kids, even if you think they're of mercenary mentality, is a cheap shot, quite disgraceful of you.
Hi Frank,
This is obviously a very emotional topic for a lot of people. And, let me say by way of my own defense and as an apology, that I don't have the time or space in these blog posts to put disclaimers and to explain all my statements. In other words, I can't say after every sentence like "they are indiscriminately killing..." that OBVIOUSLY not all of them are... but a significant portion are. I've spent a fair amount of time looking at videos of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars... with the kill team in Afghanistan... and this video from Iraq, which is heinous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 ... and talked to enough guys on the ground who tell me these types of things are normal... thats why I said what I did. tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian men, women and children have been killed by US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.... that is quite disgraceful
If you were president when 9/11 hit, would you not have gone after those bastard al-Queida?
Hi Frank, please watch this excellent documentary called The New American Century (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3776750618788792499#) and you will understand a lot more about where I am coming from. Thanks
Although I understand your 'spirit' in posting this as a freedom-loving man, I offer these to consider:
1. This 'standing' US army of hundreds of thousands of hunters and even more with handguns can easily be overcome by technology. Drones can take out any organized groupings. And the indiviually armed can easily be overcome with door to door confiscations. For those who say "I will die with my gun in my cold hands", well that is exactly correct. Nothing gained.
Only resistance to foreign aggression would be by Minutemen who hit and run, the 1775 birth of guerrilla warfare, some would say. You can be 'a resistance' but you can't reclaim your nation from foreign invaders. Not only are there drones, there is other technology that could overcome civilian uprisings.
2. Speaking of 'nations' which you don't believe in, again I get your point on how borders are made. Nonetheless you are playing into the hands of the New World Order folks, who want no borders, and who want an international banking & international corporate control of a new borderless world. In that new world everyone but the elite are wage slaves, and would be stripped of arms. Of course you can hide hundreds of thousands of firearms, but when you do get them out for 'resistance', you will be found, executed and your arms confiscated. Without ORGANIZED armies domestically, the people can't overcome an organized police state or an international policed region. The Bilderbergers would love your position, for they too despise borders. You are, to them, a 'useful idiot'.
Sorry for the harshness.
Jeff,
Interesting post, as our Constitution says it will provide for our common defense.
As you and I have touched on with regard to Dr. Murry Rothbard this fits in with his thinking and hypothesis on where we are.
Unfortunately we cannot go back and stop Wilsonian Doctrine, but we can assess where we are and make the changes necessary for the future.
In short we and the Western Nations have been sold a load of Bilge on the War on Terror, it's a war that cannot ever be won no matter what.
The consequences of 9-11 have been the institution of another "State of Fear" designed not to achieve any lofty goal of winning against terrorism but to control us.
The original State of Fear was the Cold War against Communism which we found out under Reagan was a House of Cards waiting to fall in as soon as the door was kicked in.
To replace that we had Global Warming which wasn't quite enough fear so when 9-11 came it was tailor made for a new state of fear.
We, as you have observed and commented on, are more of a police state than ever with Homeland Security worried more about so called domestic terrorism, I.e. Right Wing and Left Wing groups, than overseas terrorists.
My own thinking has now evolved to the point that we need to pull out of the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan at the very least, Western Europe, Korea, etc., and bring all these troops home.
A number of these troops need to be re-deployed to our southern border and cut once and for all illegal emigration from Mexico.
Maybe we need to pull back, close and give up a number of overseas bases ,and just let the chips fall and concentrate on our own country and hemisphere.
The question is can we, as a society, even have a civilized debate on this???????????????????????
No thanks, Jeff, I don't watch Hollywood garbage. Not since I grew up.
They have morons for script writers, and I'm not about to sit through
a movie to get your answer.
My hunch is you think 9/11 was an inside job. That tells me your either
a moslem sympathizer, or a Communist in camouflage, to spread this
nonsense. You may know your money, but how foolish it is to think we,
the USA, masterminded 9/11. In fact, no one in his right mind would have
thought two planes can take down, all the way down, the Twin Towers.
The moslems had a history of evil against USA well before 2001, and
9/11 was merely another such, albeit unexpectdly successful, incident.
Al-Queida is a real enemy and don't look for foolish ways to wiggle out
of the necessity to go to war against them!