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Sunday, March 16, 2014

War Is Hell. But You Can't Keep Young Bucks From Playing With Their Pistols


The ongoing transformation of warfare by technological "advancement" has resulted in two epochal changes that make state-sponsored belligerence less likely in future. 

1.) In "the old days," it was standard operating procedure for The Ruling Class to take full advantage of young men's hormonally-driven "idealism," channeling it into The Great Cause of The Next War - a.k.a. The Next Folly; World War I, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Chile, Panama. Iran? Ukraine?). As technology advances, the military advantage of brawn diminishes. Even now drones require no human crew and contemporary fighter jets are ergonomically better suited to women than men. 


2.) Despite the precision of some modern weapons, the technological trend is toward the "uncontainability" of explosive devices so that non-c0mbatants are increasing at risk of "collateral damage." Flipping the coin, we find that combatants themselves are increasingly victimized by "friendly fire." 


In light of Christianity's 1600 hundred year old "Just War Tradition," Pope Benedict XVI posited the intrinsic injustice of modern warfare. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/pope-benedict-xvi-questions-if-modern.html


Instead of "Just War," 
there is just war... 

Yes, we can "go there." 
We can champion Wehrmacht

Against the prevailing backdrop of dominance-submission hierarchies, state-sponsored slaughter is as justifiable as Mom and apple pie.

Just call on the lesser angels of your nature and feral dogs are at the ready.

Still, a nagging question remains.


Will God/Love "sign off" on our giddy carnage?

If I were a conservative Christian, I would not wager my eternal soul on an affirmative reply. 


That said, the exceedingly conservative Amish -- perhaps the most thriving community of Christian believers in America -- agree with me.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish


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"The World Has Never Witnessed So Little War And Violence"

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"Liberalism: Satanic Rebellion Against God" 
The Thinking Housewife
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/11/liberalism-satanic-rebellion-against-god.html

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Addendum: The recent spread of terrorism is largely due to a political sea change whereby young bucks are increasingly less necessary to state-sponsored, mano-a-mano combat. Conveniently, unbending religious ideology - coupled with an AK-47 - achieve the same end.



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"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." 
Devout Christian, Blaise Pascal

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The following afterthought was prompted by Britain's unprecedentedly noble determination to distinguish - definitively - between combatants and non-combatants by dressing soldiers in flaming red uniforms.

"We are very different people than we were during John Wayne's reign, not to mention superstition-saturated, pre-scientific, largely-illiterate, agricultural/nomadic biblical times. 

Recently, I watched "The Searchers" -- perhaps The Duke's best-known film -- and was struck by the dimwitted suppositions that most Americans held about "cowboys," "Indians," and "manliness." 

It is flabbergasting how much the nation has changed since The Searchers' release in 1956 when I was nine years old and mainlining daily doses of "good cowboys" and "bad Injuns" - or, in more general terms, "good white guys, bad darkies."

I encourage you to watch The Searchers to see if you feel more sympathy for the Indians than whites - even though Ford's intent was antipodal. 

If "Indians" ever re-took the United States from "Christian conservatives," we would be appalled at white guys' behavior as soon as "the moccasin slips on the other foot."

Recently I experienced a similar reaction to Disney's "Johnny Tremain." 


Watch the prolonged scene in which "buckskin-camouflaged" Minute Men hide in hedge-rows, pick off marching "red coats" one by one. 

I watched "Tremain" with my 14 year old son Danny and all I could see were terrorists detonating roadside explosives. 


"Why Can't We Talk About An Injustice?" 

"John Ford, John Wayne, Aquinas and Theosis (Christian Divinization)"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-on-theosis.html

When "the fundies" acknowledge the reality of anthropogenic global warming and "projection psychology," we'll discuss "the details."



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