Here's my contribution, anyway. I'm not sure if the soldiers portrayed in this video are American, UK or Allied, but the message is the same. I have reason to be thankful, personally, for the US military's assistance to Britain in the 1940s. With regard to later wars, I have other opinions.
Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits - Mark Knopfler on guitar
I've often thought that if there is a hell, we must be living it here on this Earth. I lean toward the thought that we all are one and what we do to others, we do to ourselves. How else to explain the seemingly unjust machinations of human interactions?
ReplyDeleteMany of us define ourselves as spiritual creatures, with self-proclaimed superiority over all other creatures sharing the globe, including mother Earth herself. Ignoring our fellow humans in need of sustenance is another indication of our war, with those of us in the 99% income-level crying foul, not aware or caring that we are in the upper echelon of the global elite. Man made global warming, extinction of species, and geophysical Earth changes are further signs that we can't be trusted with anything, including our own thoughts. We humans are at war with everything...LOL. My sympathy to us living, as the vitriolic-selfish-gene requires taming, not feeding.
mike ~ I do agree, in part. But regarding those of us in the 99% income-level crying foul, not aware or caring that we are in the upper echelon of the global elite.
ReplyDeleteWe have to first attempt to put the right people in power for our own country, before we could ever hope to help those in far worse situations abroad. There's no hope at all of helping (to any meaningful extent) those further afield, until we have the right people in charge here.
As we've agreed in the past, the human species has flaws, but our flaws can, and ought to be, managed better. We have to continue to try for that even when, at times, it seems like a lost cause.
We have American corporations that cater to our latest desires. Those products are manufactured in other countries, polluting their environments to skirt American laws, providing jobs at very low wages, long hours, and often in hazardous conditions. Most of those corporations avoid American income taxes via loopholes and "headquarters" in nefarious, for-taxation-only locales. We consumers keep buying and overlook those inconvenient details. The USA was becoming less dependent on oil imports, mainly due to fracking (let's destroy our own environment), but with the Saudi's increased production and vast lowering of oil prices, we are more dependent on imports, and a substantial portion comes from countries with questionable governments (Russia, Middle East, and Africa), but let's all enjoy the cheap gasoline prices while we can.
ReplyDeleteThere are a staggering number of global refugees seeking shelter in host-countries, but are being denied, due to terrorist fears, or the taking of jobs that aren't desired by the legal residents. In the USA and Europe, it's the citizens that put the pressure on the government officials to not assist. Look at Trump's pandering to the populace over these issues...he's hit a sweet-spot with his supporters.
At any time, we of the 99% can contribute funds to organizations intended to assist our global cousins in need, whether due to natural disasters, including drought-famine, or victims of war. Most Americans aren't willing to, because we think we are hurting financially, though most of us have the latest digital gadgets, and internet and-or cable subscription, take vacations, eat out, buy drugs, and still have money left-over to buy coffee at Starbucks. We put our needs first, though most of the global poor would consider our "needs" to be luxuries. Most of the global poor would consider our trash-garbage as valuable assets.
Just as The Bern is pushing for a citizen revolution toward government, we first-world citizens need to recognize our global cousins and treat them as we would like to be treated. War and hostility would decrease. All lives matter. We don't need to have government intervention to assist global concerns, as much can be done by consumer choices and the recognition that we can do a much better job assisting the global population by realizing our own wealth...just as we are demanding from the 1%...let's share and make the world a better place.
And regarding shaping-up government, Eisenhower had it right:
ReplyDelete“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
mike (again) ~ What you've written is true, though it does apply to a more general topic than matters related to Memorial Day.
ReplyDeleteI know you have this deep antipathy for "the people" of the USA, their complacency, consumerism, greed, carelessness of the needs of others in greater poverty than we have ever known. Complaining about it doesn't change anything though.
Were we to miraculously have a President Sanders with matching congress, there'd be a clear change in mindset, nationally, I feel sure of that. Yes, I know that is pie-in-the-sky, as things are right now.
A communal change in mindset is sorely needed, and it ain't going to come about via that recipe often quickly thrown around:"first change yourself". It really isn't enough. It needs more, it needs leadership and example. We need to keep trying for that.
"When there is space between you and the object you are observing you will know there is no love, and without love, however hard you try to reform the world or bring about a new social order or however much you talk about improvements, you will only create agony. So it is up to you. There is no leader, there is no teacher, there is nobody to tell you what to do. You are alone in this mad brutal world." J. Krishnamurti
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=48&chid=56794
Ironically (and apparently, not unlike the rest of us), the author of the above statement was not immune to the same hypocrisy he so eloquently spoke of.
"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." Linji
Not literally, of course. It's meant symbolically.
Anonymous ~ Thank you for your contribution.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, we're not "alone in this brutal world" though.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”
― Helen Keller
:-)
Reminder - Mars, the god and planet of war is in close proximity to Earth tonight, but will slowly fade over the next couple of weeks. Try to view it, if possible. I've been watching Mars rise about 9 PM and it's overhead around midnight to 1 AM. It's a dazzling reddish-orange.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/2016/may/30/mars-makes-closest-approach-to-earth-for-11-years
Saturn is about 15* lower on the eastern horizon, with Antares between the two planets, a bit lower to the south.
Also, we don't see this often, either...a grand trine in Earth with a concomitant grand square in mutable signs.
ReplyDeletehttp://planetwatcher.com/#1464627600
mike (again) ~ Wow! Thanks for the heads-up. Went to tell anyjazz who was in the bathroom. - We went out into front yard, he in underpants & tee shirt, no shoes or sox (LOL!) and yes! We spotted Mars immediately - pinkish and very bright. Lovely! :-)
ReplyDeleteMars is conjunct my natal Mars as it happens too! Uranus conjunct natal Moon. Oooo-er!