The End

Albert Einstein once said "The pioneers of a warless world are the youth who refuse military service."
During World War One, there were many incidences of troops of opposing sides who had no urge to fight eachother. Neither side wanted to kill or risk being killed and so they settled into a sort of truce. This often lasted until senior officers learned of the situation and forced the troops to conduct raids and larger assaults.  The famous "Christmas Truce" was an extreme example, where the opposing sides played football (soccer) - again, until senior officers decided it was wrong.
Compare those events with the footage we see of modern war. The latest images and comments of US combatants suggest the enemy has been dehumanised. How does this happen?
Modern society must have a part to play. By design, so must military training.



I can't help thinking that we can do better that this. Our ability to wage war has rapidly evolved, and yet our ability to prevent war seems to have been left behind. What is democracy?

Not In My Backyard

Have you ever heard of the Cuyahoga River? As recently as 40 years ago, it was not unheard of to see it on fire. The depth of pollution on the surface of the water was often several inches thick. You can read more about that here. Since then, the EPA has worked to clean up disasters such as that one, from mines to chemical dumps to DoD sites, but in recent years, the EPA has suffered from funding cuts (thank Bush for that one), and it struggles to fight major polluters. That problem can only get worse as more executives from those corporations find their way into the government. This is not the point I am trying to make today.
I read an article about the EPA which was written on Earth Day (I was attempting a digital detox last week) which stated that today's problems are invisible (greenhouse gases etc) becuase the EPA has cleaned up the visible pollution. While the burning rivers and toxic sludge of the 70's have been dealt with, pollution has not gone away. Ask the people of Libby, Picher or Anniston.
Earlier this year, news broke of a new floating garbage patch - this time in the Atlantic Ocean. Read the National Geographic article here. There are between 500,000 and 1,900,000 pieces of plastic trash in each square mile of the garbage patch. Can you imagine what we've done? You don't have to. This BBC video shows the scale of the problem on a Hawaiian beach. A new harvest of plastic debris washes up each day. Not only that, but the beach itself is becoming plastic!
I'm not sure what kind of a warning sign we need to see before we do something. If the average suburb looked like that beach, would we change the way we live? Should we use disposable products at all?

Unamerican

I've heard some pretty shocking things in my time. How about “you’re a traitor for questioning consumption”? This didn't happen to me, but it did happen to Annie Leonard (remember the Story of Stuff?). It was all because she spoke out against what she thought was an outdated, fundamentally flawed system. I wonder if the kind of person who would make a comment like that actually understands the concept and the problems we are facing as a result (and more importantly, what it means to be free). Have you ever read the Bill of Rights? I have - every word.
I know that we are living in a time where nothing can be taken for granted. Many people choose not to believe what they hear on the news. I can understand that. I know I do the same, but I notice that many people are very selective in their beliefs. It is almost as if they select their truths to fit into their existing belief system.
Over the last few years, we've seen some good examples, such as:
Climate change (or global warming) is a big fraud
Creationism is more valid than natural selection (or Darwinism)
We can go back a few decades, and look at Lee Harvey Oswald, the Watergate incident or any number of events through our recent history and see that there are always people who will deny facts, twist them, or claim that it was in our best interests if the facts cannot be denied.
Back to our current environmental crisis for a moment, I know there are many who see climate change as another excuse to separate us from our hard earned money. I agree, in that there are many who intend to use the crisis to maximise profits. As usual, it is those corporations and politicians at the top of the food chain who are the perpetrators. Before I explain that, I want to make it very clear that it does not automatically mean that the whole crisis is a fraud. It means that it is being hijacked for profit.
Annie describes the cap and trade system in her latest film:



When we suggest that we have damaged our planet, or that a war or a policy is wrong (ethically or legally), that suggestion shakes the belief systems of some people. Shocking truths are often unpleasant, but we have to accept them if logic dictates that it is most likely true. We cannot hope to continue to prosper and evolve if we cling to outdated beliefs. Similarly, we canoot resort immediately to threats and violence against those with differing opinions or lifestles. That is a great way to start a war. Have you noticed any correlations between our culture and our foreign policy recently?

The Other War

The War on Drugs has raged in the US for decades. A real war, with gun battles and atrocities is spiralling out of control in Mexico. Just one city, Cuidad, has seen 5000 murders in three years. In an interview with NPR, Charles Bowden gave his account of the problem:
"The drug industry is the future," he says. "The problem is you won't live long, but you can't live very long ... if you work in those factories because the wages are essentially slave wages."

The poverty which contributed to the catastrophe cannot be ignored. Bowden blames the North American Free Trade Agreement, other U.S. policies and the election in 2006 of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who decided to meet the drug industry head-on.

The current state of the War on Drugs in the US is examined in this recent film (American Drug War, 2007):



The film attempts to cover a waide range of issues, including individual freedoms, private prisons, CIA drug operations, whistleblowers and the huge, increasing budgets of agencies involved in the fight.
Has the War on Drugs become part of the problem? And the War on Terror?