the audacity of individuality

I am not a fan of Michael Moore. Never really have been. But there is one stunt, albeit far-fetched, unfair, and illogical, that stood out in one of his films: Michael Moore tracking down U.S. politicians, trying to get them to sign their kids up for war. Of course this is silly for a multitude of reasons a big one being the fact that a parent cannot sign their children up for service), yet the point was made: do those who are quick to support war, be it the politicians or the people who put them in power, realize the ramifications of such actions if brought closer to home? I could get into a whole discussion about the philosophical problems of war, but these are not how the decisions are made. Militaristic governments, in any part of the world, do not use logic and rationality to woe their supporters - they target the emotions with rhetorical devices and purposefully fallacious logic. You hear BushCo. talk of “Freedom”, but do you ever hear him define what “freedom” is? We fight for “democracy”, they say, but what is “democracy”? Likewise in far away lands to which we are sending our young, and often poor, men and women, the authorities are convincing their peoples of “justice” and other such notions.

Yet can this rhetoric continue to suppress the reality of war? Most of us have this amazing ability to simply turn the channel when those folks from World Vision start asking for money, sitting there with a child from Africa who is a quarter of my weight. We watch scenes of war and yet it has next to no effect on us. Perhaps it is because it is too far away. We are use to watching nothing but “actors” - professional deceivers. Everything we watch on television is manufactured in one form or another, and we know it. So how can extreme images of poverty and war effect us? Ollysk2 at Resist the Herd posted a recently released music video , “Bombs”, by Faithless ,which has apparently been banned by MTV for being too controversial. The album, “To All New Arrivals” was released a couple of days ago. Check out the video here.

If I don’t get out of this I I wish, I just want you to know that I really really love you.

So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

We think we’re heroes, we think we’re kings
We plan all kinds of fabulous things
Oh look how great we have become

Key in the door, the moment I’ve been longing for
Before my bag hit the floor
My adorable children rush up screaming for a kiss,
and a story, they’re a gift to this world
My only claim to glory
I surely never knew sweeter days
Blows my mind like munitions
I’m amazed

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
Moments lost, moments go
So much more than I thought this world can ever hold
We’re just children, we’re just dust
We are small and we are lost
And we’re nothing, nothing at all

One bomb, the whole block gone
Can’t find me children and dust covers the sun
Everywhere is noise, panic and confusion
But to some, another fun day in Babylon
I’m gonna bury my wife and dig up my gun
My life is done so now I got to kill someone

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
Moments lost, moments go
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
Moments lost, moments go
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

This entry was posted on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 1:45 am and is filed under politics, culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.