A decade of war has been the heavy burden of the American military and their families. Oddly though, it has not been the burden of the American people. I need not mention every single war the U.S. has been involved in to prove my point but I'll throw in a few to show you what I'm talking about. The Revolutionary war was fought by the American people themselves; minutemen; citizen-soldiers - ready at a moments notice to fight for freedom.
Certainly wars that were fought on American soil or at U.S. borders were felt by the public, but even wars abroad had a great effect upon American citizens. Here are some artifacts to prove the truth of what I'm writing:
American men were called to war. American women were called into the factories to take up the jobs of the men. Everyone was called to do with less, everyone was called into action in one way or another... everyone was effected by war. Even in a war as controversial as the Vietnam War, the affect it had on the American people was enormous. People call the Korean war the forgotten war, I call this current war the invisible war.
In my last post I showed you an artifact of British war propaganda, here it is again with a slight twist for the American citizen during the Global War on Terrorism:
I think this article is right in many regards, people don't seem to know or care and the military and vets are divorced from the people they protect... I sit estranged from the rest of my COM class - removed by 10 years, a war and a lifetime's worth of experiences they'll never fully understand. The article did forget that ASU's own Pat Tillman joined the Army... the difference is that Mays and Williams returned to sports... Tillman returned in a box... not exactly a culture motivator... more of a great loss. The article said that the government is seeking to close the gap by letting homosexuals be openly gay in the military and to recruit rich kids from ivy league colleges... okay those are minorities... what about the majority? The way I interpreted the article, it seemed like what they were advocating for was greater pop-culture connections for the public. I opt for a different plan... one of action instead of facebook "likes".
I think this country needs mandatory 2 years service after high school - military or civil service (like peace corps), take your pick between the two but every 18 year old should serve this country for two years minimum. That would fix it.
Freedom isn't free. Why should I have to pay the price and not you?
If you slap "ology" onto the end of any word and it forms a new word meaning the study of that root word. Sadly, an example that readily comes to mind in American pop culture is "pimpology".
Ideology on the other hand is something I think few people tend to think about. How many people really study their own ideas? It seems from my research that few people really try to correctly resolve their cognitive dissonances with a correction of their ideas and/or behavior. Most people seem to seek non-cognititve consonance or swim in an ocean of relativism with a corral reef full of opposing cognitions.
Dilbert
I think about my thinking quite a bit. I used to be very closed minded but a few years in college pounded down my mental barriers and shed a little light in. I'm bright, but I'm far from omniscient so I still have a lot to learn. I've found that the more I learn the more I realize just how little I know. I've also learned to beware the sound of one hand clapping. I've found that criticism is priceless.
In Religious Studies there are three basic umbrellas that nearly all aspects of human life fall under: identity, worldview and practices.
Identity is who the self is and worldview is how one perceives everything outside of the self and practices are motivated out of identity and/or worldview. Worldview is basically one's subjective truth; their own perception. What is seldom sought out and even more rarely found is objective truth. People just want to go about their business.
This famous propaganda artifact is a perfect example of non-cognitive consonance. England is being bombed, people have every reason to panic and do something drastically different yet there it is in all its royal red glory.
I'm a seeker. I want to know the Truth. I'm a champion. I fight for the Truth to be known. Why Truth? Because the knowing the Truth sets us free and freedom is worth fighting for... freedom is worth dying for.
So even though I'm no Man of Steel, I fight for the same things with flesh, blood, sweat, tears, spirit and soul.
So did they.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
My Granddaddy was a WWII hero. He received all 4 theatre coins, was missing in action for over 130 days behind German lines, earned three bronze stars with valor and two purple hearts. However, he wasn't just a war hero, he was my hero. In my youth I wanted to be just like him. After 9/11 happened I finally had the motivation to get my act together and join the Army. It wasn't long after I raised my right hand that I found myself at the reception barracks at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in four feet of snow. Everyone there called it Fort Lost in the Woods, Misery cause it's the arm pit of the earth.
Irony is an ambush; it always has the element of surprise and it's liable to kick your ass. Irony is the element of life that goes beyond the world renown phrase of “shit happens” right into “wtf?!” Irony is having all the drill sergeants come storming in screaming at you on the first day of basic training and being handed a red cross message at the exact same moment telling you the reason you joined is dead. Fate has a funny way of showing up at the most opportune moments.
Fast forward to 2004 and suddenly the arm pit of the earth seems like a nice place to build a summer home. If that little slice of heaven in Missouri is the arm pit of the earth, then Baghdad, Iraq must be the asshole.
OIF II, stands for Operation Iraqi Freedom II but I like Occupying Iraq Forever II Revenge of the Iraqis instead. The II meant that the shock and awe of our bombings and invasion of Iraq was over and the U.S. Army started setting up camp. Once our bombs stopped dropping, it didn't take the enemy long to figure out that it was their turn. A few months of real life “Risk” could convince any atheist to pray for it to rain water instead of rockets... but apparently God doesn't answer atheist's prayers... that, and you have to come up out of Australia to win Risk, everyone knows you're just asking to get killed if you start in Asia.
I had been in Iraq without an umbrella for around ten months and it was amongst the shelling that I had a seminal moment. (If this was a movie I'd cue some CCR right about now - and if you don't know who CCR is... ur a noob and all your base belong to us.)
Wait, I was having a seminal moment, sorry I get sidetracked sometimes. I had to write about a seminal moment in my English 101 class... so I did... Here it is:
The Scene as seen from the eyes of Benjamin Bronson
A screaming rocket steals my slumber. The blast resounds proclaiming the power of death. The explosions never cease. For ten months now the symphony of destruction has been blaring across the skies. Yet the sounds of gunfire and explosions have become as normal and unnoticeable as the singing of songbirds, simply background noise. Not this rocket though, this one was apocalyptic in its approach.
It wasn’t that the rocket exploded so suddenly or hit so close to me. There had been far worse: times when it rained rockets, times when I was stunned by the shockwaves, times when people died horrible deaths. Those times you couldn’t heal the hurt, you couldn’t get rid of the taste of blood, like someone had hit you in the mouth. Nor could you get the wretched feeling of defeat out of your stomach. Forty bottles of Pepto couldn’t cure it. It weighed a ton and sloshed around like sewage. The misery was multiplied by the stench of burnt garbage mixed with scorched earth and gunpowder. The smell is constant, constantly raping my nostrils. Whoever said war is hell was right. I hate being here. I hate Iraq.
I enlisted a year after 9/11. When asked why I would proclaim, “For God and country!” What a load of bullshit. I loved my country, but God? I hated his guts. I was raised as a Christian, but after all I had suffered (divorce, drugs, violence, abuse, adolescence and hundreds of unanswered prayers) God got the blame for the lot. I hated God, no, I loathed and abhorred God. Hadn’t I suffered enough? Why did this rocket have to devastate the insufficient amount of rest that I get?
This rocket, furious with wrath, came screaming out of the sky carrying more than just explosive power, it brought forth fear. Fear: something that had remained repressed for the ten months that felt like ten years, rapidly aging my dry, dusty face. Fear: something that had been dammed up like ten thousand tons of water just waiting for the time to unleash its temper. For the first time I was afraid and I couldn’t escape it, all the times I had escaped death were catching up with me. I began reliving every horrific moment. Terrors that I once romanticized with war movies were now a terrible reality replaying in my head.
As I lie on my dusty bunk in utter silence, I unexpectedly hear a voice say, “What do you fear the most?” Being a bit disoriented by this I get up to see if anyone else is awake or around. I am eerily alone. Being exhausted from the day I decide to deny it as I flop back into bed and horror hits me, hard.
I am immediately enveloped with fear. Most fear hits like a bucket of cold water; it’s instantaneous and crippling. This time was like getting hit with the Arctic Ocean. I am automatically in the fetal position. I feel my very essence saturated with ultimate dread. I freeze in fear, I scream without a sound. It’s as if all movement and time have suddenly stopped.
Suddenly I find myself in the midst of the whitest, brightest light imaginable. Somehow it is so pure that it is not inhibiting my sight at all. I don’t know if it came to me or I came to it, but it is here and it is undeniable. I go forth into the light and see that I stand before the majestic throne. I behold Him - He is Holy! I am in absolute awe of the glory of God almighty. The face of God is indescribable yet immaculate. Like lightning the Lord speeds off His throne toward me and at the same time teleports to two inches from my face. I am face to face with God. There is no breath, there is no thought, there is nothing, I am nothing, but face to face with God.
As I am drawn away I see the King of Kings adorned in magnificent armor with red fabric flowing between the metals. He is dressed for battle, a dreadful and spectacular sight. His stance draws my attention to His right hand. The right hand of God: the hand of power and creation is clenched at His side. I have nothing to fear but Him and His hand. As the encounter ends, immediately my body and soul unfurl from the fetal position. No rocket or war will scare me anymore. I am finally at rest; I have finally found peace. His name is Jesus.
The Scene as seen from the eyes of God Almighty
Life, my son, is the most precious of gifts. I gave you it son and what have you done with it? I speak to you now and still you ignore; it saddens me son and leaves me sore. I set the foundations, the Heavens, the Earth. I gave you this life yet you know not what it’s worth. You froth at the mouth with blasphemous slander. You shout at my mount, you are not its commander. Too long my son you have been astray, too long my son today is the day. No longer shall I sit back and allow you to wallow. Time is too precious, take your medicine; swallow. I beckon my servants predestined to serve. I make all paths straight, though man’s all curve. I call not the qualified, I qualify the called. Tonight my son you shall be appalled.
I offer you refuge and instead you run. You hide behind your walls, your pride and your gun. Your defenses from war are made merely by men. You hide your face from me son and continue to sin. You stiff-necked ox! Will you not turn? Must I show you who’s master? Then will you learn? I am tired of your stubborn, exhaustive persistence. I AM – eternal for all of existence. I sit on high, on the heavenly throne. I gave you your breath, your flesh and your bone. Do you not know? I made you. I mold you. But who do you turn to? Without me my son, you have no one to hold you. Gently I’ve led you with whispers so soft. You ignore me, you abhor me, you even dare to roar at me. You forget that it is I who sits aloft.
With great gifts my son, in you I have invested. Through trials and tribulations you have been tested. Do you not know men are refined by my fire? You curse me for giving you the strength and wisdom that you so desire. You curse me for all that you’ve suffered and all of your pain, without which you would have no witness, no gain. You prayed to be great and to stand in my hall. But you are still full of pride and so you still fall. You fall and you fall, again and again; you fall for your heart is black, tainted with sin. You’ve strived and you’ve strained, you’ve never refrained, from your constant endeavor to relieve all your pain. The madness incurred nearly drove you insane. But I tell you my son if you had not been a fool; you would have set it as sacrifice here at my foot-stool. Instead you have let it fester and boil as if brewed in a pot. Your sins and your fears disgust me; they smell distinctly of rot. I gave you your chance and a thousand times over. I had patience with you but that time is over.
You would not listen and you would not repent, you would not budge and you would not relent. So tonight a rocket is predestined to scream, to wake you from your slumber, to wake you from your dream. Tonight, tonight fear will ignite. It will burn like a fire in your mind so bright. You will taste your mortality so bitter-sweet. From my face you will try to hide under your sheet. No longer my son shall you show me your back, for I am your savior from every attack. Streaking across the sky the rocket soars like lightning; it comes crashing down with a thunder so frightening. Tonight I visit you, yes I – the Holy Ghost. And I ask you my son, now hear me, “What do you fear the most?”
Enter my presence and see I am light. Have no fear for the demons that ravage the night. Let depression depart from your bitter, black heart. I have been with you my son from the very start. Fear not, for I am with you; I make all things anew. A change of heart my son, for you is what’s due. I have given you hope just by bringing you near. See, I am the Lord – you have nothing to fear. I am stronger than any man; any thing. I made creation and brought it forth into being. I command the stars, the sky and the sea. You have nothing and no one to fear but me. I have delivered you Benjamin, by my own blood. I died for your sins, my son, out of love.
Hi, I'm Benjamin Bronson. I've created this blog because it is an assignment from my communication and pop culture class. However, since I must write, I intend to inspire and enlighten with my words. Please feel free to comment, question and converse.
