Gort, Where Are You?

"I am impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it."--Klaatu, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, movie script by Edmund H. North, 1951

"Wait a minute, I know what's going on here. You've all become idiots!"--Fry, “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”, “Futurama” script by J. Stewart Burns, 2001

As the relentless rape of Lebanon continues apace, it becomes daily more apparent that the entire planet is given over to governments and leaders who are not only opposed to real peace in our time, but are committed to continuing the lucrative business cycle of war-reconstruction-war-reconstruction-ad nauseum - forever. The insane theater of our ivory-tickling Secretary of State, Dr. Rice, shuttling about the Middle East declaring that there can be no “cease fire” in the latest Israeli military action until there can be a “lasting peace” – all to the strains of Brahms piano pieces - is stunning in its callous absurdity.

Since we seem unable and unwilling to police ourselves (though I certainly think that we are capable of that), perhaps it is time to reprogram the SETI antennae to send out an interstellar SOS in hopes of establishing contact with Klaatu and Gort! An intergalactic policeman like the giant robo-cop from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” would be much appreciated.

How can we possibly return sanity to this situation? How do the benignly dysfunctional masses (you and me) wrest control from the ruling homicidal lunatics? Is there any way to stop the madness?

Unfortunately, the hope of peaceful change from within the system appears to be increasingly dim. Americans have been disenfranchised to such an extent – our form of constitutional republicanism has been so corrupted – that to seek redress at the polling place seems a waste of time. Our country’s steady pursuit of world hegemony over the past century has recently moved from a steady walk into an outright sprint toward a neo-fascist totalitarian state of global proportions. I am convinced we are only months away from “rounding up all the undesirables.”

Indeed, the detention camps have already been constructed by Halliburton and its subsidiary, KBR. All that is missing is the next false flag “emergency” – the next “9/11” - to precipitate us headlong into a brave new world of gulags and re-education camps. One may hope that the jailers will be kinder than those of Stalin or Hitler or Pol Pot because they will be Americans, but don’t bet on it. Those masks of flag-wrapped pseudo-Christian civility that so mark America’s evangelical scene unfortunately hide many evil hearts – all just waiting to affirmed and sanctified by the High Priests of Amerika, Inc.

History is replete with examples of periodic social upheaval and revolution where the slumbering masses finally awaken to throw off chains of abuse and subjugation. Perhaps that is where we are headed in this once largely free land? When the cattle cars begin to roll, do you suppose anyone will object? Will that finally move us toward action? Stay tuned. We’ll find out very shortly.

In the meantime, continuing to reflect on the state of things here in Dystopia, I stumbled across an important essay posted by the venerable organization, Veterans for Peace “War is a Racket,” written by Marine Major General Smedley Butler prior to World War II, is timeless in its clear and concise explanation of the realities of war. General Butler was undoubtedly a brave and courageous military man. His record is exemplary and he apparently served his country with distinction. From his first hand experience with war, however, he came to an understanding of the evil nature of that enterprise and its beneficiaries that few today have grasped.

In the conclusion of his essay, he makes several recommendations to “smash the war racket” and they are as valid and thoughtful today as they were then:

1- We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.

2- We must permit the youth of the land who would bear arms to decide whether or not there should be war.

3- We must limit our military forces to home defense purposes.

His suggestions for achieving these admirable goals are creative and worth implementing. To take the profit out of war, he recommends that the salaries of all who profit from war be reduced during time of conflict to the level of the least enlisted rank. One month before the government can conscript (and, you can bet that the draft is already in the works for us here in the 21st Century) the young people of our nation, it must conscript “capital and industry and labor.”

Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted — to get… the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages — all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers — yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders — everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and mayors pay half of their monthly… wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

The logic and rightness of this suggestion is flawless and should be implemented yesterday. But, General Butler does not stop there.

To further curb the war racket, he recommends that only those who will be asked to fight and die in a war be permitted to vote in a national referendum. If, indeed, this country’s goal is to spread liberty and democracy about the planet at gun point, then “only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.” Eminently sensible and certainly doable!

Thirdly, he recommends that our arm forces be structured to assure that they are only used for defensive purposes. Limit our Navy to a 200 mile swath of ocean surrounding our territories and our military aircraft to no more than 500 miles from the same property. He further recommends that the Army should not leave American territory. Needless to say, it is unlikely that this will be implemented while the present Junta rules!

General Butler’s concluding remarks center on the question of what to do with all of the vast resources of the military-industrial complex that is so key to our existence in 21st Century Amerika. To that question he has a great answer - put them all to:

…the constructive job of building greater prosperity for all peoples. By putting them to this useful job, we can all make more money out of peace than we can out of war — even the munitions makers. So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR!

Obviously, these thoughts were born of a lifetime of service to the gods of War and did not come lightly to a career soldier. Such men of character, of wisdom, of resolve appear unknown in today’s military leadership. From the Joint Chiefs to the myriad “retired” military gurus employed by the mainstream media, one hears virtually no dissent from the party line. The destruction of our nation, its young and old, its steady move into totalitarianism is as much the fault of these military geniuses as any “terrorist” or dirty politician.

So, at the end of the day, what are we left with? …Slim hopes, to say the least. It is past time for all of us to stand our ground, retire each and every person from office who has approved the actions of the ruling cabal of criminals, and heed the words of General Butler. It wouldn’t hurt to continue sending out those SOS signals, too, just in case Klaatu is listening.

"Don’t forget the real business of War is buying and selling. The murdering and the violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death’s a stimulus to just ordinary folks, little fellows, to try ‘n’ grab a piece of that Pie while they’re still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets."--Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow

Article found at Media With Conscience posted August 03,2006