I am just one of " a vast and powerful social force " that now only in a faint whisper tells the ruling capitalist class of the United States : YOUR ENEMIES ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES; YOUR FRIENDS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS ". To be sure , the ruling class will not consult us working class Americans before starting another major war every bit as foolish as the Great War of 1914. No DEMOCRACY in deciding foreign policy !
But has the American ruling class lost its talent for magnificent propaganda ? Daily FAKE NEWS repetition that Russia somehow sabotaged " OUR democracy " in 2016, depriving us of dear old Hillary ,is not the stuff of All-American war fever.
Like many baby boomers on many successive Sundays in the late 1950s I watched the " Victory at Sea " TV series. Los Angeles Times writer Jim Carnett ( Dec. 18, 2017 ) wrote : " Baby boomers were reared on a narrative of goodness and rightness " :
[ Broadway composer Richard Rodgers wrote the musical score for “Victory at Sea,” and it was a masterpiece. Often, several minutes would elapse without the narrator’s voice being heard at all, just visuals and Rodgers’ magnificent score. It was guaranteed to send chills down your spine, lifting you into a patriotic fervor. You felt as though you were being carried to Valhalla on the shoulders of the greatest of heroes — ]
I watched the entire series again over the long always dreary Veterans Day weekend. I was not carried to Valhalla . A lot has been written since Homer's time about soul toxifying war. Clearly the magnificent war machine and war propaganda has been institutionalized for thousands of years. For centuries there was no more opposition to war in general than to cruel slavery. Not even Christianity made much difference here . The Roman philosopher Seneca at least suggested that slaves were human too.
But Hiroshima and Nagasaki take the glamour out of any future major war . No yet unborn gifted music composer will find much inspiration in " The Day After ". FREEDOM for what empty purpose ?
Were the Korean War , the Vietnam War , the Iraq wars, the Afghanistan War narratives of goodness and rightness " ?
A true narrative of goodness and rightness is found in the world wide socialist movement. We just need our own Beethoven .
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