War. Iraqi children, Tommy Franks and Marxist marchers may disagree about what it’s good for, but it certainly has revealed one thing: people, whether they’re browns or whites, Republicans or Libertarians, necrophiliacs or pedophiles, are more similar to each other than we ever imagined.
Of course, we already know that the war on Iraq has united millions of people against the United States. In a recent CNN.com photo gallery, students in Dhaka, Bangladesh wield ‘no blood for oil’ signs while ever-subtler Pakistani women wear ‘Hate USA’ headbands over their burquas. When traditional mortal enemies like the Bengalis and Pakistanis can put aside their differences to loathe something, it’s obviously no pithy trifle.
This war, however, has led to much more than common hatred. The conflict itself, the media’s reaction to it, the people’s reaction to the media’s reaction to it, the media’s reaction to the people’s reaction to it and just about everything that has been said, done, burned, bombed and chanted has made this fact sparklingly clear: human beings are, as a rule, ignorant, myopic and utterly lacking in the critical thinking department.
Everyone from the president to the poorest proletarian has had his (or her sorry feminists, but women are hardly exempt from the follies of humankind) say regarding the war, and just about everyone who has opened his or her mouth practically begs to be slapped and gagged. Both pro-war and anti-war camps constantly shove oversimplified, sensationalist tripe into the public gullet, and the constant bickering that the sane among us must endure annoys anew with every cringe-inducing catch phrase and brainless mantra.
Sadly, there isn’t much of a difference between the mulleted, mustachioed redneck visually assailing protesters with placards that read ‘GO USA’ and ‘Get a Brain! Morans’ (see the picture at http://people.bu.edu/futhman/moran.html) and the lemmings among the crowd that descended on Government Center Friday chanting ‘one, two, three, four, we don’t want your oil war.’ Both parties are guilty of ignorance, and neither can be swayed by reason.
The gaping gash that separates war supporters from peace advocates therefore stems from a deadly combination of stubbornness and stupidity. The majority of these people do not possess the mental capacity to realize that the war can be both beneficial and dangerous; they simply ally themselves with one side or another. The hawks scream that Saddam equals Hitler, the doves replace ‘Saddam’ with ‘Bush,’ and nobody learns a damned thing. Dunces teach, ignorance begets ignorance, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s notion that ‘the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function’ proves to be tragically correct.
Seesawing hee-hawing about blood, oil, Hitler and chemical warheads will do nothing to solve the conflicts that plague the present and future heirs of our planet. War and imperialism are as prevalent in human history as the suffering of Jews, and nothing will change unless we transcend the shortsighted ignorance that binds us to the mire we slog through every day. I could give you dozens of reasons why George W. Bush is a selfish, myopic ignoramus who should have never sent his troops to war, just as I could give you dozens of reasons why Saddam Hussein is a brutal tyrant who must step down immediately. Both men and all their followers are guilty, however, of an even greater crime: perpetuating the misery of humanity.
If either Bush or Saddam or the odious billions of droning, drooling hypocrites who populate our planet, for that matter could consider themselves and their actions in light of human history, they’d both realize that it would be better to leave well or unwell enough alone. They’d simply die out with their dated philosophies, giving way to a new brand of humanism led by enlightenment, critical thinking and reason.
The Greeks, Romans, Mongols, Turks and (most recently) our lackeys the Brits have all aimed to spread their cultures and ideals throughout the globe, only to see their empires crumble in discontent, slaughter and reversion to savagery in the lands they attempted to improve. What makes Americans think our fate will be any different? For years we’ve seen the dogs of war enjoying their feast, we’ve watched the Western world go down in the East and we’ve witnessed the world grow ever more hostile to the corrupt police force that has defined our foreign policy.
It’s only a matter of time before America, basking in its population’s complacent idiocy and its leaders’ delusions of invincibility, spreads itself too thin and is overrun by vengeful Huns, Visigoths and Sepoys. Thus, George W. Bush is not equal to Saddam Hussein. As the leader of the world’s most powerful country, he holds the ability to either lead humanity out of the waltz of ignorance or perpetuate a cycle of violence, and he therefore may turn out to be even more dangerous on a global scale. But take this as condolence: at least he can’t play the fiddle.
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