Not “heroes.” Not “Peace Officers.” Just a few thugs in uniforms trying to make their lives more exciting (I guess) by terrorizing innocent people and using excessive force.
Land of the free!
Jackbooted Thugs in Uniforms
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Define “militarism”
This video on Catholic “Just Defense” theory has one explanation and definition of militarism. It also gives a decent overview of Catholic Just War theory: where it came from and what it says. It has six parts but is only about 30 minutes long in total:
“Those who hold this position or set of assumptions believe that violence and war are not evil in themselves and can be effective means to bring about positive result. Violence and war can be used to right wrongs, to protect the innocent, and to restore order and peace. Indeed the militarist position maintains that not only is killing for the right reasons justifiable, it is also honorable and noble. Human beings are violent by nature, the militarist position reasons, and so good people must not avoid violence. It is imperative that the good guys outgun the bad guys. Thus, legitimate violence, the violence of the good guys, is a sign of courage and virtue, and the rejection of such violence is a sign of cowardice, or vice. Violence is glorified, and the good guys who employ legitimate, sanctioned violence are heroes.”
Moral Heroes
What an awesome website. This word “hero” is being stolen and abused. They’re taking it back and giving it a better definition at MoralHeroes.org
Highest Form of Propaganda
“The U.S. military has won the ideological war. The nation sees human and social problems as military problems. To fight terrorists Americans have become terrorists. Peace is for the weak. War is for the strong. Hypermasculinity has triumphed over empathy. We Americans speak to the world exclusively in the language of force. And those who oversee our massive security and surveillance state seek to speak to us in the same demented language. All other viewpoints are to be shut out. ‘In the absence of contrasting views, the very highest form of propaganda warfare can be fought: the propaganda for a definition of reality within which only certain limited viewpoints are possible,’ C. Wright Mills wrote. ‘What is being promulgated and reinforced is the military metaphysics—the cast of mind that defines international reality as basically military.'” Chris Hedges, The Menace of the Military Mind, Feb. 3, 2014
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, center, and other officials testify on Capitol Hill last Wednesday at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on national security threats. From left: National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen, FBI Director James Comey, Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Catholic Religious Protest in Ukraine
Priests walk between a line of riot police and protesters barricades (not pictured) on Grushevsky Street near European square in central Kiev on January 28, 2014. Ukrainian lawmakers scrapped on January 28 draconian anti-protest laws that have angered the opposition, in a move aimed at bringing a deadly two-month standoff to an end. Applause broke out in parliament including from opposition benches after the vote, which passed with 361 deputies in favour and two against. AFP PHOTO / GENYA SAVILOV
“The overall and enduring atmosphere on the square is peaceful non-violence,” reports Nazar. “There is no alcohol allowed. There is prayer every hour. There is no retaliation for the violence — and now five killings — by the special forces, except the stones to keep them at a distance. You really have to be impressed with the nature of this revolution.”
Read more at CatholicRegister.org.
Blog post by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Great overview on Catholic World Report.
Filmingcops.com is Declaring War
…on police brutality. That is a war we can support. Check out their site if you want a glimpse of what’s going on in America : Filmingcops.com
There is also a great story on people in Ukraine using mirrors during protest, a pretty creative and nonviolent means of confrontation.
(Images by Kostyantyn Chernichkin.)
6 “Peace Officers” Gang-Murder 1 Man
I don’t know which says more about the state of our society: the fact that this horrific killing happened or the fact that a jury acquitted the killers, presumably because they were wearing uniforms and just “doing what they were trained to do.” This comment by a random person at the Fullerton Rag sums it up:
Police have rights that normal citizens do not. The news mentioned that they were in line with their training. As a Marine and veteran of Iraq, I know what my training did, but it was “all right” because it was within my Rules of Engagement to kill. When the difference between what is legal and what is right, allows for death of someone that does not deserve it, something needs to change. Usually this means the people that created that difference are punished. Since this did not happen, we ought to look higher. This “training” that allowed someone to die, in the way Thomas did, is horrible and wrong and should change. I am curious and hopeful the FBI investigation proves fruitful.
Here is a great analysis at The Atlantic about the shock and confusion over the verdict. But should we be so shocked? This is what happens in a police state! The Rules of Engagement change! This is happening because the mindset and mentality of militarism, which we project abroad, is coming home to roost. See: Do we live in a police state?
This is a beautiful song and a well done video. Pray for the victim and his tormentors. I can’t find much background on the homeless victim Kelly Thomas, but reports say he was a veteran of the war in Iraq.
Pray for Kelly Thomas, his family, and his murderers.
The following photo of a 37-year-old schizophrenic homeless man named Kelly Thomas was taken in the hospital by his father Ron Thomas, a former Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy. Thomas was fatally beaten by Fullerton Police officers on July 5, 2011 following attempts to search his backpack due to reports of someone “looking into cars” in the area.
How About Coming Home for Good?
We can always expect the Super Bowl to be packed with sentimental troop worship and pro-military propaganda for the masses. See our post on Fascism and Football and the Budweiser commercial above. In the background, I believe JennaAnne is singing a revised version of “I’m Coming Home” by Diddy:
I’m coming home, I’m coming home.
Tell the world I’m coming home.
Let the rain wash away, I’ll the pain of yesterday.
I know my kingdom awaits, and they’ve
forgive my mistakes.
I’m coming home, I’m coming home.
Tell the world I’m coming.
…
Trapped inside this cage I’m living in.
My wings hide, my palms are worn and thin.
But if you set me free, don’t live and let me be,
I’ll return back to you. But my real home needs me too.
…
Chorus: written by J. Cole
Verses: written JennaAnne
Of course Anheuser-Busch was one of one more than 35 major corporate sponsors of a massive public relations campaign designed by the Pentagon called America Supports You (ASY):
“…the Pentagon conducted an astonishingly vigorous and comprehensive public relations campaign that provided it with public visibility and with a familiar, readily accepted presence across a wide array of popular cultural activities. During the Bush administration this included a program specifically designed to encourage Americans to support US troops, and to create among US military personnel an impression that their efforts and sacrifices are valued back home and that the American public stands behind them as they continue the occupation of Iraq and the indefinite war on terror. This double-edged sword aimed at both a public and a military audience was called America Supports You (ASY).” — “Support the Troops”: Populist Militarism and the Cultural Reproduction of Imperial Power, Mark Rupert, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
We think coming home is a great idea, but how about letting the troops come home for good? That’s something we could get behind. Check out Come Home America. Their effort aims to unite the political Right and political Left against war: “Americans united in their alarm about the destructive consequences of our country’s runaway militarism.” You may not have heard of them though, because, as far as I know, unlike the Pentagon, Come Home America does not have the funds to procure a multimillion contract with a big time public relations firm. Also, Come Home America has, as far as I know, exactly zero “major corporate sponsors.”
The Church teaches us the Way of holiness by pointing us to the truth. The government tries to brainwash us by spending millions of dollars on public relations and advertising campaigns.
Pope Pius XI’s words in his encyclical on the power of the motion picture, Vigilanti Cura, are of particular note here (television advertising could also be considered moving or motion pictures in short form):
…there does not exist today a means of influencing the masses more potent than the cinema. The reason for this is to be sought for in the very nature of the pictures projected upon the screen, in the popularity of motion picture plays, and in the circumstances which accompany them.
The power of the motion picture consists in this, that it speaks by means of vivid and concrete imagery which the mind takes in with enjoyment and without fatigue. Even the crudest and most primitive minds which have neither the capacity nor the desire to make the efforts necessary for abstraction or deductive reasoning are captivated by the cinema. In place of the effort which reading or listening demands, there is the continued pleasure of a succession of concrete and, so to speak, living pictures. This power is still greater in the talking picture for the reason that interpretation becomes even easier and the charm of music is added to the action of the drama. Dances and variety acts which are sometimes introduced between the films serve to increase the stimulation of the passions.
And then there’s Hitler in Mein Kampf:
“To whom has propaganda to appeal? It has to appeal forever and only to the masses! It has to make use of small and smallest minds. . . . Propaganda has to be directed at the great masses and its efficiency has to be measured exclusively by its effective success.”
Soldiers Are Not Heroes
…as they appear in the “Secret” of Fatima:
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father’.
Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark;
before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way;
having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross, he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him,
and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions.
Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.
(Naturally, someone over at the National Catholic Register assures us that these soldiers represent Communists, or rather those who have been “used” by Communists.)
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
How Waist Deep in the Big Muddy Finally Got on Network Television in 1968
Aired on CBS at the height of the Vietnam War, this song holds just as much truth today…
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
copyright 1967 by T.R.O.
It was back in 1941.
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in Lou’siana one night
By the light of the moon.
The Captain told us to ford a river.
That’s how it all begun.
We were knee deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, “Sir, are you sure
This is the best way back to the base?”
“Sergeant, go on, I’ve forded this river
About a mile above this place.
It’ll be a little soggy, but just keep sloggin’.
We’ll soon be on dry ground.”
We were waist deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool said to push on.
The Sergeant said, “Sir, with all this equipment,
No man will be able to swim.”
“Sergeant, don’t be a Nervous Nelly,”
The Captain said to him.
“All we need is a little determination.
Men, follow me. I’ll lead on.”
We were neck deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool said to push on.
All at once the moon clouded over.
We heard a gurglin’ cry.
A few seconds later the Captain’s helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, “Turn around, men.
I’m in charge from now on.”
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the Captain dead and gone.
We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn’t know that the water was deeper
Then the place he’d once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
About a half mile from where we’d gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.
Now I’m not going to point any moral —
I’ll leave that for yourself.
Maybe you’re still walking, you’re still talking,
You’d like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers, that old feeling comes on,
We’re waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy,
The big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy,
The big fool says to push on.
Waist deep, neck deep,
Soon even a tall man will be over his head.
We’re waist deep in the Big Muddy,
And the big fool says to push on.