Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Anesthetized

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

That one sentence cries storms. If true, something has gone tragically wrong. There is no need for a disquisition, or an Homeric tour de force, or dozens of chapters of any kind.

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

Let that phrase sink in. You could attend a marathon reading, listen to hundreds of poets give heartrending testimony; or you can dwell on the ramifications of this single crucial key:

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

If we humans were brilliant beings, angelic of genius, this one truth would mobilize and shock us, outrage and invoke vehement yet catalyzing acts of protest.

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

But we are terribly flawed and, yes, sheep-like entities, who can see vast dysfunction without seeing, and speak voluminous rhetorics without speaking to help heal our plight.

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

That one exhalation should be enough, if we dare dwell on the concise yet world-changing import.

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

We can use this line of symbols like a pin, pop the empty layers of non-emotion keeping our zeal for justice inside. We need to let the power of words arrest then liberate us, subdue then embolden--

We must, we must, we must! Because

The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war.

2 comments:

  1. "The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war."

    Strange. I can read those words over and over, yet I feel no emotional response, despite every brilliant attempt you have made here to evoke one. What is wrong with me? It disturbs me now that I can't find it in my heart to see the tragedy or feel the outrage. Is it apathy? I don't think so - it's not like I don't care, otherwise I wouldn't be responding like this. Is it because I'm not an American? No it's not that, since if I put my own nationality in there, I don't feel any worse or any better.

    I think it has something to do with empowerment. I can imagine that if the 'American people' were warring against me and my countrymen, and we were the people being subjected to the horrors of that war, then I would feel differently.

    Yes.
    We must stand together now and fight those Americans. Show them what it is like to suffer like they have made us suffer! Because

    "The American people have become anesthetized to the horrors of war."

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  2. The problem, as I see it from Europe, is that there are people in control in the USA who don't listen to anybody else's point of view.

    If in WWII the USA had lost 20 million people like Russia or 10 million like Germany then the "American people" could not be "anesthetized" by those in control who would "anesthetize" them. They would be alert to the danger.

    As long as the USA can fight its wars overseas those in control will continue to promulgate war. If the USA had to fight in its own backyard like Russia or Germany it would be a very different story.


    I'd like to leave here in it's entirety a short poem.

    "Causa Belli" by Andrew Motion.

    They read good books, and quote, but never learn
    a language other than the scream of rocket-burn.
    Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad:
    elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.

    Best wishes,
    Gwilym

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