An item that caught my attention in the Nov. 11 paper was movie reviewer Brian Taylor’s comment about Hacksaw Ridge.
He says the movie, “contained a few too many body parts flying around,” and that, “viewers should have a strong stomach.”
Well, golly gee, Mr. Taylor, it's hard to imagine all of those body parts flying around in a real war. Perhaps if the media presented wars truthfully, showing the bloody body parts, guts, and splattered brains (censored?) our society would not be so enamored of war.
War is essentially a fight between the elites of different countries using their citizens as cannon fodder (the French “chair de canon” is pretty descriptive) in order to gain economic/military/political superiority over a created evil other, using the “manufactured consent” of the people (via all forms of media) in order to do so.
Perhaps that is why so many veterans do not talk about the wars they have been in.
They have seen the reality, the killing, the bloody body parts flying around and come back to a society that cannot and does not truly want to witness that.
Jennifer Smith’s column conflates three ideas — low voter turnout, our democracy defended by the military and the evil Donald Trump winning over the other evil Hilary Clinton.
All three say much about our society, far too much to be contained in a letter or a column.
But in summary, from a contrarian perspective, given a choice between a Wall Street elitist, the better choice is Jill Stein (who?).
It's no wonder that voter turnout was low.
As for the military and democracy, as I have written before, most wars are wars between elite power/empires trying to control the resources of the world.
Even the so-called “good war” against Adolph Hitler resulted from the mainly European imperial fights for dominance. The First World War ended with a destructive, flawed peace agreement, the peace that we honour/celebrate today.
Yes, remember the veterans, and honour them.
But also know that the elites, the governments, the media and the powers continually lie to the populace, manufacturing consent for aggression, to serve their own interests, not the interests of the farmers, factory workers, labourers and the every day citizens of the world.
Jim Miles
Vernon