(Click to enlarge image)
Using somewhat subjective definitions of "at war" -- Korea counts but
Kosovo doesn't in our analysis, for example -- we endeavored to figure
out how much of each person's life has been spent with America at war.
We used whole years for both the age and the war, so the brief Gulf War
is given a full year, and World War II includes 1941. These are
estimates.
But the beginning of the conflict in Afghanistan in
(late) 2001 means that anyone born in the past 13 years has never known
an America that isn't at war. Anyone born after 1984 has likely seen
America at war for at least half of his or her life.
Orwell's 1984 had Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia in a state of "perpetual war."
Some people... have inferred, insinuated,
or suggested that entering a state of perpetual war becomes
progressively easier in a modern democratic republic,
such as the United States, due to the development of a relationship network between people who wield political and economic power also owning capital in companies that financially profit from war, lobby for
war, and influence public opinion of war through influence of mass media outlets that control the presentation for the causes of war, the effects of war, and the censorship of war...
How about a law that says that any politician owning stock in a company that makes war materiel is banned from voting on a war issue. And if we had publicly financed elections, we wouldn't have to worry about armaments manufacturers buying Congress people.
ReplyDeleteArmaments manufacturers are hardly the only manufacturers that profit from war. Fortunes can be made in clothing, food, drinking water...
DeletePeople can also be bought after they exit Congress for their deeds while in Congress.
I think the situation would improve if we had to actually have declared wars (with an end-goal) instead of almost wars. There are very few conflicts on that chart where the U.S. actually declared war.
ReplyDeleteWait, you mean the government should follow the Constitution? I thought it was just a set of guidelines that could be ignored as easily as an EULA.
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