Do You Hate Ivan the Russian? Does He Hate You?
The War Pigs need to convince you that their enemies are your enemies.
cui bono /kwē′ bō′nō/
noun
Utility, advantage, or self-interest considered as the determinant of value or motivation.
The principle that the ultimate initiator of an action is likely he who stands to gain from the action.
Last week,
wrote a wide-ranging piece that included this lament—and indictment—about mankind’s condition of endless war:To say that I blame the British government for world war “one” is in no way to exonerate or exculpate the Russian, German, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Belgian, Dutch, and other governments of that era. I can point to atrocities by the British, including the instigation of “strategic” and deliberate bombardment of civilian populations by aircraft, and in no way indicate that the Germans get a free pass for their similar works. The British espionage agencies worked feverishly to instigate the “second” world war and many other conflicts.
Why all these wars?… [T]he pattern of wars on Earth over the last 500 years fits a Poisson distribution indicating a single cause. What is that cause? Flynn doesn’t choose to say, but it is profit. It is profit for the people who drink the blood of men, women, and children all over the world, who take tax money and use it to make murder weapons for the express purpose of ending the lives of other people for profit.
No doubt the chief executive, financial, information, political, technology, and marketing officers of major companies that build bombs and artillery shells are able to sleep at night, from time to time. But in order to do so, they are necessarily unwilling to see the people whose bodies are torn apart for the purpose of their profits as human. They are, to quote an acquaintance in the aerospace industry, persons destined to be servants. Jefferson wrote of the affectation that some are to be saddled and ridden by those fit for ruling others. I don’t believe any soul is created for either purpose, neither for the purpose of serving nor for the purpose of ruling.
Above, I used the phrase “mankind’s condition of endless war.” That, after all, is the tendency we have—to place the blame for this condition upon all of us. Upon some flaw in our nature.
Wars happen, you see, because we’re all rotten.
Do they? Are we?
We are flawed, sure. But think about it. What possible reason could you, personally, have for going to war with anyone? During the Cold War, did you have any beef, personally, with Ivan the Russian? Or with any Russians?
How about any Koreans, Chinese, Iranians, Guatemalans, Indonesians, Cubans, Congolese, Peruvians, Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Grenadians, Lebanese, Libyans, EI Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Panamanians, Iraqis, Bosnians, Sudanese, or Afghanis?
Set aside, for the moment, geopolitical arguments about why this or that war needed to happen. Just ask yourself if you, or any normal person, had any personal stake in any of it.
You are told that as an American (or a Brit, or wherever you’re from)—all citizens of Enemy Country X are your personal enemies. But are they actually?
Or is that just a line you are fed by the modern nation state, which needs you to feel that way? Do you actually hate Ivan the Russian or Azyan the Afghan? Do they hate you? They don’t even know you. How does war benefit you, or them, in any way?
On the other hand, there are always a small number of people who do benefit greatly from wars…
Why did President Eisenhower warn of the Military Industrial Complex in his final speech? He certainly didn’t make the idea up out of nothing. He wasn’t a peacenik or a Soviet agent. He was just calling it as he saw it.
Whenever there is a war, whatever we are told the cause may be, we must ask,
Cui bono?
For today’s #FreedomMusicFriday, we look at a classic-rock song that asks and answers this question: “War Pigs.”
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death's construction
In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that all to the poor, yeah
Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait till their judgment day comes, yeah
Pretty much everyone knows the original. So instead, let’s do Samantha Fish’s version, which I freakin’ love. Even with a gig-weary voice, she takes the melody to the next level, and does Tony Iommi more than justice!
My 16 year old self thought when the Vietnam War ended and the hippies established peace and love on earth there would be no wars? ☮️ ✌️ ❤️ And brotherly love? 🫶 What happened to it?!? It was peaceful for a long time. I was a naïve teenager.
I'll get back to the article after I get off work, but I saw the still of Samantha Fish and was like, "Wait - someone else is familiar with her?" Been a fan of hers for years - her 2014 version of "I Put a Spell On You," should be required listening / viewing...
Anyhow, I'll be back later...