EPILOGUE TO MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day celebration in Chicago, 1912.

One symptom of the social effect of the new IT world of trends and ephemeral everything is the fading of the history of some public holidays.  The history of Memorial Day is quite complex and should be of interest to those who really wish to study the evolution of a multiracial United States. It is in all aspects a holiday in celebration of death and war. 

America's death culture is a twisted one. Unlike some cultures which acknowledge the inevitability of death, American culture approaches death as an anomaly. Those who die young are pitiable. Those who die by their own hands are deemed universally unbalanced, with no interest in the desperate circumstances which cause a human being to choose death over its alternative. The vilest human beings are spoken of in hushed tones after they die. The most virtuous human beings are given quick fanfare and eulogies before being summarily forgotten. 

The soldiers honored by early Memorial Days in the USA were killed during its domestic Civil War. The mourning for those fallen was deepened by the simple fact that they were killed by their brothers of the same mother country. That conflict was horrific and bloody. Its battlefields, strewn with corpses, were outside American farms and villages.

Today's living veterans who memorialize their fallen peers are surrounded by a nation unfamiliar with the realities of their battles in the field. Americans were never asked directly if we support using our armed forces to police the world. My generation made it clear that we did not, by our vigorous opposition to the proxy war in Vietnam. Today's social justice warriors are most likely unaware of the massive resistance to that war on the streets and college campuses of America. Most likely the martyrs of Kent State University are no longer honored in post-911 curricula. 

Our federal government and our media have force fed us a narrative of warrior patriotism since the Saudi  terrorist attack on Manhattan on September 11, 2001. It is notable that the US Presidency was held by a personal friend of Saudi Arabian royalty at the time. 

America entered a remote policing action against Al-Qaeda, deemed to be the source of the 911 attack. Al-Qaeda could also be seen as part of a family dispute among the royal class of Saudi Arabia. American propaganda went full force in favor of invading Afghanistan and Iraq. It is notable that Iraq had little or no connection to 911. Its leaders were hated by President Bush due to the humiliation they had dealt his father while the elder Bush was a one-term US President. 

Our military actions destabilized The Middle East and North Africa. The horrors of the Syrian civil conflict are in part the responsibility of our government and its military. The intensifying of the Israel-Palestine conflict is also a direct result of our destabilizing The Middle East. 

Contemporary warrior patriotism, as portrayed by government and mass media, casts itself in the role of the bulwark of American freedom. Yet one of the greatest threats to American freedom today is the internal mass manipulation implemented by our federal health agencies. Another is the dredging up of racialist hatred by cynical politicians and scammers. Another is the dissolution of the border with Mexico, where unvetted migrants with unknown motives are crossing in the tens of thousands. The civilian police forces which truly protect our Constitutional freedoms in America are demeaned and defunded while the military is lauded for killing so-called "terrorist threats" far away from our shores.

The simple truth remains that military service in today's America is entirely voluntary. It is part of a class system, designed to provide warriors in exchange for veteran benefits ranging from tuition to accelerated citizenship for registered aliens. Few skilled and employable middle class Americans choose to enlist. At its essence, therefore, the US military has become a mercenary force. It is not part of a national service system which is inclusive of all Americans. 

While I would never demean a person for whom joining the military was a rational and honorable choice out of poverty, I would question whether it is in our nation's best interests to use the violence of combat as bait for our youth who need a step up to secure their futures. And I would suggest that the psychological effects of killing other human beings with guns on the ground far outweigh the social or philosophical benefits of lethal military training. 

I do not bemoan the fading of the militaristic significance of Memorial Day. It is often celebrated in smaller communities by contrived parades of pickups and flags, organized by veterans. That is an understandable assertion of their role as an identifiable class of citizens in a society where identity is quickly causing more division than cohesion. But remote warfare does not inspire the kind of genuine social honor that protecting our country from its internal corruption may hopefully inspire some day. 

Today's American defenders are those who combat racialism and anarchy in favor of public safety and positive social unity. Those who fight indolence and stupid conformity in favor of independent thought and skepticism, shared for the greater good, are today's most daring patriots. Americans who refuse to be cowed by unjust cancel culture and mob-think are carrying the torch of Constitutional freedom in our country. They are fighting a crucial war against the divisive corruption and terrorism within our nation.