I was about 14 years old the first time I vocally disputed the common myths that my father holds dear. About a year or two prior my mother had up and left, and I very rarely saw or heard from her. I'd always had a "smart mouth" so I was told, but to vocally oppose the very roots, the myths that upheld his deeply held belief structure was something new.
There was no god, America was an empire that exploited people, and the whole idea of men having an inherent right to rule over women was disgusting and degrading. Those were some of the things we discussed. Looking back I can only imagine the hurt that he must've felt. Here he was listening as his son told him he thought everything he held dearly, close to his own heart, was utter nonsense. He'd spent years, my entire life at the time, teaching me these things and in the blink of an eye, I let it be known that it had all been for naught.
At first his response was what I expected, there wasn't much of a response at all. He had no comebacks and I went to bed glowing from the relief and freedom of expressing myself along with, in all honesty, the satisfaction of feeling completely victorious in the debate.
Sometime during the night while I was sound asleep i woke up to my father beating me with a belt. When I say beating me I don't want to exaggerate or give false impressions. He didn't leave bruises on me but physically assaulting someone can be described in no other terms. I was baffled as to what was happening.
"I couldn't think of any comebacks to say earlier" he told me as he swung the belt as if that was an explanation. The message was clear. Except what you're told and never question anything or you'll be beat into submission. I cried that night. Not because I was physically hurt, but because i knew then that I not only had lost my mom, I didn't have a dad either. At least not one I could talk to.
To hold a belief structure that requires physical violence upon questioning is not a belief structure with any foundation . It's a wall built upon assumptions, but if you can't allow those assumptions to be questioned what are they?
They're clearly not logical. The definition of logical is "reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity". In other words logic demands an examination of all sides of a premise to determine if it's real or not. Beliefs like this are clearly indoctrinated. Indoctrinated is defined as "to
teach (a person or group) to accept a set of beliefs uncritically."
We're all indoctrinated on some level. It's impossible to examine everything you hear in a logical manner. Imagine the fact checking and cross referencing one would have to do to just get through a single newspaper article if you didn't accept any premise without close scrutiny. However if you're going to make something a pillar of your belief system shouldn't that, if nothing else, be open to scrutiny? After all, these intimate beliefs are the things that guide your decision making, your inner most thoughts. They will determine your actions and inactions. I don't think anything is more important than your belief structure, thus it should be open to the most scrutiny.
Being that it's Memorial day I feel it's appropriate to exam this indoctrinated holiday. On this day we're encouraged to remember those that died "for us". Meaning mostly American troops. Any honest assessment of American history will clearly show that unless you count cheap products, (at the cost of millions of casualties) wars are generally not for "us" at least not in the way we're encouraged to think about them.
Starting with the genocide of Native Americans for land and resources through the toppling of Iraq nearly every war in the name of America was for something much different than defense as we're told to believe. To quote the late Major General Smedley Butler
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
It should be noted that during this same time period that Smedley Butler served, workers here were being literally gunned down for demanding living wages and safe working conditions. Notably the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) were mercilessly oppressed and their ideas to this day are taught to be treason. Furthermore it should be noted that Smedley Butler blew the whistle on a coup attempt by big business whose aim was to overthrow FDR. Both of these incidents, and countless others, have by and large been erased from our collective memories. Why?
Moving forward in time not much changed. George H.W. Bush in his Iraq war address had this to say "Our country now imports nearly half the oil it consumes and could face a major threat to its economic independence" in explaining why tens of thousands of people had to die.
I say none of this to condemn soldiers who are often paid as much as a Wal-Mart employee to kill or die. I don't hate them anymore than I hate my dad, and to be clear I love my dad. It is nonetheless the same mindset that my father displayed that night that often brings them to serve. Listen. Obey. Don't ask questions. I'm not blaming them, on some level we're all indoctrinated. It's part of the human experience. Because we are in fact humans, we have the power to do something most animals can't. Ask why.
On this Memorial Day, I hope some of you think about what we as Americans do. The cost in human lives, and why we do it. If we aim to be moral people it makes sense upon reflection to mourn the deaths of everyone who died as a result of our own actions or, oftentimes amongst the American public at large, inaction. Just because someone happened to be born in a foreign land that doesn't make them less human. Just because someone told you it was so, doesn't make it so. Happy Memorial Day, remember all, especially those who died as a result of our countries brutality, they truly had no voice regarding our actions.