This is precisely why there exists in our society a disconnect, a total insensitivity to injury or death from war.
When I was 13 and living in Cuba there was a revolution going on; it was more like a terrorist threat at every turn, unexpected and meant to do just that – instill terror on the general population to undermine the corrupt Batista tyranny. I was already working at my father’s bakery and he would only give me .25cents so I could go to the movies on Saturdays.
I never will forget the movie: It was “State Fair” with Pat Boone with subtitles in Spanish. The movie had come to the end and the credits were being shown on the screen when a horrendous explosion rocked the theater; it was followed by these heartbreaking, desperate screams. A man came out of the bathroom and his face looked like hamburger meat, he was bathed in blood and there was a hand missing.
We found out that he died a couple of hours later at the emergency clinic. We were all told that it was he who had placed the bomb and it exploded prematurely; that he was setting it to coincide with the end of the movie so there would be a lot of men going into the bathroom to pee. This sight of gore I will never forget but at the same time it opened my eyes, it made me realize how horrific war could be, how man’s ideologies can drive him to do crazy things and impart injury and death on others and in this case to himself. In my country’s case, the terrorism succeeded and we ended up with an even more ruthless totalitarian regime.
As we all know in America there exists an almost an unwritten law that nobody should witness any dead bodies that have died as a cause of an accident or murdered. We as a society avoid at all costs the display of any blood or injury and consider it to be “graphic” in nature. Television networks will censor it or play it where it is sanitized. Under no circumstances are people to be exposed to any kind of gore as a result of violence or accidents.
Enter the very wealthy and even the somewhat prosperous folks who live in gated communities, insulated and isolated from the rest of the population. They have the ability to buy happiness…as I have always said “there is no such thing as happiness, only happy moments and if you’re smart enough or rich enough you can program these moments to happen more often”.
What this actually does is to make a population insensitive, completely devoid of compassion. If you ignore pain and suffering, if you shun away from seeing anything unpleasant the time comes when you are not even aware that it exists and thus the result is the quandary we are facing in our dysfunctional society.
It is not surprising then that our brave men and women who go abroad to fight some stupid war come back suffering all kinds of mental problems...they simply were not prepared to witness so much carnage.
These Republican-Teahadists live in a little world of their own right alongside their fucking Evangelical cronies. The wealthy 1% is callous and devoid of pity or compassion, while the Christianists are so immersed in their religion that it provides them with an imaginary state of well-being, a world where angels, fairy tales and the promise of a beautiful hereafter is assured to them if they promise to follow the teachings and rules of their religion.
Ironically, as benevolent and Christian as they profess to be they are willing to inflict the most odious insults, humiliation and even go to war to convert the infidels or even other Christians who adhere to a different flavor religious body.
I have been criticized on several occasions for posting a gory picture or two. The last one was a very sad one with a little boy with his leg blown off. But I stand by that because we need to see the horrors of war, we need to be aware of the misery that human stupidity can bring and most of all, we have to recognize that greed has no conscience and to this present day Republican Party no repression, no abuse, no deprivation is sufficient as long as those who are wealthy can retain their wealth and their power.
PHOTO SOURCES: http://www.agentbenet.com/gated.html
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