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"Mad" Miles

07-14-2010, 03:11 PM

The Silence Out There (https://dissidentvoice.org/2010/07/the-silence-out-there/)

by L.J. Holman / July 14th, 2010

There is no crude oil lapping at the shores of Joshua Tree, in the high desert, threatening our way of life. There are no terrorists lurking behind the creosote bushes, waiting for us to lower our guard. Global warming has resulted in a cooler-than-usual spring and a sluggish start to the summer, and some fierce winds, but nothing too extraordinary, and since there are no polar bears to worry about up here, the earth’s climate is mostly just the ups and downs of local weather. The rabbits have run out of stuff to eat and are eyeing all my plants with the fixed gaze of a teenager in the buffet line, but that’s normal for this time of the year. I have a part-time job and I love it. We’re paying our bills, making our mortgage. Once in a while my wife and I go out to eat. In fact, up here, we are conducting business as usual.

But everything is not normal out there, in the country, especially the tepid citizen response to, well, everything. Sure, there are the Tea Party folks, and, of course, the outrage and heartbreak of the people whose way of life is threatened by the BP spill, and once in a while some news outlet on TV or on the web gets self-righteous about some political issue — although they don’t really seem to have any stake in their rants other than theater and ratings and preaching to the choir — oh, and scoring some points. Mostly, we are entertained, titillated, and worried about our immediate problems — which may be normal, but it’s a quiet slide into a kind of oblivion of the mind and of reason. No, it seems that we are all preoccupied. We were NOT preoccupied during the sixties.

(Snip, Click on link in title above for the rest of the article.)

Tars

07-14-2010, 06:38 PM

No, it seems that we are all preoccupied. We were NOT preoccupied during the sixties.

I wasn't preoccupied in the sixties...well except with girls. Of course I didn't have a mortgage, and I only had an occasional part-time job. My point being that America has changed; these days a huge percentage of the population is focused on surviving in their own personal lives. It doesn't allow all that much time for getting involved in societal issues.

"Mad" Miles

07-14-2010, 07:13 PM

...My point being that America has changed; these days a huge percentage of the population is focused on surviving in their own personal lives. It doesn't allow all that much time for getting involved in societal issues.

Your point is one I've been making since the mid-seventies, when trying to understand why more people weren't/aren't involved with the vital issues of the day that I and a few others were.

I was too young to participate in the late sixties, early seventies. But I was an avid observer at the time and afterwards in reading the analysis and memoirs. And hearing the stories of friends.

Not to be reductive, but I think demographics had a great deal to do with the dynamics of that period. Lots more young people, with lots more freedom, in a time of crisis, with unprecedented access to media and a commodified youth culture tailored for, and often created by, them.

A formula that has yet to be repeated, especially with regard to the sheer numbers at that time. The whole thing was much more complex than I've summarized here, of course.

I've heard estimates that no more than twenty percent of the young people at the time, or people of any age, were engaged in the counter-culture in its hay day. The vast majority of Americans, even among the young, were "straights".

I forwarded the piece because I liked the writing, the sentiment and the message for our times. I liked the bit about hungry jackrabbits in Joshua Tree not being hungry as the result of man-made global warming, yet.

As for answers? I'm more into interesting questions...I don't trust anyone who claims to know the answers. Probably something I inherited from my elders who were active on the cutting edge, in the sixities.

podfish

07-16-2010, 09:19 AM

to be blunt, the crisis was personal. "Kids these days" don't know how much more personal it feels when the government will take you off the streets for a few years with a high possibility of being sent to kill people who are more than willing to shoot back. That focuses the attention more than, say, oppressive government support for health care.

.... Lots more young people, with lots more freedom, in a time of crisis, ...

"Mad" Miles

07-16-2010, 01:01 PM

Podfish,

Well put. I agree the draft was a major motivating force for the Vietnam anti-war movement and the culture of resistance that it was imbued with.

There are some in the contemporary anti-war movement that bemoan that there is no draft today (unless you count the "economic" draft) to enliven our movement. There's a black congressman, I forget his name at the moment, who kept introducing a bill, in 2003 on, to revive "national service" so that the contradictions that would ensue would stimulate debate. It never goes anywhere, because those behind the current war policies are acutely aware of how a draft would energize young people to oppose the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

If I don't agree with reinstating the draft to "share" the burden among all young people. I would vehemently oppose it. In fact, in the summer of 1980 when Carter re-started Draft Registration, I organized leafletting of local Post Offices in Orange County, CA, started a Draft Registration Counseling clinic in Laguna Beach, and did some minor "night & fog" action to encourage resistance. I was no longer personally subject to an requirement to re-register.

There was a draft before Vietnam. Korea, WWII, WWI, The Civil War. Only in the Civil War did a draft provoke a significant anti-war movement. Everybody's seen "Gangs Of New York", right?

Something shifted in the sixties. And like I said, it was complicated. A lot of forces came together to make the social, cultural and political changes, and turmoil, that ensued.

I still think, and a lot of scholars claim, that unprecedented numbers of young people, linked in a world culture of rebellion against authority, or at least questioning the status quo, had critical mass because of sheer numbers.

They also had the example of previous counter-cultures to give them inspiration and models. The Bohemians, The Lost Generation, Existentialist Angst, Importation of Buddhism and Hindu ideas into the West, Hipsters and Jazz Cats, The Beats, etc. all made the Hippy counter-culture of the late sixties and mid-seventies possible. And the Draft was a significant threat to spur them (you) on!

But if you listen to the lyrics of political rock from the era, there's a lot of rhetoric about, "we got the numbers, we got the power!". In fact, that line comes directly from Jim Morrison of The Doors.

Hotspring 44

07-16-2010, 02:10 PM

...There's a black congressman, I forget his name at the moment, who kept introducing a bill, in 2003 on, to revive "national service" so that the contradictions that would ensue would stimulate debate. It never goes anywhere, because those behind the current war policies are acutely aware of how a draft would energize young people to oppose the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yes, His name is Charles B. Rangel. and the re-introduced bill is current news.
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CSH%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><style>  </style> <table class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: medium none;" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr style=""> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; padding: 0in 5.4pt;" valign="top"> <o:p> </o:p>
PRESS RELEASE <o:p></o:p> (https://rangel.house.gov/2010/07/rangeldraft0716.html)
Congressman Rangel Reintroduces Bill To Reinstate Military Draft <o:p></o:p> (https://rangel.house.gov/2010/07/rangeldraft0716.html)

July 15, 2010 2:58 PM (https://rangel.house.gov/2010/07/rangeldraft0716.html) <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
WASHINGTON - Congressman Charles Rangel on Thursday introduced H.R. 5741, (https://rangel.house.gov/video/2010/07/rangeldraftvideo0716.html) a bill that would reinstate a compulsory military draft, or alternative national service, during times of war, for men and women, aged 18 to 42, who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States.<o:p></o:p>
"What troubles me most about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the total indifference to the suffering and loss of life among our brave young soldiers on the battlefield," Congressman Rangel said.

"The reason is that so few families have a stake in the war which is being fought by other people's children.<o:p></o:p>

"The test for Congress, particularly for those members who support the war, is to require all who enjoy the benefits of our democracy to contribute to the defense of the country. All of America's children should share the risk of being placed in harm's way.<o:p></o:p>

"In other words, if you support the war, you should support a compulsory military draft," Congressman Rangel said.<o:p></o:p>
The bill, which the Congressman first introduced in 2003 as the nation prepared for the invasion of Iraq, and offered again in 2004, 2006, and 2007, provides for:<o:p></o:p>
• A national service obligation--either military or civilian--for every citizen and permanent resident, male and female, of the U.S., aged 18 to 42.<o:p></o:p>
• Persons may inducted to perform military service only if a declaration of war is in effect, or if the President declares a national emergency necessitating the induction of persons to perform military service and immediately informs Congress of the reasons for the declaration.<o:p></o:p>
• Defines "national service" as either military or civilian service as defined by the President that promotes national or homeland security.<o:p></o:p>
• Give the President the authority to establish the numbers of persons to be selected for military service and the means of selection.<o:p></o:p>
• Requires those not selected for military service to perform their national service obligation in a civilian capacity for a period of two years.<o:p></o:p>
• Directs the President to prescribe the regulations necessary to carry out the act.<o:p></o:p>
• Deferments for education are only permitted through completion of high school, to a maximum age of 20.<o:p></o:p>
• Deferments may be made for physical or mental disability, or under claims of conscientious objector.<o:p></o:p>

BRINGING THE TROOPS HOME <o:p></o:p>
Rangel said that he was not challenging President Obama's handling of the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, conflicts with few options that the President had inherited from the previous Administration.<o:p></o:p>
"I support the President's intentions to withdraw our troops, but I'd like to see it happen sooner. In my view, no additional tax dollars should be appropriated for any reason except to bring home our brave and exhausted young men and women. The loss of 5,500 lives and 38,000 wounded is enough."<o:p></o:p>

A combined total of 160,000 Americans are currently deployed. More than 2 million men and women have served in the two conflicts, nearly half of them for more than one tour of duty. And because of a shortage of manpower, some of them have been deployed as many as six times.<o:p></o:p>

"The 3.3 million military households, representing only one percent of American families, have become a virtual military class who are unfairly carrying the burden of war," Congressman Rangel said. "If there were a draft, there would be no shortage of troops to fill the ranks without repeatedly deploying the same exhausted troops over and over."<o:p></o:p>

So far, the numbers of casualties may not be as high, or as shocking, as those suffered in previous wars. But the physical and mental damage to individual soldiers is not only heartbreaking but is taking place at rates never before seen in modern warfare.<o:p></o:p>
The reason is that advances in medical technology have allowed more wounded soldiers to survive the loss of limbs, and serious head and brain injuries. "The result is a practical epidemic of cases of post traumatic stress disorder, suicides, and family disruptions," Congressman Rangel said.<o:p></o:p>

Again in this war, troops recruited from large urban centers with high unemployment and from economically depressed small towns, are carrying the heaviest burden of service. Enlistment bonuses are as high as $40,000. Incentives for reenlistment range from $1,000 for the lowest-skilled privates to $27,000 for staff sergeants with special skills. Combined with the economic recession these incentives have produced record-breaking recruiting results this year.<o:p></o:p>

"The question of whether we need a universal compulsory military draft will be important as long as this country is placing thousands of its young men and women in harm's way," Congressman Rangel said.<o:p></o:p>
"We make decisions about war without worry over who fights them. Those who do the fighting have no choice; when the flag goes up, they salute and follow orders," Congressman Rangel said.<o:p></o:p>
For more information on Congressman Rangel's position on the war and what he is doing in Washington and in the District, please visit his web site at [I]https://www.rangel.house.gov (https://www.rangel.house.gov/). <o:p></o:p>
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podfish

07-16-2010, 02:20 PM

... I agree the draft was a major motivating force for the Vietnam anti-war movement and the culture of resistance that it was imbued with. ....
I don't mean to suggest it was the sole reason, either - I completely agree that there was something special happening in the 60s. I can't find very close historical parallels. The enlightenment era, with the American and French revolutions and the beginning of several utopian movements, shares some features. I think the wealth of those years along with the rising influence of technologies - especially communication and transportation technologies - was a new an unique force. But the contrast between the new freedom and opportunities for so many, and the immediate personal threat to that freedom posed by the draft, made it spread to types of people whose modern equivalents just can't be bothered to care very much.