The military
I was reading a book of essays by Albert Einstein the other day (full report about that some other time), and, in these times of the “war on terrorism”, as the American propaganda machine is calling it, I came across these thoughts about the military by Albert Einstein, in the midst of a rant about “herd life”:
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take pleasure in marching in fours to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; unprotected spinal marrow was all he needed. This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them! How vile and despicable seems war to me! I would rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business. My opinion of the human race is high enough that I believe this bogey would have disappeared long ago, had the sound sense of the peoples not been systematically corrupted by commercial and political interests acting through the schools and the press.
Wow….harsh words from Mr. Einstein.
Of course, he’s overlooked a terribly important thing in that last couple of sentences: all those commercial and political interests are from the same human race that he has a high opinion of.
Me, I do not have a high opinion of the human race, so I would have to disagree with Einsten that all these bombs and killing and terrorism are beneath us. Rather, I think they exist because of us, and for no other reason.
However, I think he and I would agree on one point: the members of the military engage in one business, and one business only: murder. One can characterize military goings-on as righteous, or patriotic, or “peace-making” (the most ridiculous of all), but at the end of the day, they’re killing people.
No matter how pretty you try to paint the picture, loss of human life is a despicable thing.