[lit-ideas] Re: FW: Santa Claus Visits a Marine
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 10:12:50 -0800
Probably written by the US Military's disinformation unit.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 26, 2005 10:03 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] FW: Santa Claus Visits a Marine
I really should have addressed this to Eric and Marlena. The point is that what we think
of as good is really just collective violence, sometimes an excuse for collective violence.
The poem below was sent to me by a part-time staff members who does research for me over
the Internet (I've never met her in person). I hired her (based on a telephone
conversation) out of one-hundred applicants because of her kind, enthusiastic personality
and efficient demeanor.
She's a devout Christian. The poem was accompanied by the following note:
"This poem was written by a Marine. The following is his request. I think it is
reasonable....PLEASE. Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as
you can? Christmas will be coming soon and some credit is due to our U.S. service men and
women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let's try in this small way to
pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead,
who sacrificed themselves for us. Please, do your small part to plant this small seed."
The Marine in his poem depicts a visit by Santa Claus. Through the eyes of St. Claus, the
author of the poem (the Marine) tells us how he sees himself.
I spoke to another staff member who works in-house, another good person who is in touch
with typical Americans. He tells me that the thoughts of the Marine and those of the lady
who sent me the poem are typical of how most (if not all) of the Americans he knows think.
Please study this document carefully. It constitutes empirical data telling us a great
deal about the meaning of war.
The soldier thinks of himself as a good, kind person who has acted on behalf of the
defense of America's sacred values.
The young lady embraces the idea of the "sacred soldier." She considers him a Hero who has
sacrificed himself for the American people. The soldier conceives of himself as someone
who has fought for God and country-for the freedom and security of America.
These statements may seem like clichés, but they reflect the foundational ideology of the
United States. We may hypothesize that the re-election of President Bush (in spite of the
many blunders of his first term) was based on the fact that millions of people possess
ideas that are not unlike those of this Marine and young lady.
Are these the people that you want to accuse of being evil? The capacity for a nation to
go to war DEPENDS ON THE BELIEFS OF PEOPLE LIKE THESE. Wars are fought in the name of
sacred values--values that constitute the basis for a national identity. Without these
shared values, it would be difficult to maintain a national identity.
Belief in the goodness of a nation's sacred values (and the desire to defend them)
generates warfare and its atrocities. The sense of goodness and collective violence CANNOT
BE SEPARATED. When Iraq was in the process of being attacked and bombed, the song "God
Bless America, Land that I love" echoed on radio stations throughout the country.
Solving the problem of war thus requires extensive reflection. If it were simply a
question of doing away with evil, war would constitute no problem. People would simply put
the evil-doers-those who generate slaughter-into jail. However, collective violence
usually is undertaken in the name of goodness; for the sake of preserving and defending a
society's sacred values. This being the case, resolving the problem of war requires
insight, complex thought, and subtle tactics.
This is the paradox: the manner in which goodness and massive destruction are bound
together. If it were simply a question of ranting against evil, this listserv would not be
necessary. Societal forms of violence like war arise out of the belief in goodness; are
carried out in the name of a society's sacred values.
Merry Christmas to All and thanks very much for sticking with this arduous task of working
to "awaken from the nightmare of history."
Richard Koenigsberg
______________________________________________________________________
IT WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
HE LIVED ALL ALONE, IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE. I HAD COME DOWN THE
CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE, AND TO SEE JUST WHO IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.
I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE, NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE.
NO STOCKING BY MANTLE, JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND, ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF FAR
DISTANT LANDS.
WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS, A SOBER THOUGHT CAME THROUGH MY MIND. FOR
THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY, I FOUND THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I
COULD SEE CLEARLY. THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE, CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN
THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME.
THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN SUCH DISORDER, NOT HOW I PICTURED A UNITED STATES
SOLDIER.
WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ? CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED?
I REALIZED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT, OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS WHO WERE
WILLING TO FIGHT. SOON ROUND THE WORLD, THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY, AND GROWNUPS WOULD
CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY.
THEY ALL ENJOYED FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR, BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE
LYING HERE. I COULDN'T HELP WONDER HOW MANY LAY ALONE, ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND
FAR FROM HOME. THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE, I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND
STARTED TO CRY.
THE SOLDIER AWAKENED AND I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE, "SANTA DON'T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE;
I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON'T ASK FOR MORE, MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS." THE
SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP, I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP.
I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL AND WE BOTH SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHT'S
CHILL. I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE ON THAT COLD, DARK, NIGHT, THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOR SO
WILLING TO FIGHT. THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER, WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE, WHISPERED,
"CARRY ON SANTA, IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY, ALL IS SECURE." ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH, AND I KNEW HE
WAS RIGHT. "MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT."
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