Peace March 20: End the Infamous Daze of Decay
March 21, 2008
Peace March 20 is a Free Articulator initiative to mark the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq as a day of mourning and reflection. But also to urge Creative Artists everywhere to pick up the message other creative activists such as John Lennon have forwarded with creative works such as “Give Peace a Chance.” The importance of such works to move people to seek more constructive solutions than war is vital to the advance of civilization, culture and the addressing of important and pressing conditions that face the entire human race. How can you and your work help improve the world we live in today, tomorrow?
A Fast Reflection on Shameful Fascination
On March 20, in 2003 I remember sitting down to watch the embedded media concept in action. I remember being intrigued about what that would mean. Here’s what it meant to me on that day: Absolutely nothing.
War was…”boring”?
My expectation was high on the idea of conflict. I anticipated front-line war correspondents and cameramen in the middle of death, destruction, violence and noise of war…Hollywood style, but with the vital and urgent presence of reality…bringing us…the truth!
“Weapons of Mass Destruction Found in Desert!”
That’s what I expected.
“Nuke Silo Dug Up!” with a “Goodbye Uncle Sam” in Arabic on the side in true…American style, just as the Iraqis and all of us have learned from the Hollywood and Pentagon Box Office.
No such luck.
I saw tanks and desert. Endless desert. Flat. Vehicles streaming without hindrance or let through a vast expanse devoid of opposition. There was no opposition. It was a disappointment. The urgent tones of the embedded correspondents did all they could to make a long and boring drive in the desert exciting. But their voice was the total extent of the excitement.
The embedded media concept was a total anticlimax. There were no big battles on the ground. There were explosions in Baghdad. The whole concept was in a single word…BORING.
Attention is the Enemy of Lies
I can’t help thinking that this was the intention: to provide us all with a simply boring vista, the reality and apparent superiority of the duperpower [Ed. a term coined by NDK to define nations characterized as “super” when they are demonstrably dangerous, deceitful, duplicitous, in debt and dumb]. Why? Because if we were bored with war, we wouldn’t pay too much attention. And attention is the enemy of lies.
That impression has not lasted. But that was the observation of the day War March 20. War was boring. Embedded media was boring. I felt there was no news (and as we now know, that was a correct assumption, the mainstream media had abandoned their role). A jaunt in the desert with an attempt by a journalist tour guide to make it somehow more than what it was.
There was none of the dramatic excitement of a Hollywood action flick and that seemed so disappointing. Where were the bodies? The explosions? The dust and debris? Reserved for the air war and the ’smart’ bombs it seems.
The battle over a nuke warhead aimed at Washington? Didn’t exist. I still remember the vivid explosions of the night over Baghdad, I know I thought of the people beneath those life-shattering moments and I pitied them. “Smart bombs”? Pfft! Destruction is easy, it’s the lazy man’s way. There is nothing smart about spending millions, billions, trillions to make something that is going to go up in smoke the moment it is used for its intended purpose. That’s just resource-squandering idiocy.
March 20 Today
Now time has marched on and March 20 has rolled around 5 times. The Iraq War, though combat operations were with characteristic perfidious declaration “over,” and though the Second Shrubbery used some remarkable large words it continues longer now than the Second World War.
Where WWII gave America, England and their allies much respect and earned the (apparently) lasting admiration of the world, this imperial-corporate-resource war of 2003 - 2008 has not.
This “war on terror” has destroyed the very principles fought for in WWII, more, it has embraced them and crushed them in a way that is described in one painful word, that we thought had been eradicated from our social structure 63 years ago…Fascism.
The nation that fought fascism is now described as fascist.
The glory of a righteous war for freedom, that exposed the horror of eugenics, the philosophy and plan for a glorious master race, was revealed as an affront to nature, human decency and justice.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights came out of WWII, and the glory of this war, has been used to sweep aside the horror, only to have it return in Abhu Graibh and Gitmo. The glory and admiration of the world for America’s generosity with the Marshall Plan has been turned into a business described as the rise of disaster capitalism.
America has since capitalized upon its reputation for “reconstructive generosity” in order to further justify a war footing that it has not come off of in more than 50 years.
That’s not progress.
The glory and honor of America’s involvement in World War Two, “the war to end all wars” has simply become part of the propaganda and mythos of America. It too is now a corrupt ideal, utilized to inspire the continuation of the imperial war machine. Power corrupts.
The rights America and its allies fought to establish in two World Wars have been ignored, trampled and it is not the god of peace and love that rules the duperpowers, but Mars, the god of war. The mythology and rhetoric of war is once again alive and well in America, and it is used as it was used by tyrants before those currently in power, to keep people in fear and uncertainty.
That embedded journalists created an overall impression of “nothing happening”, “war is boring” I find that interesting, but it’s also terrifying. The uncertainty and imbalance that these things introduce into our lives is just horrific. I want it to stop.
The way in which these immoral wars undermine our moral systems and education is devastating. “Make an honest buck” is no longer the way of things in practically any industry you care to look at. The corruption is endemic and systemic, and the suspicion and barriers this creates between otherwise decent people is even more horrific.
It is now 5 years later. I know that the war in Iraq is far more dramatic than those opening images that were played across the boob tube for days.
“It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda
The Dixie Chicks, Annie Lennox, The Boss (Bruce Springsteen), Michael Moore, Bill Maher, and others have all been on the receiving end of corporate (USA government driven) censorship, for doing what? Telling the truth. This is no different than the day media demanded the destruction of Lennon’s songs when he urged peace with Yoko Ono. You can watch the free online documentary The US vs. John Lennon.
We Live in Infamous Days
Today, as I write this, it is the 14th of March 2008, and a talented young American man I think a lot of, is celebrating his birthday. As he does the statistics of this illegal war continue to mount and this affects his future in ways I don’t want to imagine.
It’s not just the war and the money and the lives it’s costing today and over the last 5 years, you see. It’s the fact that this war diverts attention from more urgent matters, which the resources directed at war, would be better spent on and applied to.
Blowing up money, just seems so anti-capitalist. And considering poverty and so many other issues that face us as a race moves the topic into the realm of being a moral and intellectual obscenity.
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq “1,185,800″
http://www.justforeignpolicy
~
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America’sWar On Iraq 3,987
http://icasualties.org/oif/
And how many disabled?
The War in Iraq Costs
$502,479,154,611
What could this ridiculously large amount of money do for climate change? Poverty?
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org
These figures reflect only a portion of the true cost of this infamous betrayal of mankind and humanity.
I think we can help Americans reclaim the tattered threads of ideal and character by using our talent to communicate as John and Yoko and so many others, such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, did to help end a war in Vietnam. Let’s claim this Liar’s Day and use it for an entire month to create with our talents a set of work that refocuses attention on the end of war so we can fix the planet. That is our most urgent order of business.
End war. Fix planet.
March 20 will not and can not be a day of glory and triumph for the USA. It’s a day that will live in political and international infamy as a day of weakness. It is a day that will live in infamy politically and militarily just as other days were tarnished with lies that pretended to accrue to themselves some pretense of glory, honor and triumph through the artifice of war.
However, we as Creative Artists can change that idea, calling for an end to war, so that we can focus on the real issues that face humanity.
When an empire dies, we all die inside, as we experience the chilling fragility of our culture, recognize the shocking thin social veneer that covers the corrupt substance of the seething mass of a decadent culture. Corrupt? Yes, a war based on lies is corrupt. We know the invasion of Iraq is based on lies, that even today, a president insists is “just, fair,” and in the “name of freedom and democracy.” This from a man and his repugnant colleagues who stole an election. Oh yes, he surely protects and defends democracy. Pfft!
Creativity vs. Destruction
But we can create something different. Something infinitely more hopeful and desirable. We need not continue to hurtle towards destruction. We just have to change our minds and we do that by communicating and setting an example.
What we, as Creative Artists want is the war to stop, the military industrial media-plex of every nation to turn its budget to addressing pollution, climate change, a corrupt economic system, poverty, crime, violence, and all those things that are driving us to despair.
War is an impediment and the war machines of the major duperpowers (UK, USA, France, China, Russia, India) is an impediment to peace, prosperity and the advance of our humanity. End this stupidity, end this decay.
End these infamous days and make this century, one of human triumph over the apathy and confusion that characterized the past. This is what I believe, we should be inspiring with our work.
When will the infamous daze end? John Lennon had this to say:
“I believe sincerely that as soon as people want peace and are aware that they can have it, that they will have it. The trouble is that they’re not aware that they can get it.” - John Lennon
Awareness is the key. What can you do to create this awareness right now? We want to know.
The Free Articulator is going to be publishing material about some of the great artists who used their platform and ability to freely express the collective desire of men and women of goodwill to be free to pursue, life, liberty and happiness, not death, debt and poverty. We’re doing this to inspire you, so you can inspire others.
The corporations today are censoring artists and are part of the complex system of art & entertainment that is used to keep us marginalized and uninformed. Do not let our voices be silenced. Free art of oppression so we can articulate the visions that ignite ideals and hope. Dreams are better than nightmares.
Creative Artists, do your stuff! End the infamous daze of this society and civilization. Make Peace March 20 a rally for creativity and construction that helps all humanity move together to address the barriers. Making this day important, removes the stigma, and makes what has been destructive to humanity, the reputation of a nation and its people, constructive, creative and a surge for life and survival on our own terms and not those terms dictated to us.
March 20 does not have to live in infamy and mark the shame of a nation, it could mark its turning point and become the turning point of civilization.
Imagine how this could be.
Articulate Now
Create for Peace
End war. Fix the planet.
Join the Peace March 20 Movement
Imagine the world the way we want it.
Put the banners on your sites and link up. Send us your work and we’ll publish and interview the best for all to see and let’s get this civilization back on track, living with nature instead of against it.
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