We’ve seen another “patriotic” holiday come and go, and with it the same obligatory maudlin comments from local TV news anchors about troops overseas “defending our freedom.” Just like we saw on Memorial Day, and just like we’ll see again on Veterans’ Day.
Grade AAA, prime, unadulterated, 99 and 44/100% buncombe, of course. Soldiers don’t “defend our freedom.” They serve the state and fight its wars, and the state isn’t exactly interested — the understatement of a millennium — in our freedom.
Wars are started by states, in pursuit of their own agendas. War is simply another instrument of state policy, as Clausewitz noted 200 years ago. And the state’s policies are oriented toward serving the constellation of class interests that controls it. In case you didn’t notice, you and I don’t figure very prominently in that constellation. The Fortune 500, finance-capital and the military-industrial complex, yes. Us, no. As George Carlin put it, it’s a big club, and you and I are not in it.
So the wars the U.S. government fights overseas — and the soldiers who do the actual fighting, however sincere their motives may be — are fought mainly for the freedom of Boeing, Monsanto, Cargill, Blackwater, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Sony, Disney and Microsoft. And to stamp out freedom wherever in the world it may threaten the profits of those companies.
If you believe freedom is something granted by states and other forms of authority, out of the goodness of their hearts, you’re sadly mistaken. And if you call yourself a “small government conservative” yet worship authority in the guise of armed and uniformed state functionaries — the very means by which the state enforces its authority — you’re delusional or worse.
As anarchist Rudolf Rocker argued, our freedom results, not from the state, but from the people’s willingess to defy authority and to resist its encroachments on our freedom. Far from being granted by the state and defended by its armed functionaries, our rights exist because we forced them on the state — very much against its will — from below. And we keep those rights, not because American troops kick down doors in Baghdad or drones massacre wedding parties in Afghanistan, but because ordinary people raise hell and refuse to obey the state here at home.
Every “patriotic” holiday, columnists and editorial page editors trot out that same tiresome column: “It’s not the protestor that gives us free speech, it’s the soldier …” That’s exactly backward. None of our wars abroad has a thing to do with defending our freedom here at home. And if the military is ever employed domestically, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be employed to suppress our freedom at gunpoint.
Every single bit of freedom we have comes from the troublemakers, rabble-rousers, pariahs, the people utterly devoid of respectability — the Dirty Effing Hippies, in Nixon’s parlance — and their willingness to say things the government doesn’t want them to. Our freedom is expanded and defended by the very types of people who are spat upon — run out on a rail — by “good respectable citizens,” and tossed in jail by local cops. Our freedoms come from the people who were imprisoned by John Adams under the Sedition Act, the thousands of Wobblies who packed local jails during the Free Speech Campaign, and Breanna Manning who is tortured daily in prison for exposing the American government’s war crimes to the world.
The attitude of respectable people — the very people most apt to smugly quote that “it’s not the protestor” column, in fact — toward the actual defenders of our freedom was expressed by the mayor of a Midwestern city back in the 1920s: “Any time I hear somebody talking about freedom of speech, or the bill of rights, I think, ‘That man is a God-damned Red.’ No good American talks that way.”
So if you love your freedom, don’t thank a soldier. Thank a dirty effing hippie.
Translations for this article:
Who is this Breanna Manning character?
Of course I agree with this post, but I think you are unwittingly accepting part of the state's message. It's not Boeing, Monsanto, Cargill, Blackwater, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Sony, Disney and Microsoft that control the government, it's a group of families with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, DuPont, Bush, Gates, etc. These are the people we need to be calling out. The corporations are fictions. They are convenient shields to deflect the anger of the masses from the real people behind the curtain.
i tried looking up that mayor quote but couldn't find it. I'd love to know if that was a chicago mayor! Thanks!!-BTW, great article!
Thanks for another fine post, Kevin. One should never conflate love of country or community with love of the state. And your mention of the Wobblies reminded me that I need to join IWW ASAP. The IWW take on the workplace represents what should be the "economic program" (I know their could be many programs, of course) for anarchism, in my opinion. Don't be satisfied w/ begging the employer for better benefits or a raise (which is the thrust of mainstream Progressivism), take over your workplace. It's your labor and your time, for god's sake, so you should have a real (read: democratic) say in how you put it to use.
It's a female alter ego of Bradley Manning. Apparently he has gender identity issues.
My recent post Click one of the post titles above to include it at the end of your comment
Yes, absolutely. The use of government created "corporations" is one of the main shields used by the high level criminals of the world. I wish more people would remember what you point out.
Manning has said "the CPU doesn't fit the motherboard", which seems to imply B. Manning is Breanna, a transwoman trapped in the body of Bradley, a biological male. Manning's Wikipedia page claims that she feared being defined by a picture of Bradley as a man being thrown everywhere in the press.
Not to mention the right to the FULL reward for one's labor.
Whether in a democratically run worker's syndic as you describe, a small collective, a collaborative venture on the net (i.e. free, libre, open source software), or self-employment, down with the boss!
Crushing free speech, yet another violation of our rights. The gov’t constantly violates our rights.
They violate the 1st Amendment by caging protesters and banning books like "America Deceived II".
They violate the 4th and 5th Amendment by allowing TSA to grope you.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting undeclared wars.
Impeach Obama, support Ron Paul.
Last link of "America Deceived II" before it is completely banned:
http://www.amazon.com/America-Deceived-II-Possess…
Eh, sorry. Unimpressed with that right-populist stuff.
I never thought I was a "right populist" but if opposing brutality against protesters, and opposing the TSA as well as undeclared wars makes me a "right-populist" I guess that's what I am.
More to the point, its only morons who think they can refute someone by slapping a label on their words, its only slightly more intelligent than blatant name-calling but its just as transparent.
I admit I cannot understand your inane chatter but my guess is it's mostly written by people who are carrier students on the gov. dime and never worked a day in their lves.( the' take over' crowed ).They border on socialism wannabees.Get a life and a job!!
Right on target, Kevin. Only law-breakers can be free.
It's admirable that you admit your ignorance. Whether or not you choose to remain so will test both your character and your intelligence.
Anyone who thinks Kevin is an advocate of living off the state's largesse might want to read more of what's posted at C4SS.org.
Fair enough.
I forgot to mention, of course, co-ops.
And, apologies to distributists (I do like those guys). Family-run businesses count too.
Kevin, great article!
*And WHEN the military HAS BEEN employed domestically, IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN employed to suppress our freedom at gunpoint.*
It's not as if troops haven't ever been used right here in Amuuricuh. It actually hasn't even been particularly rare.
Can I get that original Rudolf Rocker quote that you refer to? Google has given me nothing