II. A Story: Inherit the
War
The father has been preparing a war for his son’s
birthday. He started long ago. You have to, you know.
People who decide on a war and expect it to happen
the minute or week or month they want it to are often
disappointed. You also cannot do it alone. The father
has a few friends from his war who are willing to
help out. They have sons, too. There are quite simple
ways to begin-- probably in childhood. For instance,
help the boy develop an easy dislike for your neighbor's
daughter. Mild prejudice will then rest contentedly
in his little breast. As time goes on, it can appear
as nothing worse than sleepy contempt for the girl
next door.
The father remembers his war, how
long it took for his father to get it right.
He was almost too old. (The father and his friends
are now called The Great Generation. This isn't exactly
fair. Their fathers had fought in an equally
famous war, and luckily had survived to provide a
war in turn for this father and his friends.)
This father does need more preparation,
and quickly. His son is growing beautifully, but he's
reading too much. Some of his ideas seem to come from
Leftish media. The schools are also bad, even treacherous.
But the father is sure he can find the old newspapers
he's kept or the right pages of the history book,
which are very clever about enumerating insults to
our national soul and natural hegemony. The recollection
of historical insult is as important in the life of
great nations as their stunning victories.
The father would like his son to
be an airman. Of course, anxiety about civilian deaths--
women and children-- always undercuts the enthusiasm
of sentimental citizens and tenderhearted boys.
He's talked to many other fathers.
They're nearly ready. They've begun their letters
to newspapers, their attacks on the wimps in Congress
and the administration. Most important, they've selected
the enemy and are very clear about it.
The father has only one year left--
before his son’s eighteenth birthday.
His son is not unaware of what is coming. He has that
boyish excitement, that intensifying patriotism--
his own war at last.
III. Is There a Difference
Between Men and Women?
The arms trade. The slave trade. The trade in women’s
bodies.
IV. What Now:
Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies
exist now-- solar, wind-- for every important energy-using
activity in our lives. The only human work that cannot
be done without oil is war.
So men lead us to war for enough
oil to continue to go to war for oil.
I'm now sure that these men can't
stop themselves anymore-- even those who say they
want to. There are too many interesting weapons. Besides,
theirs is a habit of centuries, eons. They will not
break that habit themselves.
For ourselves, for
our girl and boy children, women will have to organize
as we have done before-- and also as we have never
done before-- to break that habit for them, once and
for all.
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