[PEN-L:5863] Re: U.S. Military and Its Domestic Effects (was Race, Gender, andGuns)

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What exactly are broad underlying motives ? Are they being opposed to thin surface motives ? What is being said ? That there are some other motives that are more important to understand ? What are they and why are they more important than those listed below , sexism , racism, militarism ?
So, we add capitalism , with its engendering a dog-eat-dog, rat race, lonliness and alienation. That isn't being emphasized in the news reports. What should the news reports emphasize if not these important and widespread social diseases that were expressed to different degrees in the young minds of the murderers. The killers did not make themselves into killers. How did they get that way , and why does it not seem that far from the typical, just an extreme case of what is troubling many others ?

Charles Brown

>>> Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx> 04/23/99 08:12PM >>>
WDK wrote:
>For what it's worth, my
>opinion is you're all off base about broad underlying motives (such as
>racism, sexism, militarism, etc.) of Klebold and Harris.

I don't argue that the above are underlying 'motives,' but I think it is
important to think of, for instance, the likely effects that the
maintenance of a gigantic standing army has had on American culture, male
socialization, etc.

"Eric's father, Wayne, is a decorated Air Force pilot who retired as a
major in 1993 after 20 years of service..." (4/23/1999, New York Times,
A17).

And remember Timothy McVeigh's military background? I also hear that on the
violent fringe of the anti-abortion movement there have been many who have
passed through the military.

"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle
is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my
life. Without me my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I
must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is
trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will. Before God
I swear this creed: My rifle and myself are defenders of my country." (from
Stanley Kubrick's _Full Metal Jacket_)

I think that socialists, as a matter of principles, should object to a
gigantic and professional standing army, especially the US military with
its foreign bases all over the world, firstly because of the uses to which
it has been put, secondly because it misshapes many who are employed in it
(both when its ideological control succeeds and when it fails).

Yoshie