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Guest Post: We [Don’t] Take Care of Our Own
Submitted by Ben Tanosborn
We [Don’t] Take Care of Our Own
A generation ago Bruce Springsteen was socio-serenading us with what soon was to become the iconic song, “Born in the USA.” And now, seven presidential elections later, he’ll likely be sending his message with the song, “We Take Care of Our Own.”
Although the message in 1984 was inconceivably misconstrued and misappropriated by conservatives then – Ronald Reagan, running that year for his second term in office, among them – this time around, as made visually clear in the video released a month ago, Springsteen is giving us the lyrics in his video underlined from beginning to end with a clear message: Ignore the words at your own peril.
No hidden or subliminal message from the “Boss”. To most of us, it was clear in 1984, and it is clear today, what the laments were in post-Vietnam America… or what the dire struggles are today, both material and spiritual, all summed in the song with the missing “don’t”:
“Wherever this flag’s flown we [don’t] take care of our own”
No, Americans, singularly among people of the so-called First World, don’t take care of their own. Half of America is in poverty, and few among the other half care or much give a damn about the situation, resorting to blaming it all on a lamentably greedy “one-percent.” They prefer not to look in the mirror, naked… knowing full well how ugly they look in their obesity, exhibiting both, layers of fat and lack of cojones.
But if the civilian poor yells “help” but the cavalry stays home, as Springsteen tells us in his song… the culture in the military is quite different. They do take care of their own.
Soldiering America dutifully lets you know that no American military member will be left behind; and the nation seems to find idiotic pride in such a vainglorious act… for at the end of the day, it’s all it is. It is to honor the empire, the symbolism, and not for the love of the fallen or captured comrade at arms. That’s the meaning in the military of “we take care of our own.” Our soldiers are exempt from responsibility to anything they might do, any crimes they might commit against the yellow or Muslim man they’ve been sent to kill; children and women not to be excluded, nor the old nor the sick. Yes, Americans can take care of their own and they have… from the hamlets of MyLai to Haditha to the unnamed village in Kandahar where the latest act of American criminality took place; in America’s military culture, the only clear-cut crime is that committed against their own.
Somehow, in some fashion, any criminality committed against foreign friend of foe, no matter how despicable, how heinous the crime, always finds an irrefutable defense in combat stress symptoms which appear as anger, anxiety and depression… which becomes a perfect defense if such symptoms are linked to a recent death of a comrade, or the accused has served in too many combat tours. Of course, such symptoms probably apply to half or more of the military population, which is in effect telling us that given the nature of war, and how the Pentagon is allowed to conduct it (financial considerations forcing multiple combat tours), the American soldier is for all intents and purposes, a priori, free from being found guilty of any crime – more specifically, capital crime – unless such crime is perpetrated against his comrades or adversely affects U.S. national security.
Sergeant Bales, assuming he is found to be the only soldier involved in the recent massacre in Afghanistan, will not be paying for the horrific incident, whether innocent or guilty of such a crime; such determination in military justice likely to take many years. The Pentagon’s convenient refracting transparency will make sure that such is the case.
That brings us to the question of who the criminals are. Well, the criminals can be seen when we look ourselves in the mirror: the criminals are simply us. Not the President, nor Congress, nor the bemedaled pit-bulls staffing the Pentagon… they are simply the hangmen we choose to carry our criminal acts. The criminals are us who allow ourselves to be governed by a warmongering, elitist gang serving special interests and not the people, the commons.
If we lack the conscience and compassion to take care of our own, should anyone expect us to take care of others… walk around the world imparting social justice? Yes, Boss, we are, unfortunately, ignoring the words in your song at our own peril.
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Need more data to reply meaningfully: How do you define government?
(Hint: If you define it by its current purpose, role and behaviour, what you say makes sense. If not however, it is a false generalization and quite lazy thinking.)
What happens if you do not pay property tax or some other miscellaneous tax?....idiot.
This post is awesome!
I'm so disappointed that my two links on HUAC don't cultivate negative red arrows. I was hoping to outdo my links supporting our military. Just for shits & giggles, tag me for -120 points. I’ll be checking in the morning. For those who have been frothing at the mouth, our highly trained soldiers will have no mercy on you. I follow the law, you have attempted to change the law for a debased currency sum. Life will not be so rosy for you. God Bless our troops.
Nicely played.
I was conscripted by the angels to later be called an American. Thanks to the globalists my service is about complete.
q99x2:
Thanks for solving the riddle posed by so many commenters here.
We don't take care of our own because we have no coherent sense of national identity. America has always been a seething mass of seperate ethnic and social groups. It all hung together in the past because there was plenty of wealth to go around. A continent to rape. A world to exploit once hegemony was established after WWII. But now the wealth is shrinking and things are fraying fast.
When you use the word "WE", feel free to speak about yourself. I stopped being part of the "WE" crowd years ago, along with a large number of like minded individuals. Don't include us in your analysis of collective US stupidity.
We are glad YOU are keeping YOUR stupidity to yourself.
Don't call for help.
What a mindless post.
We need to realize health care is about self-responsibility (exercise, diet, natural health--not refined foods, not chemicals, not pill popping). Socialization of sick care (i.e. Obamacare) will not make people healthier as it continues the same broken paradigm of chemical, pill pushing and will make our issues even worse as individuals no longer bear the cost of their own health actions--"might as well smoke if everyone else is going to pay for it anyway." Look at Europe to see the debt and bad effects caused from even these 'semi-socialist' economies. It's because of socialistic policies & entitlements + fascist/corporatist big government bailouts for the banking class that have make their economies broke.
This is exactly happening in the US now too with the only exception that our day of reckoning and period of pain will come later than Europe since we have the privilege of having the reserve currency of the world so our problems come home to roost later.
You want to fix health care?--change the paradigm to natural health, exercise, and self-responsibility. Socialism of sickcare is another step in the wrong direction that will just cost more money, leave people sicker, and give the government excuse to meddle in our lives and privacy (nationalized health care records) and individual freedoms b/c now, as a socialized system, it is everyone's problem.
You want jobs? Get the gov't off our backs with it's thousands of forms and regulations. I have two businesses that I haven't launched b/c of the regulatory risk (FDA with natural health products, FTC with label claims & marketing, IRS for taxation, local gov'ts with taxation of food vs non-food and ~800+ local option sales tax jurisdictions to figure out that aren't by city, aren't by zip code...) and burden & hassles (countless taxing, forms, regulations). It's just not worth it to me anymore to have to figure it all our anymore, to take all the risk, give 50% to the government, and have to worry about not having filed the right form, collected the right local option sales tax for products shipped within the ~800+ different local option sales tax jurisdictions in my area, the different tax for food and non-food items... and so and so on. The worry is going to give me an ulcer. So instead I just don't start the businesses--that's growth we could have had and jobs that I'd love to create that won't be created all because the over-grown and over-reaching government with its laughably convoluted tax and regulatory code that makes it all but impossible. It'd be funny, if it weren't true.
So in other news...I'm expatriating! (Our founding fathers were expatriates, remember—true freedom-seeking individuals.) I want to come back and start businesses in the states, but can't deal with the US federal government anymore or the worry they cause me. It hurts my spirit to see the lack of freedoms & increasing totalitarianism in the US. It pains me that people such as the author of this post don't realize that our two biggest problems in the US are 1) the Federal Reserve and its fiat currency system with theft by inflation, and 2.) big government, which exists of and for itself these days, creating laws & a plethora of complicated forms just to ensure that everyone is a 'criminal', steals via taxes for its power and gives away money just to win votes via bread and circuses like ancient Rome. Neither of these, the Federal Reserve or big gov't, will go away on their own choice.
We have two choices--1) Ron Paul & shrink the system, or 2) opt out of the system, don't feed the beast and let it fail under its own unsustainable weight given the government has us headed there anyway.
If only those in government jobs that read this would heed their heart and morality and realize that government is the problem. Quit and fight to shrink the gov't. Let's be productive with our lives. Let's create value. Let's take care of our own health & family with self-responsibility. Let's restore freedom.
Let me ask you a question, and I don't mean to belittle your post in any way because for the most part I agree with what you've said. Can you explain the dichotomy that the United States spends the most per capita on health care, and yet does not produce the best outcomes in terms of any OECD indicator? Is it simply the added expense of shareholder profit or something more insidious (like profit motive=keeping people sick)?
I often wonder why US citizens are not much more healthy considering your cost/benefit motive above.
The statistics are manipulated to achieve the desired outcome.
if you're honest with yourself, you'll admit the "health care system" is a huge, profitable scam.
if you look at this from a "just the facts" angle, the expenditure is the goal, and the patient is the conduit - from the low quality toxic corporate fud-stuffs, to the low quality environment (water, air, etc.) - the goal is ill-health, the goal is forcing people to subscribe to a doctor and inhale the costly poisons, slowly, incrementally over time, maximise the profits. . .
the amrkn feedlots are a PRIME example of this profit making venture - grow 'em, pump 'em full of chemicals & antibiotics - slaughter, and profit! the human part of that loop is to ingest the slaughter'd, and subscribe for even more meds to mitigate the circulating toxins.
it's all about the profits though.
Two stats that help clarify your question:
1) Nearly all the extra expenditure in the USA compared to socialized medicine in other countries is accounted for in the last 2 years of a person's life. IOW, bureaucracies in socialized medicine do not spend money on old, dying people who contract ailments of various sorts.
2) There is a fallacy between equating health care expenditure with longevity or even 'healthy.' This fallacy is extended when we compare the American melting pot with other nations who are less so.
I think that you are wrong on that. The extraordinary relations between the government and the business sector enabled the financial crisis and protected the so called "criminals" in doing what they were doing. The common American citizen has nothing to do with it. I consider it oversimplification. In the US electoral system, you can choose between Democrats and Republicans. Both of them proved unable to govern well. So if you don´t consider a revolution as means to change the government, then there is not much to do from the position of an ordinary citizen. When Obama bailed out big banks (which was referred to as Privatizing Profits, Socializing Losses), people were surprised. After three and half year of his "Yes we can" government, nobody cares anymore. People were tricked, but people are too naive to care!
God is first, my family second, and I am third.
I refuse to let anyone or anything stop me from what I was created to do - to love my God and to take care of those I love or those who cannot help themselves. Do not let the failings of the world replace the blessings. Because if we let that happen, "they" have won.
Mmmm....stuck in the "they" trap of dualistic platitude. Don't worry...you'll never run out of "they"s to excuse your failings.
Satan is my whipping boy.
I think that we need to spend some more time talking about what an asshole Bruce Springsteen is.
You mean the "holier than thou" Boss? He's just a tool for the mindless masses, and he's never looked in a mirror. Same level as those in Hollywood.
The best part of the '90's-NO Springsteen! One of the lesser bad consequences of 9/11- he crawled back out in to the public eye.
now its an election year. He'll be all over the place. Go away Bruce!
What have any of you done in the last 24 hours to make your little corner of the world a better place? There are plenty of oppourtunities to volunteer your time and talents. Go for it.
When an American soldier misbehaves......that's news ! Monedas 2012 That pretty much sums it up.....Socialist, dog shit eating scum !
Years ago, before the advent of the socialist welfare state, families, the church, and communities took care of the poor and neglected. Those in need were not part of some amorphous mass but friends, neighbors, and family with names whose situations who were well known. In the last 80 years, we have disconnected people from their ties to those traditional sources of assistance and inserted the state in their place. Families no longer live intergenerationally. People often move many times in their working lives. Many times they don't even know their neighbors. The church, in addition to being its own worst enemy, has been assaulted by our culture as much as the ACLU. It no longer seems relevant to many people. And worse still, the generousity that used to flow from individual to individual has been supplanted by "welfare" from the state. And don't we all know that what becomes everyone's responsiblity becomes no one's responsiblity. We should not be surprised by this turn of events. The state has become the giver of warmth and succour. It is my brother's keeper. Things are unfolding exactly as our masters envisioned. Welcome to the New World Order.
yup, more of the benefits of socialism.
Without comment;
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/when-americans-mad...
Our National Identity is always morphing because we are the world's laboratory for cultural, ethnic and religious assimilation ! Most xenophobic societies are a century or two behind our leadership in the ways of enlightened grace ! Monedas 2012 Bruce Sprungspring is a low grade moron !
"Soilders are nothing but pawns for foreign policy". Henry Kissinger
Smedley Butler had a real Awakeing.
In a perfect world.....Obama would have to serve soldier Bates' sentence ! Monedas 2011 That would be the decent thing to do !
My neighbour was a young, obese, naive, pot-smoking burnout who had 7 people living in a 1 room apartment. He played video games connected to his subwoofer at 3AM in the morning. Him and his roommates threw burning cigarettes onto the cedar stairway. The pot smoke was so thick it was permeating the walls of the apartment. One of his roommates had two dogs that were never fed. One morning at about 2AM, it sounded like the bigger dog was trying to kill the smaller dog. That went on for about an hour despite the fact someone was there and apparently sleeping. They never took them out and on at least one occasion they pissed on the balcony and onto the doorway of our neighbour below. Finally, management gave them a 24 hour eviction notice after ALL of them combined couldn't pay the $350 monthly rent. Twenty-two hours later they finally woke up and started moving out... by throwing all of their shit down the stairway onto the grass. There they sat all evening, laughing and giggling and having a good'ole time. Around 8PM one of them (I'm guessing he's the Einstein of the group) suggested it was time for them to find a place to stay for the night so they put their shit into their cars and drove off.
This is just a fraction of the bullshit that went on. Oh, and you want to hear the best part? They were college students. Now how am I suppose to be neighbourly and help people like that? I'd really like to know.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are fucked.
No, actually, it is the 1% who get access to free printed money who are impoverishing everyone else and changing our culture. You can blow your Socialist crap out your ass. And the Army does not take care of its own, for your information, so save the recruitment pitch.
Quoting Springsteen?! You gotta be kidding. Don't you have a playground to "occupy"?
This loads slow, well worth it. Side by side columns; The Republic vs THE CORPORATION http://www.usavsus.info/
I like Ike!
IMO. the media divides the world very oddly ... by location. It seems to me that there are many others ways to divide the population... most importantly by those who have no need for being ruled and those who insist that they have a god given right to rule and persecute others.
The way in which the U.S. has chosen to "fight" in Afghanistan totally belies the thesis of this post. We have the capability of obliterating every soul there, but we don't. We instead operate under a set of rules of engagement which increases the risks to our soldiers immensely.