The phrase "freedom fighters?" has become synonymous with defenders of "American Corporate Hegemony." But we are a eusocial species, and all we need is a rallying cry and a fine poster to get us to act like fools. Only a fool would willingly put their life at risk for Halliburton's profits.
Mark Twain remarked that as a young man when new civil war recruits came proudly marching through his town in their new uniforms his heart swelled with pride and he too wanted to join them. He did in fact briefly join up with the Marion County, Missouri Rangers but then, apparently, after two weeks of "camping out" the noble feelings left him. His rag tag, rebel outfit was quickly scattered by advancing union troops. He "retired" from war service and spent the war years with his brother Orion in the Nevada territory. We should all pause long enough for the noble feelings to subside.
Late in life the seventy-year-old Mark Twain penned his war prayer which was published posthumously. Here is an excerpt which will remind us of why we must be weary of slick posters glorifying war. It is a most difficult challenge to fight our innate eusocial instincts with every once of intellectual strength our species has acquired.
“Oh Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. [H]elp us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief . . . blast their hopes, blight their lives . . . stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it in the spirit of Love . . . Amen.”
