Do something.

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2 Comments

  1. Posted 10/31/2007 at 7:25 am | Permalink

    Here’s the thing:

    The level of engagement of young people in war protest varies tremendously, and it varied quite a bit during the Viet Nam era, too. Here, with that quaint liberal arts school U of Michigan just down the road, there’s lots of opportunity to “do something,” though I would agree the protests aren’t as dramatic or visible. So part of what this guy has got to do is look around a bit more.

    The second thing is we don’t have a draft, which has two key impacts on resisting war (particularly stupid wars like this one). First off, there’s no fear from today’s college students about getting shipped off to Viet Nam, and let’s be clear: the draft-aged people protesting the war and the draft in the 1960s where not doing so for purely idealistic reasons. They had extremely real and personal reasons for wanting to protest. Second, today’s “all volunteer” military might be more professional than it once was, but it is also largely made up of a social class of people that are distinct from the sorts that end up in universities. So again, the motivation these folks have to protest are quite a bit smaller.

    It’s not that I completely disagree with the sentiments being expressed by this guy; it’s just that I don’t think it’s fair for him or anyone else to just blame “the kids today.”

  2. enfield
    Posted 10/31/2007 at 8:34 am | Permalink

    Steven makes a few comments that I take issue with. He says “particularly stupid wars like this one” without explaining why this war is somehow stupid. So, to make the same declaration without justification, I’ll just say that this war is not stupid, it’s just.

    Secondly, he says that the people who have volunteered for the military are largely a different social class than the sort of folks that end up in university. That’s sort of a veiled way of trying to delicately say that soldiers are poor and dumb. I recall that John Kerry made that same mistake and ending up being made fun of until he tried to claim he was misunderstood, and then apologized. http://www.passionateamerica.com/pictures/halp_us_02.jpg

    I have no problem with this videomaker blaming the youth. He’s trying to motivate them through accusation, and then tempt them with the possibility of sexual interaction. If the youth don’t respond, then it just shows they’ve got more sense than this fellow who must have then failed to get his message to resonate.

    This guy is laughable in that he quotes RFK, and says “they killed him.” The ‘they’ to which he refers is probably the military industrial complex that he’s directing all his anger at, but in reality RFK was murdered by an arab christian (palestinian), Sirhan Sirhan.

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