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November 2005,
Volume 13 Nr. 18, Issue 186
Ubiquitous Culture
of Death and Violence
Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski
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I grew up in what most non-city folk would call a
"big" city. After all, Jersey City, New Jersey, has a
population that is one-half that of the entire state of Vermont. Growing up in
"Joisey City" in the sixties meant living daily with
violence in the streets. The street violence was supplanted and
perhaps fostered by the racism, violence and killing seen daily on
television. I remember my mother, a working class immigrant,
complaining about the language children used while they played in the
street. Often, that language was directed at the "green
horns" of eastern European decent. Since my family is from
Romania and Poland I became too familiar with the term. When my
mother complained about the children's language she was not referring to their poor choice of vocabulary, the
four-letter words we commonly hear today. She was referring to
violent phrases, especially, "I will kill you!" Even in jest, when a
child would disagree with another, they would often shake their fist and say,
"I will kill you". This made my mother extremely
uncomfortable. Her discomfort didn't register much with those of
us dodging gangs in the neighborhood or coming home with their lips
busted open, or heads bleeding with welts. This was the way of
the streets in the New World and we adjusted. It was the way of the popular culture
as reflected in the television programs we watched and the
magazines we saw on the racks. I vividly recall the
comic books in the racks on the walls of Herbie's candy store on Grove
Street in downtown Jersey City. The one that sticks out in my
mind is "Man Comics" which depicted barely clothed women
tied up being "interrogated" by men in black Nazi uniforms
with weapons. Torture and sex was a potent mix then as it is
now. Few people besides my mother in the early sixties concerned
themselves about often hearing "I
will kill you". Ethnic slurs were rampant also.
Italians were called Wops. Poles were called Pollacks.
Jews were called Kikes. Hispanics were called Spics. We
all know what African Americans and women were called. The culture
speaks for
itself.
The popular television programs of the sixties
included: Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, the Rifleman, The Saint,
Dragnet, Cheyenne, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaii Five-O, The Fugitive,
FBI, The Streets of San Francisco, Combat, I Spy, etc. Very
young children laughed watching violent cartoons such as Looney Tunes
where Elmer Fud shoots carrot eating Bugs Bunny over and over again. Saturday morning cartoons then, as now,
were de rigueur for
young children growing up in the United States. One would think
that forty-years worth of "enlightenment" would have changed
the violent culture. It has. The violence is more graphic
and it has been supplanted with product placement that blurs the
boundaries between entertainment and advertising. Everything
we see on television is more than the product of its creators.
It is the product of the advertising industry and its commercial
interests who have little regard for the viewer. Biased producers of
television programming have little interest in viewers aside from that
necessitated by the profit motive. Sex and violence grabs the
viewers' attention. Often, the violence emotional and is
directed both outwardly or inward. It is at the moment of
mesmerization that advertisers seize the opportunity to sell the
product. The product can be material, a viewpoint, or Big
Brother's propaganda. Today, tens-of-millions of dollars are
spent annually on selling the public the government's lies.
Selling antiperspirant or a bag of potato chips is done in much the
same manner as is selling the war on Iraq. Military recruiting
is another example of selling lies. Glorified cannon fodder is
presented in exciting ways that appeal to young people's fantasies of
excitement and adventure. Never mind that military recruiters
confabulate and espouse patriotism as the bottom line in meeting their monthly
enlistment quotas. The culture of violence and death will do
whatever it takes to enlist new adherents. Through the media we
are acculturated to hating the enemy as easily as hating
ourselves. And, the media defines the enemy. We must never forget that commercial television is a
business where something is always being sold. Since our culture
is capitalist, it is one of continuous and ubiquitous
selling. The con job is as an United States institution. Our culture portrays
violence as glamorous. It teaches us that violence is the
way to resolve conflicts. Where else did the children of my youth
learn to say "I will kill you" after all? Today, that
message is more prevalent than ever. Video games, TV
and movies make sure of that. The emotional shock of violence,
of seeing blood and guts, sells. A culture saturated with media
violence compels the producers to raise the level of the
violence. Over time, public insensitivity to violence and death
requires that they be exposed to more of each to achieve the same
effect. How wonderful,
after all, was the government produced media program called
"Shock and Awe"? It played for months. How
glorious was the regime's war of choice on Iraq with its orchestrator,
the "commander-in-chief", smirking "Bring it
on!' So then, where is the
physical evidence for United States' culture being a ubiquitous
culture of violence and death? Consider the following from the www.historyguy.com
website:
| The
American Revolution |
1775-1783 |
| The
Indian Wars |
1775-1890 |
| Shay's
Rebellion |
1786-1787 |
| The
Whiskey Rebellion |
1794 |
| Quasi-War
With France (Naval) |
1798-1800 |
| Fries's
Rebellion "The Hot Water War" |
1799 |
| The
Barbary Wars |
1800-1815 |
| The
War of 1812 |
1812-1815 |
| Mexican-American
War |
1846-1848 |
| U.S.
Slave Rebellions |
1800-1865 |
| "Bleeding
Kansas" (Civil war Kansas) |
1855-1860 |
| Brown's
Raid on Harper's Ferry |
1859 |
| United
States Civil War |
1861-1865 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Hawaiian Revolution |
1893 |
| The
Spanish-American War |
1898 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Samoan Civil War |
1898-1899 |
| U.S.-Philippine
War |
1899-1902 |
| Boxer
Rebellion |
1900 |
| The
Moro Wars |
1901-1913 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Panamanian Revolution |
1903 |
| The
Banana Wars |
1909-1933 |
| U.S.
Occupation of Vera Cruz |
1914 |
| Pershing's
Raid Into Mexico |
1916-1917 |
| World
War I |
1917-1918
(USA involvement only) |
| Allied
Intervention in Russian Civil War |
1919-1921 |
| World
War II |
1941-1945
(USA involvement only) |
| The
Cold War |
1945-1991 |
| The
Korean War |
1950-1953 |
| The
Second Indochina War "Vietnam War" |
1956-1975 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Lebanon |
1958 |
| Dominican
Intervention |
1965 |
| The
Mayaguez Rescue Operation |
1975
(May 15) |
| Iranian
Hostage Crisis and Rescue Attempt-- "Desert One" or
"Operation Eagle Claw" |
1980
(April 25) |
| U.S.
Libya Conflict |
1981,
1986 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Lebanon |
1982-1984 |
| U.S.
Invasion of Grenada |
1983 |
| The
Tanker War. "Operation Earnest Will" |
1987-1988 |
| U.S.
Invasion of Panama |
1989 |
| Second
Persian Gulf War "Operation Desert Storm" |
1991 |
| "No-Fly
Zone" War |
1991-2003 |
| U.S.
Intervention in Somalia |
1992-1994 |
| NATO
Intervention in Bosnia (Operation Deliberate Force) |
1994-1995 |
| U.S.
Occupation of Haiti |
1994 |
| U.S.
Embassy bombings and strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan (The bin
Laden War) |
August,
1998 |
| "Desert
Fox" Campaign (part of U.S./Iraq Conflict) |
December,
1998 |
| Kosovo
War |
1999 |
| Attack
on the USS Cole |
October
12, 2000 |
| Attack
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon |
September
11, 2001 |
| Afghanistan
War (Operation Enduring Freedom) |
October
7, 2001-Present |
| Third
Persian Gulf War "Operation Iraqi Freedom" |
March
19, 2003-Present |
| Intervention
in Haiti |
March,
2004 |
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In addition to the above wars, there are the wars on alcohol
(prohibition), the war on communism, the war on poverty, the war on
illiteracy, the war on
drugs, the war on obesity, the war on terrorism, etc. It is as
if the United States like the kids of my youth is saying
to everyone that disagrees with it or doesn't fit into the cultural
paradigm, "I will kill you!". And kill it does.
In case we haven't noticed those people to whom we have been saying
"I will kill you!" to for so long are saying it back to
us. And, they are doing it. What the United States
desperately needs is peace with itself and with the world.
Our pResident, George W. Bush, tells us
that he speaks to Jesus. I wonder if the dialogue ever includes
Mathew 26:15 when it purports Jesus as saying, "Put
your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the
sword"? I doubt it since the United States is so permeated
with the culture of violence and death that its major religion has
forgotten that its central figure, Jesus Christ, the "prince of
peace" was killed by crucifixion. Jesus was murdered by the
State. As governor of Texas,
George W. Bush signed many execution orders forgetting that it was
capital punishment that put Jesus to death. The pervasiveness of
"I will kill you" even as I promote freedom is embedded in
this White House. I can't imagine Jesus today supporting George
W. Bush and Dick Cheney's war of choice on Iraq. So, George and
Dick, since "if you're not with us then you are against us"
is your mantra, what side does this place your Savior on? I'll
tell you where it places Him. It places Him behind bars for He
would today be racially profiled by homeland security and arrested as
a national security risk. Perhaps, He would even be deported to
some country in eastern Europe where other Christian governments can
torture Him. Imagine the headlines, "Jesus Extremely
Renditioned!" Two countries recently cited for carrying out
torture in our name through extreme rendition are Poland and Romania.
Thank you George. You
would think such old cultures would know better given their history
and experience with oppression.
In the 21st century, we continue living
with violence in our streets and in the media, and with violence in
our hearts. For how long can a nation so nefarious and vicious avoid
its self-destruction? William Greider in "The End of
Empire" (The Nation, September 23, 2002) writes,
The US financial position is rapidly
deteriorating, due mainly to America's persistent and growing trade
deficit. US ambitions to run the world, in other words, are heavily
mortgaged. Like any debtor who borrows more year after year with no
plausible way to reverse the trend, a nation sinking deeper into
debt enters into an adverse power relationship with its
creditors--greater and greater dependency.
The creditors Greider is referring to
are more and more looking like the adversaries of the future.
Greider points out that "Instead of reformulating global
governance to share power and burdens more broadly...America still
acts as if it runs things--alone." We can after all at any
time tell them, "I will kill you." But, we all know
what happens in time to the bully that uses the bully line once too
often. The empire, like the bully, sooner or later fades
away.
All, with the lapse of Time, have
passed away,
Even as the clouds, with dark and dragon shapes,
Or like vast promontories crown'd with towers,
Cast their broad shadows on the downs: then sail
Far to the northward, and their transient gloom
Is soon forgotten.
(from Beachy Head by Charlotte
Smith)
© 2005
Jozef
Hand-Boniakowski, PhD
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