As a veteran, I’ve realized the country I fought for is no longer a democracy — but something far more sinister
Staff Sergeant Stehval* had an alleged 56 kills.
His room was no more than 75 square feet, complete with white concrete walls, peeling and faded from the Iraqi sun. Black tally marks scribbled above his cot indicated the weaponry he used for each shot. A .50 caliber sniper rifle, M24, or a modified M16 with an adjustable gas block each carried the death warrant of an Iraqi man, woman, or sometimes a child carrying an IED./.../
********************
n one of his famous works from the 1800s, Democracy in America, French diplomat and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville explains a process similar to the one we’re seeing today. In de Tocqueville’s words, here is how democracy becomes tyranny:
Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.
De Tocqueville’s statement is prophetic. Today, because Big Brother is always watching, we warp footage however we deem fit — as in January’s face-off between Covington students and a Native elder at the Lincoln Memorial — to tell a false narrative while powerful tech giants reap the benefits. We shout at companies like Facebook and Amazon that something has to change and read books like 1984, scared that it is becoming reality.
***************************
At the height of the Peloponnesian War, a 37-year-old hoplite distinguished himself in battle, even earning praise from an Athenian general. The soldier’s name was Socrates.
Historians credit Socrates as being one of the founders of Western and moral philosophy, but what most people don’t know is that he wrote nothing. His pupil, Plato — who also served as a soldier — collected all his musings. Both philosophers are widely known for the way they challenged system of governments, injustice, and the city-state. Influenced by Socrates, Plato wrote The Republic in 380 B.C. to explore themes we still consider relevant in modern democratic institutions.
In one of his more famous musings from the book, Plato asks what would happen if someone picked the captain of their ship based on their accumulated wealth, instead of a poor man who would make a better captain. He concludes it would doom the voyage, and thus the same is true of ruling a city. His concept later formed the ideals of what’s known as a plutocracy — a society governed by the wealthy. Later, Plato’s understudy, Aristotle, expanded on that idea and pioneered the term oligarchy — in which power rests with a small group of elites linked via wealth, family, education, corporations, or religious/political affiliation.
As a veteran and American, this is the conundrum I feel many of us now face: love of country but disappointment in its government.
No comments:
Post a Comment