WAR: What is it good for?


                                                Atomic Bomb Blast, Nagasaki Japan, August 1945


St. Patrick's Day arrives,  the crocuses peek out after a Michigan snowstorm on the first day of Spring and a song from my formative years keeps running through my brain:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztZI2aLQ9Sw

This song won a Grammy nomination for Edwin Starr in 1971......A  Motown hit, not a folk/ rock protest song by Bob Dylan or  Joan  Baez.

Quick  research discovers that this song was censored off Clear Channel radio stations after 9-11-2001.

Fast forward to  2024.

Ukraine destruction following Russian invasion

Terrorists in Moscow

Migrants fleeing violence in Central America.

30,000 plus Palestinians killed in Gaza, mostly children.

A congressman's brother killed by his son in Flint after a violent confrontation.

The Academy Award's  Best Picture chronicles the making of the Atomic Bomb  led by "Oppy" who questioned what was unleashed on our world.

WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?



Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 24, 2024 at 4:23 PM

    Thanks, Jim. I’d note that Bruce Springsteen did a great cover version of “War,” too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn91L9goKfQ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 25, 2024 at 8:33 AM

      What a phenomenal rendition of "WAR". by the boss. THANKS!

      Delete
  2. Mark NotmanMarch 24, 2024 at 8:37 PM

    https://images.app.goo.gl/142jVHjArecW3M3a7

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 25, 2024 at 8:34 AM

      Lennon was a prophet and poet and seer, to be sure!

      Delete
  3. AnonymousMarch 25, 2024 at 7:57 AM

    War certainly focuses attention away from other existential problems that need our urgent attention.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 25, 2024 at 8:36 AM

      Henry James told us 100 + years ago we need the "Moral Equivalent of War."

      Delete
  4. AnonymousMarch 26, 2024 at 8:12 AM

    "What is war good for?" Your question reminded me of a book I read about 20 years or so ago, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges (Anchor Books 2002). The title of his book is jarring. Hedges has a theological background as a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. He served as a war correspondent for many years. One quote: "The ethnic conflicts and insurgencies of our time... are not religious wars. They are not clashes between cultures or civilizations, nor are they the result of ancient ethnic hatreds. They are manufactured wars, born out of the collapse of civil societies, perpetuated by fear, greed, and paranoia..."
    Meanwhile, the military, industrial, technological complex keeps going to the bank!
    Floyd

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 27, 2024 at 5:33 AM

    One of the finest books on War EVER.
    Hedges is a prophet who makes the comfortable uncomfortable.

    ReplyDelete

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