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Recent
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April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
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the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
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The Telltale Signs of Empire
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April 12,
2003
Dissent
During Wartime
What
Is the Greatest Treason?
by
HENRY MILLER
Editors' Note: What follows is a brief but
biting excerpt from one of our favorite books, The
Air-Conditioned Nightmare,
by one of our favorite writers, Henry Miller. The Air-Conditioned
Nightmare is Miller's travelogue across Depression Era America
on the eve of World War Two. It is essential reading, even though
there's not much sex in these vivid pages. -- JSC / AC
I had to travel about ten thousand miles before
receiving the inspiration to write a single line about America.
Everything worth saying about the American way of life I could
put in thirty pages. Topographically the country is magnificent-and
terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in the world
is the divorce between man and nature so complete. Nowhere have
I encountered such a dull, monotonous fabric of life as here
in America. Here boredom reaches its peak.
We are accustomed to think of ourselves
as an emancipated people; we say we are democratic, liberty-loving,
free of prejudice and hatred. This is the melting pot, the seal
of a great human experiment. Beautiful words, full of noble,
idealistic sentiment. Actually we are a vulgar, pushing mob whose
passions are easily mobilized by demagogues, newspaper men, religious
quacks, agitators and such like. To call this a society of free
peoples is blasphemous. What have we to offer the world beside
the superabundant loot which we recklessly plunder from the earth
under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents
progress and enlightenment? The land of opportunity has become
the land of senseless sweat and struggle. The goal of all of
our striving has long been forgotten. We no longer wish to succor
the oppressed and homeless; there is no room in this great, empty
land for those who, like our forefathers before us, now seek
a place of refuge. Millions of men and women are, or were until
 very recently, on relief, condemned like
guinea pigs to a life of forced idleness. The world meanwhile
looks to us with a desperation such as it has never known before.
Where is the democratic spirit? Where are the leaders?
To conduct a great human experiment we
must first of all have men. Behind the conception MAN
there must be grandeur. No political party is capable of ushering
in the Kingdom of Man. The workers of the world may one
day, if they ever cease listening to their bigoted leaders, organize
a brotherhood of man. But men cannot be brothers without first
becoming peers, that is, equals in a kingly sense. What prevents
men from uniting as brothers is their own base inadequacy. Slaves
cannot unite; cowards cannot unite; the ignorant cannot unite.
It is only by obeying our highest impulses that we can unite.
The urge to surpass oneself has to be instinctive, not theoretical
or believable merely. Unless we make the effort to realize
the truths which are in us we shall fail again and again. As
Democrats, Republicans, Fascists, Communists, we are all on one
level. That is one of the reasons why we wage war so beautifully.
We defend with our lives the petty principles which divide us.
The common principle, which is the establishment of the empire
of man on earth, we never lift a finger to defend. We are
frightened of any urge which would lift us out of the muck. We
fight only for the status quo, our particular status quo.
We battle with heads down and eyes closed. Actually there never
is status quo, except in the minds of political imbeciles. All
is flux. Those who are on the defensive are fighting phantoms.
What is the greatest treason? To question
what it is one may be fighting for. Here insanity and treason
join hands. War is a form of insanity-the noblest or the basest,
according to your point of view. Because it is a mass insanity
the wise are powerless to prevail against it. Above any other
single factor that may be adduced in explanation of war is confusion.
When all other weapons fail one resorts to force. But there may
be nothing wrong with the weapons which we so easily and readily
discard. They may need to be sharpened, or we may need to improve
our skill, or both. To fight is to admit that one is confused;
it is an act of desperation, not of strength. A rat can fight
magnificently when cornered. Are we to emulate the rat?
***
These wars teach us nothing, not even
how to conquer our fears. We are still cave men. Democratic cave
men, perhaps, but that is small comfort. Our fight is to get
out of the cave. If we were to make the least effort in that
direction we would inspire the whole world.
If we are going to play the role of Vulcan
let us forge dazzling new weapons which will unshackle the chains
which bind us. Let us not love the earth in a perverse way. Let
us stop playing the role of recidivist. Let us stop murdering
one another. The earth is not a lair, neither is it a prison.
The earth is Paradise, the only we will ever know. We will realize
it the moment we open our eyes. We don't have to make it a Paradise-it
is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit
it. The man with the gun, the man with murder in his heart, cannot
possibly recognize Paradise even when he is shown it,
***
Some people think that a declaration
of war changes everything. If only it were true! If only we could
look forward to a radical, sweeping change from top to bottom!
The changes brought about by war are nothing, however, compared
to the discoveries and inventions of Edison. Yet, for good or
ill, war can bring about a change in the spirit of a people.
And that is what I am vitally interested in-a change of heart,
a conversion.
We have a condition now which is called
"a national emergency." Though the legislators and
politicians may rant at will, though the newspaper tribe may
rave and spread hysteria, though the military clique may bluster,
threaten, and clamp down on everything which is not to their
liking, the private citizen, for whom and by whom the war is
being fought, is supposed to hold his tongue. Since I have not
the least respect for this attitude, since it does nothing to
advance the cause of freedom, I have left unaltered those statements
which are apt to cause annoyance and irritation even in times
of peace. I believe with John Stuart Mill that "a State
which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments
in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with
small men no great thing can really be accomplished." I
would rather my opinions and appraisals were proved wrong-by
the emergence of a new and vital spirit. If it takes a calamity
such as war to awaken and transform us, well and good, so be
it. Let us now see if the unemployed will be put to work and
the poor properly clothed, housed and fed; let us see if the
rich will be stripped of their booty and made to endure the privations
and sufferings of the ordinary citizen; let us see if all
the workers of America, regardless of class, ability or usefulness,
can be persuaded to accept a common wage; let us see if the people
can voice their wishes in direct fashion, without the intercession,
the distortion, and the bungling of politicians; let us see if
we can create a real democracy in place of the fake one we have
finally been roused to defend; let us see if we can be fair and
just to our own kind, to say nothing of the enemy whom we shall
doubtless conquer over.
Yesterday's
Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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