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CounterPunch
November
2, 2002
Militarized Masculinity and
Home-Grown Terrorists
by FRAN SHOR
"Men make wars for many reasons,
but one of the most recurring ones is to establish that they
are, in fact, 'real men.' Warfare and aggressive masculinity
have been, in other words, mutually reinforcing cultural enterprises."
Barbara Ehrenreich,
Blood
Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War.
How does the cultural enterprise of militarized
masculinity create killers like Timothy McVeigh and John Allen
Muhammad? What is the lethal link between those who have been
trained to kill as instruments of state policy and their post-military
engagement as home-grown terrorists who turn on their fellow
citizens? Trying to answer these questions goes beyond speculating
about the psychopathology of certain men. Instead, we must confront
the larger issues of war, violence, and guns in American culture
in order to understand the horrific death and destruction wrought
by those hyper-aggressive men "born in the USA."
The kind of conditioning that both Timothy
McVeigh and John Allen Muhammad received as part of their military
training for the Gulf War built on a pre-existing militarized
culture from violent Rambo films to vengeance video games. Constantly
bombarded by recruiting appeals to "be all they could be"
against the dead-end of blue collar jobs, thousands of working
class kids like McVeigh and Muhammad answered the call to "serve
their country." Deeply embedded in that call was the mesmerizing
message of "the Manchurian candidate, a hypnotized agent
of the state waiting to be called into active service by the
bugle call of 'Duty,' 'Honor,' 'Patriotism'" (Sam Keen,
Fire in the Belly, p. 46).
During the bullying of military training,
young men are further taught to despise any signs of weakness
and to begin to shun an aversion to killing. Misogynist and homophobic
derision often reinforce this militarized masculinity. Furthermore,
as noted by a former military psychologist, David Groomsman,
young men are drilled into "disengaging" from any sentiments
that would undermine the commitment to becoming trained killers.
This desensitization to killing creates a "trigger-pull
ratio" that produces men on "hair-trigger" alert
inside and outside of combat. (Doug Sanders, "Military Training
Links String of Serial Killers, Toronto Globe and Mail, October
25, 2002, A5.)
What happens to such trained killers
in combat and in particular wars provides further evidence of
the blowback effects of militarized masculinity. It has been
estimated that since 1945 the US has made overt war on at least
25 countries. (William Blum, Rogue State). Certainly, living
in a society that is constantly preparing to rain down death
and destruction on others will have profound social and cultural
repercussions, not to mention the inevitable political fallout.
As Michael Moore's brilliant new documentary film, "Bowling
for Columbine," suggests, the lethal link between foreign
military operations and domestic gun violence may be a primary
factor behind the massive homicide rate in the United States,
a rate which far exceeds other countries where guns and violence,
nonetheless, proliferate.
Of course, another factor implicit in
Moore's film and explicit in the home-grown terrorism of the
McVeighs and the Muhammads is how a society that turns its young
men into killers has very few mechanisms to make them feel valued
in civilian life. Added to this is the disillusionment that some
former soldiers experience and transform into their own vengeance
on the government or its citizens (Muhammad) or both (McVeigh).
Random civilians then become mere "collateral damage"
in the minds of home-grown terrorists who have been somehow "betrayed"
by a system that was intended to make them heroes. Of course,
the twisted logic by which such killers extract their revenge
on society is a matter of individual psychopathology, even if
the socio-economic and socio-cultural context is evident for
all to see and feel.
In particular, the desire to be "on
top" is part of the competitive environment fostered in
invidious ways in the United States. Those who wield power in
the ruling circles are, in fact, more vicious terrorists than
McVeigh or Muhammad could imagine in their wildest vengeful nightmares.
What does it mean to wipe out the savings of thousands of one's
employees with no compunctions or compassion? What does it mean
to spread toxic waste and dangerous chemicals in massive amounts
into the bodies of tens of thousands of unsuspecting consumers?
And what does one label those who plan to carry out military
campaigns, irrespective of the pretexts, that result in the deaths
of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of innocent
civilians? Being a "winner" at whatever physical and
psychological cost to others is integral to those male fantasies
and macho posturing by policy-making elites far removed from
the actual results of their terrorist plans.
To play god, as apparently believed by
Muhammad, is so much a part of militarized masculinity, especially
in its desire to shed blood and prove one's male invulnerability,
a proof built on a fundamental illogic. Our species is all too
vulnerable in a way that other animals, with instincts against
killing their own, manage to escape. We are, however, locked
into a consciousness that needs nurturing if it is to develop
compassion and caring. There is nothing essential about men or
women that provides such compassionate and caring hardwiring.
Nonetheless, men, especially those marginalized in American society,
are constantly at risk of being tagged as "less than a man"
for those signs of compassion and caring (as in the "w"
words - wimp and wuss). For many men, guns have become the ultimate
compensation for such vulnerability and turning them on either
those they claim to love, or those who have somehow shamed them,
or on strangers who are too "weak" or "stupid"
to elude their wrath is a large part of the continuing tragedy
of American gun violence.
Of course, redemption through violence,
as numerous cultural historians like Richard Slotkin have reminded
us, cuts through the tenuous threads of American civility. When
the myths of frontier vengeance are combined with militarized
masculinity, a deadly concoction emerges which has threatened
and continues to threaten the security and sanity of the society.
Removing the guns is not enough; we need to purge the system
of militarized masculinity and make the nation and the world
a place where non-violence and peace with justice prevail.
Fran Shor <f.shor@wayne.edu>
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