As a kid, I was fascinated by war and soldiering. I watched more 80s-era war movies than I could possibly count and my favorite TV show for a while was “Tour of Duty.” I grew up during the Cold War and was both worried by the possibility of nuclear armageddon and enthralled by the big conflict. I loved playing Operation Wolf (an arcade game in which one got to control an Uzi sbmachine gun and grenade launcher and basically shoot everything on screen). As I became a teenager, I was fascinated by the US Marines, the idea of “hardcore” training, a vision of heroism, sacrifice, toughness, manhood. I also loved fairness and justice - and believed in standing up to bullies. I believed that sometimes you had to do that with violence. I could imagine doing that in a war. That was until I was about 15 and then a great deal changed for me in a short period of time. Some of it was due to a father who questioned my sanity when I suggested I might want to go into the armed forces (“What are you crazy - you actually think you’re going to make the world better that way?”). Thanks, Dad. Some of it was through the education of some great teachers who invited me to watch documentaries like “Manufacturing Consent” and to read books like Year 501: The Conquest Continues. Some of it was due to world events - the confluence of the Oka Crisis in Quebec and soon after the (first) Gulf War. When I was 15, I watched Ellen Gabriel of Kanehsatake explain that that the Canadian army was being sent to put down “unrest” over a golf course a town wanted to build on First Nations Land. I realized that the army is not simply for external threats (or what gets called a threat) but for repression at home. I learned that Canada sent more troops to Oka than to Iraq and that we were manipulated (just as cynically and for the same reasons as Americans) to support intervention in the latter - a “war” that was more of a turkey shoot for the purpose of expanding imperial reach in a strategic, oil-rich hot spot. Somewhere along the way, I found different definitions of heroism and manhood, different visions of what the world could look like, and different strategies. I came to believe that one could be a nonviolent warrior (if a warrior one must be) and work more effectively for peace and justice than could the violent kind. I’m not sure that I would have been able to put any of this together if not for art and - in particular - for music. Music has deeply fed my emotional and spiritual life and also my ethical and political life. I am guilty of taking music seriously and of believing that some musicians have deeply important things to say. I’m taking this opportunity (Remembrance Day/Armistice Day/Veterans Day) to share and collect a few songs that helped me wake up to what war is, what it means to support it, and what it means to honor the troops reflexively versus reflecting deeply on how to prevent war. Some of these songs might be a wee bit dated, some are truly timeless. Please feel free to share songs that have moved you in this regard.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 02:21:41 +0000