Soldiers and Misfortune

Every human is born, grows older and dies. What each does during the time they are alive in this world depends on their perception of the circumstances they face. How the individual perceives their situation will lead them to make decisions based on the outcomes they desire to have. We should all be very aware of individuals and organizations attempting to, or having succeeded in, manipulating our perception of a given situation. An individual can be deceived in various way, even by themselves. Before we get to some of those examples we need a good understanding of how somebody’s miss-perceptions can affect their and others lives. An example of two clashing perceptions is often portrayed in the consumer media. It is the man and woman who disagree as to whether or not they are lost. In this scenario, while both are adamant that they are right, one is wrong, despite the conviction of their perception. If the man was wrong, there is no telling how far in the wrong direction he will go. Only when he knows he is lost, or has an accurate perception of the situation, can he then adopt the approach necessary to find his way.

Now, for people within the consumer culture who are subject to its mass media, let us consider how the things that capture our attention affect us. Beginning with the things that are outside of our attention, simply put, these things do not affect our perception. It is the things that command our attention the most that has the greatest effect on our perception. This understanding provides insight into the relevance of the mass media in people’s lives. One example is the recent concern that too many households would be left without television access because of the conversion from analog signal (antenna) to digital signal (antenna plus digital converter). The television is an important tool for impressing opinions upon an individual’s perception until that person adopts those opinions or opposites ones.

A young Man test out one of the many weapons used to oppress his homeland. The soldiers in front are attempting to enlist him to assist in that oppression. The soldiers may not realize that, at the same time, they are the oppressors and the oppressed. Photo by Baashu Tutsanaii

Regardless of our sources of information, when our perception of a thing or situation does not correspond with reality, its like having bad directions. While we are thinking we are making the correct turns and progressing, we will only get to where it is we need to go when our directions correspond with the actual path that will take us there. This is true when going some place physically, cooking a meal, solving a math problem, reasoning out a logical solution to a problem, and even in the spiritual field when we approach our ancestors or the divine world there are guidelines we must follow to be successful. Additionally, the human being suffers from the need to imagine possible outcomes of a situation. They then decide what to do while under the influence of their desire for a certain outcome. This is when the man who is lost refuses to listen to his wife and insists that he is not lost because of his desire for being right. To combat this we must guard against making emotional decisions, which are based on such desires or our fears.

It is unfortunate that because of this human condition, the consumer culture uses mass media to alter the public’s perception of certain issues in order to manipulate support for a particular agenda. An example of this is the way people’s perceptions of traditional culture have been altered while living with the consumer culture that has been built by colonial societies. It is the perception many "modern" people share, thinking of the various cultures around the world that live in harmony with nature as uncivilized. In fact, these are the only people not contributing to the destruction of the earth’s environment. The reason that humans do contribute to destroying their own environment is a mass case of altered perception that began over 2000 years ago. The establishment of colonial rule all around the world was preceded by altering the perceptions of groups of people. These people were led to believe that others around the world were different from them and deserved to be subjected to their control, often by violent means. Thus began the invasions, subjugation and subsequent educating of people into the consumer culture.

Colonial powers still use this method today, in their attempt to maintain military supremacy. In order to maintain their armies, they need soldiers. A basic concept behind the colonial politician’s current strategy to gain soldiers is to impress upon the individual a desire to be a part of military service. This strategy gains a percentage of the total they need but clearly not enough so they employ additional strategies. The most successful strategy in America is for the government to provide money for an individual to attend college in exchange for years of military service. Considering how much emphasis is put on education, this is a very successful technique for getting recruits. Another aspect of this strategy is that a proportionally large number of these recruits come from families who can’t afford the high cost of a college education. It may sound like a conspiracy that the majority of military recruits come from middle and low-income households, but this is just because the majority of people in America don’t earn much more than $25,000.00 per year. The "richest" nation in the world has a lot of poor people.

Many recruits who join the military directly after high school have done so based on the need for college tuition money, the desire to serve, or another strategy that is becoming more commonly used. This strategy has several approaches, all of which are meant to appeal to teenagers, familiarize and excite them about military service. I recently witnessed an event at Benito Juarez, a local high school in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, where large pieces of infantry equipment were parked outside the school for students to get in, climb around and perhaps "feel the power" as they stood holding the machine gun on top of one of the armored vehicles. With many of the students at this event being descendants of the indigenous peoples of this continent, their ancestors must be saddened. The indigenous cultures of Maanu or Turtle Island (now called the Americas), millions of which have been murdered by colonial armies, now look upon their surviving descendants and see them tricked into pulling the machine gun trigger, like the one used in the massacre at Wounded Knee.

The US Army searches for its next generation of faceless killers

The success that the military has in recruiting individuals depends on getting people to pay attention to their message. Once they have an audience for their message, it becomes a process of elimination to reach their recruiting goal. First, they bring out the messages about honor, glory, strength, pride, etc. Then they come to the schools, the poor neighborhoods, offering education and money. You can check out the equipment, do some video game simulation, a couple chin-ups and push-ups with your friends around and feel the comradery. One by one they pick them off. They prey on the emotional aspect of the human being. The underlying message that the military presents is that without them we would be powerless. Their message is that we are helpless without them and we need them to save us, to protect us in a dangerous world. Unfortunately, this too, is a message that is accepted and adopted as a valid perception of the world and a justification for committing crimes against humanity in the name of protecting humanity.

To prevent our perceptions from being hijacked we must evaluate what we are thinking to the best of our ability and ensure that what we are thinking is reasonable, rational and logical. Also, we owe it to others to let them know if the way they are perceiving things is unreasonable. This may seem like expecting too much of people but it is only helping to ensure our own safety when we monitor the thoughts and actions of our friends and family and hold them to a high moral standards. The greatest example we have of this is the 77 commandments. We do not want our brothers and sisters to be on either side of the military misfortune that befalls its soldiers.

One example that I will never forget is reading that the Air Force had recruited the son of the man who dropped one of the atomic bombs into Japan. They recruited this man, and based on the actions of his father, the article made clear that the expectation was that if necessary this man would be as "brave" as his father. The article stated that this man’s nickname was "nuke". This is a prime example of how our responsibility for maintaining a reasonable, rational and logical perception of our world extends beyond ourselves and through our communities in order to ensure all of our safety. Restoring our ability to be responsible for ourselves, our families, communities and our traditional cultures will be the accomplishment that gives words like honor, pride and strength their meaning.