Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Goddam State

I just saw a commercial for the Wounded Warrior
Project that brought tears to my eyes. It shows a little girl reading to and helping her young but feeble father, who suffered a severe head wound in Iraq. It outraged me that a young daughter should have to see her father in that condition, and I said out loud, "That is what the state does to families."

See if you have the same reaction.

5 comments:

  1. Mixed feelings. Hearing the little girl say "I'm really proud of my dad". It reminds me of "It's ... the rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields."

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  2. I don't think "I'm proud of my dad" fits into the same category as glorifying self-sacrifice for the State. I don't recall anarchism ever meaning that you be a dick to the friends and family of those psychologically and physically wounded and killed by Neoliberal State Capitalism.

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  3. I presume Adrienne's comment is directed at my earlier one, so I'd like to clarify. I don't think I was being a dick to the friends and family of the soldier. I 'm saddened both by his condition and by what he had and has to endure (for no good reason) and by his daughter's belief that he "is a superhero" presumably for "what he did for his country". It is also sad that she is being used to get others to think "HONOR", "COURAGE", "COUNTRY", "SERVICE" (flashing at the end of the ad) as if those combined qualities were something that everyone should strive for. I'm also sad because she may grow to be like that mother/widow that Sheldon always posts around Memorial Day, with a little boy dressed in a Marine uniform while holding a folded flag.

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  4. Did they force him to join the military?

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