Thread: A Call for Action

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, the desire for conquest and the accumulation of wealth into the covetous hands of the ruling class has dominated Western culture. Unfortunately, in spite of the last three thousand years of social, economic, and political evolution, America, herself a product of the all-consuming desire for conquest, is embroiled in a not-so-subtle war of colonization in Iraq. There are those of us who protest the war, who scream, “No blood for oil!”, and decry the heartless corporations and government leaders who profit from the misery of others. We consider ourselves liberal Americans, open-minded and with a keen desire for human rights, for social and economic equality for all the people across the globe; however, we are all to blame for America’s capitalistic need for conquest. Putting the current situation in the simplest of terms, a nation of consumers, who devour far more resources than they produce, cannot sustain itself without pilfering the wealth of lesser nations.

Energy consumption in America has risen like the phoenix and hangs above our heads, threatening to devour us in the flames of deprivation and war as we thoughtlessly consume more and more of the world’s resources. Americans become fatter and more comfortable while the third world starves, as sweatshop workers in Asia sew our clothing, and as slaves in Africa farm the cocoa beans for our chocolate bars. There is a cost, however, to our national avarice, and the price shall one day be paid. As with the great Roman Empire, will America too be wrenched from her lofty perch by her own greed and debauchery, and will she bring the rest of the world down with her into the murky depths of ruin?

The war in Iraq is, perhaps, the beginning of America‘s decline, as she lashes out at the rest of the world, desperate to maintain her position as the most powerful nation on Earth. The decline of our society may not be inevitable, although bringing about reform would most definitely be an uphill struggle, entailing hard work and numerous sacrifices of comfort and affluence.

The first, and most important, sacrifice may be the most difficult. Automobiles do not run on anti-war bumper stickers, regardless of how many are plastered on our cars and trucks. A true protest of the war in Iraq, one that would cripple the voracious greed of the oil tycoons who run the Bush administration, would be for the peace-loving, anti-war citizens of America to impose their own sanctions upon the oil industry. You read this correctly: to stop the bloodshed overseas, to stop pollution, and, hell, perhaps even to stop terrorism, we must boycott gasoline, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of oil consumption in America. If Rosa Parks and the poor, oppressed black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama could walk to work everyday during the 1955 Bus Boycott, then so can we. For, if we allow this downward spiral into ruin to continue, then there may be no America for our children to inherit, and there will be no one to blame but ourselves.

do YOU walk to work?

I don't walk two blocks, I have a car for that. But then, I'm not complaining about the war.

but you are saying that oil/gas must be conserved... so, i had to wonder how you do your part...

Ok, this is what I'm saying: There is something seriously wrong with our country and with the way it conducts business with the rest of the world. Drastic action would be needed to fix this problem, but who is willing to take the first step towards change? Yeah, Americans PROTEST the war, but they do little in the way of actually attempting to fix the underlying problems that caused us to become entwined with the Middle East in the first place.
The last paragraph is an attempt at subtle sarcasm, but perhaps I failed. I know that the majority of Americans who protest the war would not, in fact, change their lifestyles or inconvenience themselves in any way to stop our government's resource grabbing. So, in a sense, most of the anti-war folk are hypocrytes.
Perhaps that message wasn't clear enough?

the part that wasn't clear was what you are doing yourself, besides telling everyone else what they need to do... not that you have to do anything, but when one calls for action, it's to be expected that he/she is doing all that's being urged upon others, right?

i complain non-stop about war and violence and all kinds of evils in this human-made world in my writings... but, before i started writing that kind of work, i gave up all the things that aid and abet those wrongnesses... since, i've been helping all those i'm able to, do nothing for money, and so on, so, i can now feel comfortable bitching!

I included myself in my description of the war-protesters when I said that we are all responsible for our nation's need for conquest. I'll rework it, though, as my actual argument is that most Americans would not give up or sacrifice any comforts for the sake of the rest of the world. It's our national way of thinking; We want change and fairness but don't want to pay for it.

Anyway, I commend you for taking the steps to truly protest the war. Those are steps that I, and almost every other American, would not take.

This is for English Comp, by the way. It's gotta be a 4 page paper, so I'm not nearly completed, but I just wanted to see how my argument worked.

you're absolutely right about most americans... most humans, actually!

and it's a good paper, basically... should garner a decent grade... but you'll do even better if you give it a thorough proofread and catch the punctuation and grammar goofs that got missed here and there...

i suspect you're a good student... you have a good grasp of the writing basics... something i don't see all that often... you also take criticism well... another rarely found trait!

as for me, i just decided i couldn't aid and abet all the awful stuff i saw going on all over the place any more and sorta dropped out of the human race... i'm still waiting to be adopted by amoebae, so i can be proud of my family heritage...

btw, i volunteered to be a human shield in iraq, in hopes the us wouldn't attack if enough americans and others were in their bomb sights... but instead of getting to go there, i was stuck in london helping to organize the whole thing and sending everyone else!... and, of course, it did no good whatsoever...

sad, huh?

love and hugs, maia