Last Friday, I did what most Americans did: I participated in our great national orgy of explosions and symbolic destruction (far too much of which was literal as well as symbolic). I say I participated, but I did so by going to an acquaintance's house and watching the aerial displays there. I gave up shooting the things off several years ago when I damned near blew my hand off, but that's another story for another time. Now, I just watch.
And react at a level that surprised me, as much as it sobered me.
Why is it that we Americans take so much joy in blowing things up? Why do we apparently get off on destroying things? Now, before you go ballistic here, I'm not necessarily talking about any one person in particular, but about the American culture as a whole. If you feel that I'm talking to you personally, then perhaps you should give that some very deep thought; otherwise, please just read on.
You see, I was sitting there Friday night, watching the displays. Now, this guy lives in the county, so there were looots of fireworks being blown up, from all around us and at varying distances. And, of course, there were the bozos who just had to shoot off 3" and 5" mortars.
As I sat there, it suddenly occurred to me that this was very much like combat - I remember that, believe me. The small stuff (1-1/2" firecrackers and the like) were rifles being fired, or machineguns when someone lit off a string of the things. They popped and cracked in exchanges of rifle fire. The larger devices were artillery - complete with aerial trails, multi-colored flashes, the whole enchilada. Oh, yeah, there was even debris falling from out the sky - and shrapnel if you were unlucky enough to be too close to one of these things. As I said, there was a battle raging around me. This veteran began to get just a tad hinky, y'know?
What really did it for me, though - what sent me spinning into the surreality of the Twilight Zone - was during one of the inevitable lulls in the battle. The rifles and big guns fell silent ... and I heard the unbridled giggling and joyful shrieks of the children simply being children.
Maybe I read too much into it. Maybe I was thinking or remembering too much. Maybe I'd just had some bad beef or something. It doesn't matter, y'see. I was struck with the ludicry and hypocrisy of it all. We Americans take so many pains to pass ourselves off as peace-loving folk ... but we celebrate the birth of our nation by destroying things. Oh, sure, the destruction is "just fireworks," but it's the symbolism. We worship destruction. Peace? That's positively unAmmurican, by gawd.
There's an old folk song, Where Have All the Flowers Gone. Some of you may remember that song - it was very popular during the folk era in the 1960s/1970s. The chorus asks, "when will they ever learn?" I ask when will WE ever learn?
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4 comments:
TW said: "This veteran began to get just a tad hinky, y'know?"
I first read that and thought you said "kinky" ;)But, I suppose that would be another post, eh?
Seriously, TW, as usual your insights are giving me something else to consider. I, for one, like fireworks, having never been in combat more than likely makes it feel different to me, more acceptable, you know? I like the wonder of fireworks - how are they constructed to "do" so many things? Carnation shapes, rings inside of rings, things that shriek and wobble as they fly - I can't imagine how one puts a group of chemicals together to do that! And, I love the "Cremora" bomb flashes. R says they remind him of napalm; I would guess he knows about that since he got burned by the stuff in Viet Nam.
But, as I said, I will have to think more about what you said, for I think most of us are so simple-minded that your thoughts would never cross the minds of most of us. I've just always thought of them as celebratory.
Kate
Kate:
Understand, I have nothing against fireworks, per se. Like most - and especially like you - I enjoy the myriad colors and complex blooms of many of the aerials. And the delayed booms, assorted shrieks, whistles, and all that.
It's not fireworks, it's that we Americans, by and large, use them on only one day: the day our country was born. Oh, some of us also shoot them off at New Year's, but they are used the most by far on July 4.
It's the combination of celebrating our nation's birth with an orgy of destruction. Somehow, that thought and the hypocrisy of our bragging about how peaceful we are while our actions are anything but make me so horribly sad. And angry. And disillusioned.
How can we achieve peace when we worship destruction? That's the question.
The Auld Scot
I've always loved that song! (yipes did I ever just date myself or what?) LOl
The pretty flashes of light in the sky are a draw no doubt, but I can definitely see where you're coming from if you've been where you have, TW. Smells and sounds are huge memory triggers!
I disagree with you there, brother.
We don't like to destroy ANYTHING, per se. Americans are very peace-loving people. We, generally, have to be dragged kicking and screaming into conflicts (e.g. WWI, WWII) unless we have twits like Robert McNamara, Kennedy, and Johnson running the joint.
Fireworks? They're pretty. They remind us that the birth of our nation was in fire and battle. But mostly, they're just pretty. You could as well draw an analogy between our children's love of kites and balloons with military aerostat balloons and surveillance kites.
That's the risk of analogies - drawing TOO much from them.
Throughout history you will never find a nation wielding so much power and using it so very, very little with as much regard for innocent lives as America, or a nation in such a hurry to rebuild our former enemies - and then trade with them.
Orion
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