Because
the self-image of the United States has been built on collective denial
of the painful realities of the dispossession of others—Indigenous
inhabitants in the Americas, Africans, and Third World peoples—fantasy
politics in the US has become a way of life. Our collective fantasy is
consistently reinforced by virtually all our education, entertainment,
political discourse, religious sermonizing,
sports, etc. Most of us have been emotionally and intellectually
programmed in the perpetuation of the heroic myths of our origins, and
the consequential feelings of righteousness that have led us into war
after war. Some might say the wool has been pulled over our eyes.
However, I assert that the wool was in our eyes to begin with, and
remains in our eyes, not over them. We continue to be a pretend society.
The
crimes underlying our founding and expansion, our “original sins,”
continue to contaminate the soul of US America. The third genocide is
ongoing, perpetuated by our extravagant materialist values. Since
systematic injustices are never talked about, let alone seriously
addressed, people in our culture blissfully live in ignorance or denial
of our nature as violent plunderers. Our thinking and behavior are
marked by severe distortions based on our unshakable belief in our
exceptionalism. A quest for truth is one of the first steps toward
change. Understanding history helps clarify the why of our
interventions, including Viet Nam. Recovery of our humanity is at stake.
I
grew up believing that the United States is the greatest country in the
history of the world, endowed by our Creator to bring prosperity to the
impoverished and Christianity to the heathen. Believing this mythology
led me (and millions of others) to obey orders to Viet Nam. In
retrospect, the American war in Viet Nam seems incredibly, tragically
absurd—and worse, criminal. It is no wonder that for many of us, the
myth of US America was utterly collapsed by our experience in the war.
The
“Wild West” of the new world that European invaders set out to conquer
doesn’t exist anymore, or perhaps it is everywhere, as imperialist
projects continue seeking new frontiers, working feverishly to assure
one regimented, homogenous worldwide culture, a culture that in fact
leads to spiritual death. “Winning the west” has come to represent
Capitalism’s insidious winning of the world, with globalization of
materialism. As a result, all of us humans, and much of the remainder of
life on this planet, are endangered.
~ S. Brian Willson was born on U.S. Independence Day in 1941 to a conservative religious family in rural New York. A good student and athlete, he was conscripted into the military from graduate school in 1966 and by 1969 was commander of a USAF combat security unit in Viet Nam. A trained lawyer and criminologist, and one-time member of the Washington, D.C. Bar, he has been an advocate for prisoners, Viet Nam veterans, and impoverished people around the world striving for justice. As an activist, he has been a conscientious tax refuser, participated in water-only fasts and various civil (dis)obedience actions, and led delegations documenting U.S. aggressions in a number of countries.
As a result of a lengthy veterans’ fast in 1986, he and the other fasters were identified as domestic terrorist suspects. One year later, on September 1, 1987, while engaging in a well publicized blockade protesting weapons shipments to El Salvador and Nicaragua, he was run over and nearly killed by a U.S. government munitions train accelerating to three times its 5 mph limit. He lost both legs below the knee and suffered a fractured skull requiring insertion of a permanent protective plate. He continues to walk his talk against U.S. domestic and foreign imperial policies on two prosthetic legs and a three-wheeled arm-powered hand-cycle, as he strives for right livelihood and a simpler lifestyle. His 1992 book, On Third World Legs, is out of print. Brian now lives in Nicaragua.
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