Anti-war Democrats. They still exist.
Fifty years ago--1971--The Democratic Party was the "peace" party.
It doesn't seem so impossibly long ago for Boomers who were alive to remember 1971. The music was great. Jane Fonda and Cher were young and beautiful. Young people grew their hair out.
The colleges at the time were filled with people of draft age who had the motivating issue of stopping a war in Vietnam. By 1971, at least for people who had "tuned in" to the reality of the American meat grinder of war, the Vietnam war was worse than an error. It was a crime. Its ostensible purpose, to stop the dominos of countries in SE Asia falling to "Red China," was a fraud. The real reason for continuing the war was face-saving for President Nixon. He didn't want to preside over a lost war.
From the presidential tapes of March 19, 1971, Conversation 471-002, we observe Nixon and Kissinger discussing the need to keep up appearances until the 1972 election was won:
Secretary of State Kissinger: I think that there’s a chance of a negotiation with some of them. Again, it’s less than even, but it’s—
President Nixon: Well, it might be. In a way, I think, Henry, I’ve never been much for negotiation. . ..
Kissinger: Well, we’ve got to get enough time to get out. It’s got to be because
Nixon: Oh, I understand. . ..
Kissinger: Our problem is that if we get out after all the suffering we’ve gone through—
Nixon: And then have it knocked over. Oh, I think [unclear]
Kissinger: We can’t have it knocked over—brutally—to put it brutally—before the election.
Nixon: That’s right.
Kissinger: And . .
Nixon: So that’s why, that’s why this strategy works pretty well, doesn’t it?
Kissinger: That’s right.
People of draft age in 1971 have reason to be cynical about war. Young men die so that old men can hold political office. It is the way of the world. We saw it.
What might, possibly, get the countries of the world to re-direct their energies? The distraction and re-direction of a common enemy, climate change.
Rick Millward is the right age to be cynical--a young man of draft age in 1971--but he wanted to continue with another Guest Post on behalf of world peace. He has a message. He is hopeful, and insists he is not being unrealistic. There is an opportunity here to do something big. Never waste a crisis.
Guest Post by Rick Millward
Research by social scientists from Durham University and LancasterUniversity shows the US military is one of the largest climate polluters in history, consuming more liquid fuels and emitting more CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) than most countries.
The antiwar movement has roots going back to the founding of this nation and before. From its beginning there has been a fundamental understanding that World Peace would require universal cooperation between all nations. Up until now this has only been a philosophical concept, and regarded as only possible in the face of a worldwide threat, for instance an alien invasion. Climate change is the first time in human history that such a threat has emerged, one of our own making, and one as impervious to the 174 armies on the planet as a ship from the Andromeda galaxy.
My proposal is not made lightly or in jest, though some may think so, and perhaps this is the biggest hurdle mankind must overcome if the threat of climate change is to be met with any hope of success. I admit it is a utopian idea, and as such a target for cynicism and ridicule from those who have difficulty seeing the path forward from where we are now. Overcoming what are basically fatalistic, or what some call "realist", attitudes requires an enormous a leap of faith and a commitment to optimism that seems naive in these times, but completely necessary if we are to survive as a species. Realism never takes one forward, only calcifies the status quo.
Worldwide disarmament seems impossible, but only if one only looks backward. Regressive attitudes have held back progress, but the last century has opened up possibilities that were unimaginable to those living in the age of the horse and buggy. Technological advances have democratized information, educating more people and making it more difficult for repressive governments to control the their populations through fear and greed. The Progressive issue of wealth disparity influencing politics that began at the turn of the 19th century has paralleled the Information Age giving the vision of Lennon’s “Imagine” more power than a hopefully wistful pop song.
As each decade passes we come closer to an unknown future that may, and at the very least we must admit this possibility in the face of unprecedented events, one day place humanity at our own moment of extinction as this planet becomes uninhabitable.
Humans emerged from the jungle and developed civilization, and societies that each in turn have improved the human condition. But in the course of this progress we have neglected to consider its impact on the environment that nurtured and supports life on Earth. This is a fact, and the consequences now endanger that very progress. Like the fabled frog in the boiling water the effects are imperceptible until the frog is cooked. One of the points of "An Inconvenient Truth" was that CO2 in the atmosphere spiked sharply in the recent past, evidence that our pot is coming to a boil.
Humans are unique on the planet. On the geological scale our ascendence is virtually instantaneous, a result of what is theorized as "The Great Leap Forward" in intelligence.
Such a leap is required now.
We are capable of it, but it will be necessary for humans to choose to make the change. We don't have millennia to adapt. It's way too easy to look back and conclude that what we call human nature prevents us from doing what will become necessary to save the planet and ourselves.
Human nature is what we make it.
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Note to Southern Oregon readers: Rick Millward’s songs are mostly about love, heartache, and joy, not the politics of peace. He will be performing an all original set of songs on Saturday, June 26, 2 p.m. at RoxyAnn Winery in Medford.
Here is a sample: