Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Pens
W.J. Astore and b. traven
The Contrary Perspective (TCP) has reached its six month birthday and welcomes its 88 followers. We’re happy to see that our readership in that short period is now over 10,000. (We should maybe discount that a bit due to our own eager “hits” to see how things are going.)
Regular readers will notice that we are a bit top heavy in our pieces related to war and the military. There is a reason for that. Both W.J. Astore and b. traven are military veterans and have more than a passing interest in how our country’s military ventures affect the common good. Prof. Astore, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel has a fresh view of the “new” military and b. traven, a veteran of the WW II Army Air Corps has a long view of real wartime. We use real because we believe that WW II was the only war in which democracy was seriously and directly threatened by militaristic forces bent on radical and genocidal changes to society.
Our military ventures since the end of that war have generally been either wars of choice in which we were not attacked or recent “police” actions mounted in the name of combatting terrorism. Such wars are as insidious as they are wasteful. They weaken our Constitution and our economy. They generate fear and serve goals that ultimately strengthen the 1% at the expense of the 99%.
Much of what is wrong in the USA today, in the world for that matter, can be traced to war and preparations for it. America’s recent “wars” have served to destabilize the Middle East as well as the Asian sub-continent, and now the US military is increasingly involved in Africa.
But wars do not produce stability; rather the opposite. They produce apocalypse.
The Contrary Perspective (TCP) believes there are many “contrarians” out there who would like to express their views publicly. Well, TCP is inviting you to express those views here. We’re a free-thinking blog with allegiances to no political party. Rather, we believe American foreign and domestic policies have drifted far from what our founders intended and what our Constitution sanctions.
We know there are thoughtful people on both left and right who would agree with that statement, and we’ve asked our conservative friends to contribute, but without success. We would like to see more article submissions or comments, especially from contrarian-minded conservatives. Naturally, we reserve the right to accept only those that are reasoned and based firmly on facts.
So folks, we thank all of you for getting our blog into the blogosphere and we encourage your comments on all of our pieces. If you really want to blow off steam, write a piece and we’ll give it an honest opportunity to appear as a regular article. Just send your draft as a Word document to wjastore@gmail.com. 1000 words maximum.
The Contrary Perspective 
I don’t have any particular thoughts of my own except to agree completely with the perspective you’ve outlined above.
Sam.. We appreciate your support but suggest that we reserve the right to disappoint you sometime in the future. It just comes along with healthy discourse.
Here is what Oscar Wilde had to say about we Americans many years ago. ” America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” and after all, we are all Americans. Our democracy will survive if we retain a sense of skepticism about how “civilized” we really are. Wilde could be right.
Past, present and future generations are intertwined in the military industrial co-op. I also have a military background and don’t think this exceptional. In recent years I’ve had the opportunity to travel at will around the country. The ex military or retired military can be counted in legions, not just numbers. This is a society of warriors or wannabe warriors: “The Nobel Profession.” As such, how can one expect many other feelings to be present in the general populations. The need to win(conquer) also emanates from the basic male psyche. It would be a “contrarian” view to think this juggernaut could be persuaded to turn around.
In fact, I think this feeds more into a control of the masses theme in giving them(the militarists) something to be busy with. If my logic is correct, how can these facts and circumstances be useful in an effort to change the current situation? Redirecting the energy and ambitions of the military man would be a start. Who has a plan? How could this be accomplished? They need a new goal; alien invasions from ET would be a temporary solution providing the aliens come sufficiently spaced apart and in few enough concentrations that assure victory and non occupation. Anyone know of an alien race who could cooperate with this solution?
How about the politicians and elitists? How could they be goaded into a change of feathers? Dangle a different carrot? What would this carrot look like? What would give them a different objective? We need to think outside the box for a new direction for this society. The current situation smacks too much of business as usual (from generation to generation or same ol’, same ol’.
How about some new ideas?