Outside Insight

Lately I can’t seem to find myself able to escape the reaction to the inventory that a lot of clothing stores carry. The camouflage this and that, the cargo pants, the trench coat, the bomber jacket, etc.

We have become so unconscious. So oblivious to the way in which we participate and support a certain culture that is taking over this country, the war culture. Young men and women are without much question wearing war gear - let’s just call them uniforms. I’ve been guilty of supporting unhealthy social behaviors in the past and this is how I can write today and tell you that we’re sleeping, we’re zombies, we’re sheep, and we’re unintelligent unsophisticated animals. Funny because the whole point of fashion is to create the illusion that we are sophisticated creatures of some sorts, although our behavior usually contradicts us.

It strikes me as even more unconscious for women to buy into this culture. Obviously we are proving to the world what it is that matters to us surely it isn’t what we say we stand for.

Just yesterday I was talking to my family about the fact that wars are a thing of the masculine world they are men made. Women have the most to lose in wars, especially if we were to be on the other side, on the real side. War is the harshest thing a woman could be part of - if not we can ask the women of Korea and their experience as war sex slaves (http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2009536,00.html). Such a thing is now talked about as a thing of the past, what makes us think that it is any different today in the Iraqi battle field for women, for example? Perhaps the women of today are not let live after assault and couldn’t tell their story like these Korean women but the abuse still goes on in any war. I think it’s clear that the battle field is not a place of ethics or good values. It ought not to be a surprise then when we hear of the atrocities that humans do to each other in warring times - us to them, them to us. War makes animals. Those who don’t lose their sanity in the battle field will not have much sanity left to function in this here our world normally, not after witnessing the savageness of war.

Watching young girls go about in their little cargo dresses and hats trying to look sexy makes me react in two ways: 1. scared for the direction of youth and their unawareness and understanding of the world outside and 2. offended that war could be such a casual, shallow, and materialistic issue for so many. Perhaps it reflects why we are a warring state?

It seems to me that most people participate without thinking and in this time of crisis that to me is bizarre. Perhaps not knowing what war is like makes us so unconscious.

It doesn’t hurt to think a bit more when we act - our every act supports some kind of system that affects not just us but generations to come. Let’s not support this sick behavior, heh?

Learn more about womens experience of war:

http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=15420

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2181578.ece

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070209/A_NEWS/702090320

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/liberia_38219.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/200701150319.html