Pursuing praxis

As for the Israel readings and such lately: they interest me because I’ve always been so confused on so many levels about complicated foreign affairs. Things like, Why do these people hate each other so much? Why won’t they stop? Is their business any of our business? If so, why? And if so, what actions are right to take (and why?) and which ones are wrong to take (and why)? How does these incidents of foreign violence tip the scales for future predictions? Are things getting worse? What does that mean? Should I be worried? Should I do something about it? Should I take any interest in other people’s business? What about all the people getting killed? Innocent people, not just thugs with grenades between their teeth? Isn’t that sufficient reason to be interested and invested and willing to act?

Israel and Palestine are such hot topics, to where it’s like speaking too loudly in public venues one way or the other (and it’s hard to know which) will get you verbally pounced on by strangers. What gives? What does everyone else know that I don’t? Does everyone but me know "the real way" things are over there? Doubtful. Why does everyone care so much? What does this portend for the future? The future for those countries, and the future of this country - because there are always sympathizers, and even if there weren’t, the US has relations and makes deals with other countries who will take sides one way or the other. There can be humongous trickle-down effects, especially when violence enters the picture (and it always does, with terrorists and fanatics, which is what Palestine and Hezbolla and Iran and the Taliban and North Korea and scores of other atrocious groups are all about).

I guess growing up around the military in the ’80s and ’90s helps me feel more personally how, ideally or not, other people’s actions in other countries can have a big effect on me, my life, and the lives of people I care about (whether I know them or not) - on the news and the propaganda I’m bombarded with, with the flows and trends of the median political "feeling" transmitted by the media and Hollywood and all the other forms of input, with tax money going to other countries, with military personnel getting shipped off and shot at and maybe even killed - and for what?

I want to know "for what." And then I’ll make my decision as to whether I agree with it or not, and act and speak and write and advocate accordingly. I’ve historically been an untethered, unmotored boat in a sea of political fads. I don’t like that. I never have, but it’s hard to know how to go about fixing that smartly. I’m a person with things to do.

I mean, America’s only had one significant internal conflict, and it was a hundred and fifty years ago. I forget what the Spanish-American War was about. WWI was not about us. WWII only became about us after Pearl Harbor, and that humongous war went from peak to zilch in less time than we’ve spent in Iraq. Was the Korean War (/conflict) protecting American interests? I don’t know. Define "American interests" and what principles they were based on (then and now) and then I’ll decide. Vietnam was a shambles, and it’s highly useful to investigate why. We’ve since been in Panama, Beirut, Kosovo, Somalia, Rwanda?, Kuwait and Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again, and Iran is just begging the question.

That’s a lot of resources and a lot of lives, and I want to know why, and it pisses me off that there are no straight answers. You can’t get them from the media or politicians, military and intelligence folk can’t tell you as much as they know, the populace is largely under-informed or mis-informed, professors have huge political biases and their books - when good - are inpenetrable, and when they’re penetrable, they’re just pandering to the public feeling (in terms of shock-value, or numbing affirmation). Where’s the truth in all this? Where’s the real story? How on earth am I to make any sort of decision or take a political stance and vote and speak and advocate accordingly, when there’s no truth to be had?

Hence, my sigh of relief upon reading the StratFor article. Plain, simple intelligence who’s best interest is getting as close to the truth of the situation as possible, in order to act wisely, shrewdly, and safely in protecting and planning one’s business. It doesn’t get any more trust-worthy or real-world than that, short of doing it all yourself.