It may seem odd to some that I'm as anti-government as I am while having a certain reverence our service men and women.
Of course, I hate all governments. War is hell. The military industrial complex is a real thing, and it's a curse.
That has nothing to do with Memorial Day.
"Imagine a war in which no one showed up to fight. " some say.
Yeah, I can imagine it. I can also imagine Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson begging to have a three-way with me. It ain't gonna happen.
I fully understand the people who dodged the draft during Vietnam. There's plenty of nuance when it comes to the choice to serve in the military -- at least when you're a mildly thoughtful person.
Yes, a part of joining the military is relinquishing your right to pick and choose the wars that you might be ordered to fight during your service. You don't get to pick and choose your missions on the basis of personal beliefs.
Still, I'm tired of the pacifists.
Desmond Doss is the only pacifist that I can think of who was useful in the real world, and he still went to war.
Being against war and violence is fine. That's great. We should all be so noble. A lot of people aren't that noble.
Maybe you think that the Jains have the right idea; but, they did literally zero to stop Hitler. If the world were divided into 10% Nazis and 90% Jaines along with other similar brands of pacifists, the 90% would be dead or enslaved in less than a week.
Humanity needs good people who have no active desire to harm anyone while also being willing to pick up a damn gun and kill one of the millions or more bad guys in the world who are gunning for innocent people.
War isn't the worst thing in the world. Fighting the Civil War, at least to my mind, was a better idea than congressmen pissing at each other for another half a century before abolishing slavery. The best way to stop genocide is war (possibly the only way).
So, yes, for this anarchist, honoring our fallen soldiers is important. Today isn't the day to muse about how great it would be if American citizens just refused to fight. It's the day to acknowledge that a great deal of progress was made because some people realized that there are evils in the world that can only be fought with force, and at the risk of life and limb, and that any "fighting" done in the comfort of an armchair would be nothing but self-serving.