Book Reviews: a culture of death

Rachael Maddow’s new book “Drift” is a well documented review of how America continues to succumb to the military industrial complex. A parallel article in a recent copy of the “Nation” describes how the multinational military organization, NATO exists for war. The argument goes like this: NATO must find a use for its military combat readiness or it will cease to exist. Similarly, Maddow describes the need for war to justify the huge expense of America’s military machinery.

Strange then that since an obvious by-product of military use is death, the subject of death is the most unpopular topic of conversation in our culture. War causes death in so many ways and not just on the battle field. The gross misuse of a nation’s resources on weaponry is documented by Maddow. The neglect of infrastructure, education and the hardening of our culture is also a result of the war machine.

Chris Hedges appeared more than once on a radio show I co-hosted in Maine. He has written a series of books based on his experience as a New York Times war correspondent. Hedges’s“War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” could be a companion expansion of Maddow’s brilliant work that has a subtitle: “The Unmooring of American MILITARY Power.” Coincidentally, just yesterday I listened to a description of an arsenal of guns and ammunition owned by a neighbor in an otherwise quiet part of Akron. We were watching a 4th of July parade together. He was obviously very proud of his collection. “Anyone who breaks into my house is going to get it.” Since our culture has been so saturated with promoting weapons that have only one main purpose, namely death, it should not be so unusual to take a different look at it.