Soulless Empires and Nameless Massacres
Mahatma Gandhi said that empires and states represented violence in a concentrated form, and that they were soulless and could never be weaned from violence to which they owed their very existence. His words came to mind when it was reported that a U.S.-led NATO air strike killed four civilians-including two women and a small child, and when Wikileaks released a 2007 video showing twelve Iraqi unarmed civilians being brutally massacred by an Army Apache helicopter in Baghdad-as soldiers chuckled and joked in the background, and again when General Stanley McChrystal exclaimed U.S. troops have shot an amazing number of innocent people at checkpoints in Afghanistan. All of these reports came on the heels of yet another massacre in Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces that occurred in February and killed three women and two men.
A massacre is any fight that results in the deaths of a number of noncombatants, especially women and children. It also describes any large-scale killing of people. Sadly, there have been many nameless massacres in Afghanistan and Iraq by U.S., NATO and corporate and private security forces, too numerous to list here. Many massacres have been suppressed and shunned by a populace that is uninterested in the harsh truths and realities of the acts of violence they support. This is very troubling, because it is emblematic of a soulless and uncaring empire. Soulless means to lack feelings of empathy and compassion and to be uncaring and unkind. Soulless empires do not only produce nameless massacres, but also movements that are soulless. This can be seen with the current Tea Party Movement, the callousness at town hall meetings, and ultra right-wing militias and hate groups.
For the United States, a compassionate and soulful government started to develop during the Progressive Era and as a result of the New Deal and Great Society Programs. Due to the continual mobilization for war and acts of militarism after the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam Conflict, along with hundreds of minor armed interventions around the world, a compassionate and soulful government, that once aided the poor and elderly and provided educational and economic opportunities, slowly became intermingled, associated with, and replaced by militarism, or absolute brute force. Unaware of this slow but drastic change, the United States was transformed into a war-like, violent and soulless empire, that neither respects life nor is capable of compassion. From a global perspective, it acts and behaves as if it is above the rule of law, treaties, and the United Nations.
Soulless empires with a concentrated form of violence and militancy only think in terms of massive power, of being technologically triumphant, and of being absolute. When groups of people are killed or massacred, whether on purpose or by mistake, they are dismissed or go unnoticed. This is why that when the nameless massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan are accumulated and have greatly surpassed Sept 9-11 many times over, there is no revulsion or horror. A soulless empire will devour itself and its citizens, as both become isolated and alienated from each other, the world, and even reality itself. Nameless massacres, on the other hand, do have names, including the people who are killed. They are related to loved ones and a community and are not easily forgotten. Impersonal empires do not recognize this, but decentralized nations and stateless societies, that understand accountability, do.
Since Gandhi believed that empires and states were depersonalizing and alienating, citizens should train themselves to examine the institutions they participate in and have created. If such institutions do not achieve the moral good, citizens must re-evaluate why they make it possible or continue to allow violent and abusive governments to exist, including their nameless massacres. The danger is for citizens to think they are powerless to the point that a soulless government-corporate-military becomes a convenient device for the delegation of responsibilities. Gandhi believed in order to reverse this trend of extreme centralization of violence, that one must develop a sense of compassion and empathy, especially for the victims. Through marching, petitioning, voting, boycotting, and acts of civil disobedience, a soulful citizen can influence representatives, which come from the privileged and wealthy classes, to adhere to a more enlightening and compassionate set of values.
Since the purpose of an empire, or a government-corporate establishment and its large standing army, is to prepare and execute killing resulting in lengthy armed occupations and nameless massacres (both foreign and domestic), it must be confronted and changed. (In regards to the United States, a soulful people would universalize health care and promote workers rights and safety. They would force the legislature to de-fund unnecessary wars and corporate abuses that in turn, supports an executive that commands unnecessary wars and dismisses safety violations-like the one that caused the recent mine explosion. Soulful citizens would also alter a judiciary that lacks the courage to declare armed conflicts and corporate abuses unconstitutional.) According to Gandhi, a caring, empathetic and soulful government will be possible when its people are awakened to the plight and suffering of others, and when they share responsibility in governing the country, and when they realize the citizen is the sovereign, who appoints the government.
Only then will a soulless empire and its nameless massacres be reversed.
