Thursday, November 11, 2010

No Dahlias and Cherry Trees. Just Poppys.

It bothers me to participate in holidays, as if only once a year is it appropriate to think about the dead, and military conquest, and expansionist entrepeneurial-colonialist utopias.

I found myself reading an article about Armistice Day at 10:58 am., and decided I could take the two minutes on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to have a moment of silence. My brain, of course, would not be silent, and thought about the ramifications of war and - more importantly - the assumptions that allow for it. I came up with the following guidelines for myself, that I should not become a soldier:
I respect fellow humans' right to live.
I respect their right to the mutual protection of imperfect mortal law, and the benefits of my subjective metaphysical contemplations, as long as it doesn't interfere with theirs.
I respect their earnestness.
I respect their will to live, their pursuit of happiness.
I respect their quest for understanding in the postmodern world.
I respect their right not to be over-romanticized.
I respect their right not to be patronized.
I respect that placing them under my chains of influence is counterproductive to these desires.

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