I have two sons, aged nine and eleven, who are often angry and pugilistic with one another. And recently it's become apparent to me the communication style of my pre-teen boys is, frighteningly, mirroring the ways of current political dialogue. To sum: when the two parties disagree, the situation often quickly escalates to inane name calling and shouting, quickly followed by various beatings of each other about the head and neck, then much butthurt and finger-pointing and general whining. Is it dinner at my house or today's Fox and Friends? Both the far left and far right political voices (the media on a macro level too, but I mean the masses you and I watch spewing garden-variety vitriol on our Twitter and Facebook accounts daily), are like those of toddlers.
I guess we are a bunch of naked apes, but there's nothing like a national cultural schism to really bring out the poo-flinging, cage bar-rattling knuckle draggers of all political stripes. And the recent release of the drama now nominated for six Academy Awards American Sniper, directed by right wing poster child (and famous chair lecturer) Clint Eastwood, is just the cataclysm for a perfect internet storm of hate. I have not seen American Sniper, but I am eager to as soon as you send money for babysitting. Related: I need a Kickstarter account. However, it's both the left and right wing fringe that deserve a big, fat time out.
On the far right, I am not loving your tweets featuring your desire to shoot "you some ragheads" and general xenophobic and knee-jerk hatred of anyone wearing skin darker than a paper bag. Outer-right wing, you are not Lee Greenwood. You are not Toby Keith. You are an ammosexual. Sadly, you utilize less than critical thinking. In 2000, half this country felt the presidency was taken by fraud. This half of the country was appalled at our government's decision to invade another country illegally and occupy it without our okay a few years later. The 2000-2008 American government only broke the world. Sorry, not sorry.
War and violence, largely kept surging and ever-popular on a global scale by males, may indeed be a biological by-product of the naked ape thing. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't give Herculean effort to eradicate it. If we humans keep building that pre-frontal cortex out over the porch of our brains, maybe we can keep the slaughters to a minimum. Makes sense the left doesn't want war glorified or to fool our more intellectually-challenged citizens into thinking the Iraq war was a worthwhile endeavor that we should repeat. Wergild went out with the Beowulf era. Oh, look it up, kids.
But far lefties? Egad! Michael Moore says he was taught by his grandparents that snipers are cowards. Mike, my grandparents taught me white people were superior to black ones. Probably we can throw out a few of the greater generation's ideas with the light of several decades of perspective. I understand Michael Moore. I, too, can be a blurter. But maybe we shouldn't verbalize every thought, Mike. I'm sorry you lost your relative to an enemy sniper, but America has to be able to defend itself against people who haven't quite evolved there yet. And until someone has shot at you in enemy territory, you might want to hold your own fire.
Seth Rogan says American Sniper is government propaganda. Again, I'll get back with you when I've been able to see American Sniper with my review. I'm thinking I'm probably going to find my healthy anti-war sentiment can exist with my patriotism. I try to put myself in soldiers' boots and I just can't imagine the enormity of their experience and what inner life a solider has no choice but to navigate. A movie I have seen more than once, highly recommended, is Jar Head. Straight from a soldier's mouth, it might give Seth an idea about what a soldier's journey is and what he or she sacrifices and experiences in order to stand in between me and Seth and the bad guys. Plus, Seth's a city boy. He's got no idea what it's like to live comfortably with guns and use them to get stuff to eat.
It doesn't take having met the man to know Chris Kyle had to be conflicted about his job and the tremendous toll it took on him and his wife and children personally. Chris Kyle was not glib about what his job was. He knew it saved countless lives and had great meaning. Being an American solider almost, or maybe did, cost him everything. It must have been a mental ride morally, psychologically, and emotionally that most of us could not fathom...perhaps, just maybe, without the help of this movie. I cannot express my respect for Kyle and every American armed service officer. I just want to see a scene of his kicking Jesse Ventura's ass, which I hope really did happen despite what the judge said. But I digress.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous quote: The test of a first-rate intelligence intelligence to be able to hold two opposing ideas in mind. Why don't we all take a moment to consider: it is entirely possible for American Sniper to be a right wing rah rah piece from a rich old establishment white dude, sure. But also and at the same time, it could be possible this movie can give the viewer the ability to experience vicariously, if only for two hours, the agony and the ecstasy of the American solider: honor. Respect. Great personal meaning. Belonging. But also isolation, despair, terror, hopelessness, and sometimes even perhaps madness. And that empathy can only be healing to our great but sadly and currently badly bifurcated America.
