The Great Depression that began with the stock market crash
of 1929 was caused by many of the same factors that resulted in the Great
Recession of 2008. In spite of the
policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) New Deal, it is believed that it
was the industrial revitalization propelled by preparations for the U.S. entry
into World War II that brought the nation out of the devastating depression.
The arguments given for the U.S. participation in World War
II were many and included: the
preservation of democracy, the need to subdue and defeat fascism and to keep
the nation secure from outside aggression.
The case made for the U.S. to abandon its policy of isolationism was ultimately
accepted by the general public after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that
decimated the pacific fleet and left the public feeling terribly vulnerable.
Although war and the prospects for war can readily be used
to mobilize public opinion and permit the expenditure of vast amounts of public
resources necessary to maintain a war footing, it seems that the idea of spending
economic capital in order to assure a peaceful future through peaceful means
holds no real traction.
The application
of economic resources in order to ensure that no one goes hungry or homeless;
that the infrastructure required to sustain a modern technological culture is
appropriately tended to; that monies required to build an adequate health care
system are provided; that quality education for all is appropriately financed and, most importantly
that resources are utilized to help forestall the worst possible outcome from
climate change – all of these necessary
expenditures would stoke the economic engine, yet they face extraordinary
opposition. Efforts to mobilize the
public to address these important issues with the appropriate resources and
sustained effort have apparently stalled.
Quite to the contrary, we have heard calls for increased austerity that
will serve no useful purpose except to worsen the very problems that will
ultimately endanger the prospects for peace and social and economic justice.
I pose the following question – why are we unable as a
people and, in the broader sense, as a species
to wage the peace through reasoned and intelligent judgment while we are
all too willing to jeopardize our collective
future in the name of conflict, of aggression and ultimately war? A failure to find an adequate answer to this
puzzling reality and finally correct it may eventually lead to horrific
consequences.
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