Has there ever been no war anywhere?

By Ken Spooner

Another D-Day has passed. Normandy was supposed to be the beginning of a new world, a better world. World War II was called “the good war.” But how could that be true when millions died and millions more were wounded? It was a great victory for the Western Allies and another crushing defeat for humanity. Ironically, fascism was not defeated. It continued in Spain. The tyranny of General Franco lasted until 1975. Why he was allowed to remain in power is the subject of another article.

The world did not experience peace. The world fell apart again as the great empires were defeated and the conflicts continued: the division of Korea, China, Vietnam, India And Germany. Five years later, in 1950, the Korean War began. Young men, boys actually, were the next victims of modern human sacrifice and were betrayed when they were asked to march in lockstep to an early grave to save capitalism.

Thus began a quiet rebellion in the early 1950s, the Beat Generation, the Beatniks, the counterculture, the anti-establishment, anti-materialistic lifestyle. It had begun in the bohemian world of the 19th century. It was a reaction to a world that was alien to intellectuals who saw through the deception of patriotism, of conventional philosophy. And the tentative acceptance of the status quo. Why not use drugs to escape a war-torn world? Get out and resist. They were rebels with a mission. The hippies of the 60s took up this mission, if only briefly.

Has there ever been a time in human history when there wasn’t war somewhere? Humans became murderers when they fell from the trees and became carnivores. It’s high time we admitted what kind of species we really are: evolution’s deadliest predators. The famous dialogue at the end of the movie Planet of the Apes says it best: To put it another way: we (humans) are the harbingers of death.

Those of us who have studied and taught history know that war has always been a war of income inequality, and ethnocentric and egocentric behavior. It began thousands of years ago. It is not far-fetched to think that without obscene human greed, none of our Western revolutions would have happened. The Russian Revolution was a reaction to extreme income inequality.

The third great world war of empires, the Cold War between capitalism and communism, was already in full swing before World War II was over. The bloodstain of human history continues with the induction of Ukraine and Gaza into the hall of human shame.

Some of us may find it difficult to accept without guilt that the United States of America is one of the great empires of modern times. Some believe that we are a rogue state, waging war not to promote democracy but to preserve capitalism.

Historians have always known it could happen here. It was predictable. Now we are turning on ourselves; existential hypocrisy and the proliferation of comic conspiracies threaten to destroy our country. The lost sons of war have come back to settle down. The taint of greed and rigid conformity weighs heavily on us. Income equality and ethnocentric and self-centered behavior have never really left us. We have lost our way. No one should be surprised.

The next D-Day is in November. We will get what we deserve.

Ken Spooner is a Korean War veteran, retired high school social studies teacher, professor of world regional geography, and author of ten digital novels. Spooner lives in Littleton.