The Bopst Show - Episode 12
July 6, 2008 - 22:06
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I am special. Why am I special you ask? I’m the first generation of American males to not fight in a war. And that makes me really, really special because about every 20 years or so our country has sent it’s young men into battle. But not me. I am the exception.
If there was a draft I doubt we’d be waging the current wars that we are waging. That was the lesson of Vietnam. Drafting young men and women for battle is bad for business. By instilling an all-volunteer army, no one can complain when they’re sons and daughters come home dead. They went voluntarily. And if the majority of Americans don’t have to worry about their children dying in combat, they don’t care. The war profiteers can go about their business unimpeded as long as their children aren’t cannon fodder.
It is a brilliant strategy. A sick twisted strategy, but a brilliant one nonetheless.
The majority of us aren’t directly affected by our country’s current conflicts. We carry on as if they weren’t happening. Nothing has been asked of the citizenry to sacrifice for the wars either. We are just supposed to support these wars unquestioningly. Hell, taxes weren’t even raised even though we are waging not one, but two extremely costly wars. That is unheard of. This is the first time in American history that has happened in a time of war. The Bush administration has mortgaged our future by borrowing large sums of money from Social Security and foreign governments to pay for these conflicts. The ramifications of these decisions are going to have dire consequences for our country. Even if we got out of Iraq and Afghanistan yesterday, the damage has been done to our long-term fiscal health.
And yet we do nothing.
I don’t know what to say to our country’s servicemen and women other than I’m sorry. Your country has failed you. We should have demanded accountability from our government that continues to put you in harm’s way. Somewhere along the way, the American people forgot to question authority. We have allowed very rich men to become even richer men at your expense. The litany of abuses this corrupt government has leveled against all of us is staggering and we let it happen. We have no one to blame for this sad state of affairs except ourselves.
I think it’s time that we as a nation reexamine our priorities. A good place to start would be the impeachment of George Bush. Unless we hold him accountable for his criminal actions, no future president will fear the wrath of the American people. Anyone who holds that office needs to know that they aren’t above the law. The importance of reestablishing this fear of the people in the oval office cannot be overstated.
We also need to discuss what we want our government to do. I think I can speak for virtually all of us that if Katrina or what is happening in the Midwest afflicts any part of our country, our government should be there helping. Also, I think all of us would agree that government should maintain and upgrade our infrastructure. Jobs such as these can’t be left to the private sector. This is the job of government.
I believe that we all should all have health care as well. A friend of mine recently had cancer and had to keep working during his chemotherapy treatments so he could still receive his health care benefits. To me that is criminal. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t provide universal health care for its citizens. If we took half of what we spend on defense (not including the black budget), we could cover all Americans. Getting health care for all Americans should be our country’s next great achievement. It would make us all proud to be Americans.
Of course, none of this will be easy. Too many people are making far too much money in the current system for any real change to happen. In my more cynical moments, I don’t think anything will change unless something severely fucked up happens that makes 9/11 look like a day in the park. Hopefully it won’t come to that but considering our indifference concerning our two ongoing (and never-ending) wars, I’m not too optimistic. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Americans will always do the right thing after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives”.
After 8 years of complete and utter failure, I think it’s time that we started doing the right thing.
Until Next Time:
Stay Clean,
BOPST
great anti-war episode, but this would have been a perfect time to insert “dream told by moto” by the minutemen. i’m sure, though, that you’ll have many more occasions to make anti-war episodes.
thanks for doing it to me in my ear-hole.
I hope anti-war episodes come to an end eventually, but given current events, I doubt it…
That is a great Minutemen tune.
Here are some more anti-war tunes that almost made it into this episode:
Freda Payne: “Bring The Boys Home”
Max Romeo: “War Ina Babylon”
Articles of Faith: “Buy This War”
Donovan: “The War Drags On”
Billy Bragg: “Bush War Blues (Pts. 1 & 2)
Brinsley Schwarz: “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love & Understanding)”
Mikey Dread: “World War 3″
Funkadelic: “Wars of Armageddon”
Charles Wright: “Let’s Make Love Not War”
Fear: “Let’s Have A War”
Toxic Reasons: “War Hero”
Golden Gate Quartet: “Atom & Evil”
Lee Hazelwood: “Have You Made Any Bombs Today?”
Michael Franti & Spearhead: “Bomb The World”
Bonzo Goes to Washington: “(We Begin Bombing in) 5 Minutes”
The Weirdos: “We got the Neutron bomb”
and many, many more…
Chris, How about some Old Time, Zydeco, Creole and Cajun music? I don’t recall ever hearing any of the last three styles. Another great show as usual. Keep ‘em coming! Now I have to get my wife to figure out how to use her Ipod, so we can download shows. Opening the box would be a good start.
A journey of a thousand miles miles begins with one step. Be sure to tell your wife to take it.
Of all the music forms, I think I hate Zydeco the most. I think all those Jumping in July shows at the Virginia Museum pushed me over the edge when flocks of drunken middle-aged white people used to invade the Fan thinking they were doing something cultural listening to homogenized versions of the real thing. The form itself is fine, it’s the fans that killed it for me. At least the modern version that is. I put some of the vintage stuff in an upcoming show…
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080708173950.vpy06uxo&show_article=1
war is bad for business, and so is govt. support the free market and free enterprise systems. dont hate rich people, you want to be rich too dont you? Where in the constitution do you find that the govt. is supposed to help everyone who ever faces trouble in their lives? The govt’s job is written in the constitution. People need to help themselves not run to the govt. for help, people running to the govt to solve their problems is the reasons taxes go up. i guess youre a cool liberal who dosent mind paying more tax money to the same govt. you say abuses all of us????????????? emancipate yourself from mental slavery and embrace the morally superior economic system-capitalism, it seems you have some slavish socialist notions. Study economics. Im baffled why you think the govt. shoud run health care, infrastructure, the govt. screws up everything. I dont want goin to the doctor to be like goin to DMV. Politis and art are never a good mix
I don’t hate rich people. No, who I hate are multi-billionaires making even more billions of dollars at the expense of everyone else. In a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on March 29, 2007, both Secretary Robert Gates and DoD Comptroller Tina Jonas confirmed that there are currently around 126,000 private contractors doing business in Iraq. Free market solutions to waging war have made the filthy rich even richer and allowing the private sector to run amok in Iraq has been a disaster. Also, the scatological belief in trickle down economics isn’t the rising tide floats all boats financial answer it is cracked up to be. Only the top 1% have their incomes increase exponentially. The rest of us have to settle for scrapes from their plates.
So what exactly do you think the role of the American government should be? To do nothing? George Bush & his cronies have eviscerated government to prove their belief that government doesn’t work. He has proven that it doesn’t work when you do everything in your power to cripple it. Government fails when the people running it have a vested interest in seeing it not succeed.
And what is so bad about socialism anyway? No system of government is perfect, but an assimilation of the best attributes of socialism and capitalism would help a lot of people. We are the richest country on the planet and yet we are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t have universal health care. I think that it’s sick that my friend that had cancer had to keep on working in order to keep his coverage. Even then, he still has thousands of dollars of medical bills to contend with. The number one reason people file for bankruptcy is because of medical problems and most of those are filed by people with insurance. That shit ain’t right. Hell, I would gladly pay more taxes if a system of universal health care was implemented. We need to take the best of what other countries are doing and make it better. That’s the American way.
And I believe government can work. If my taxes went to rebuilding Katrina, educating the nation’s youth, universal health care and maintaining the country’s infrastructure, I wouldn’t wince when I made out the check to Uncle Sam. I’d be happy to do it. These are things vital to the long term health of the country.
Also, helping people rocks. You should try it sometime. It makes you feel totally awesome.
Here’s an example of government can change for the better. Locally, when DMV went through a radical restructuring a couple of years ago, it got better (much, much better). I used to spend countless hours in that hell hole before the changes. Since the revamping I haven’t spent longer than 20 minutes in the place (DMV on Broad St.). It was improved for the better. What about Roosevelt’s New Deal or Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964? Not perfect, but fuck, those acts of government made the country a better place. Government can and should work. If we are to believe that we are the greatest country on earth, we better damn well insist on having a government that we can trust that works for the betterment of all the citizenry and not big business. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Politics and entertainment don’t mix? Surely you jest? Haven’t you heard Nina Simone, the Minutemen, The Clash, Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Curtis Mayfield, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Manu Chao, Gil Scott-Heron, the Dead Kennedys, Max Roach and thousands of others that mix political thought and melody? In my ever-so-humble opinion, these people made some of the best music ever. Their music has meaning…
whats wrong with socialism is that it takes away your freedom of choice, instead govt. experts make choices for you. Do you want to make your own choices or do you want the govt. controlling your life, telling you what youre worth, where to work, what doctor to go to, where to live, etc. I strongly reccomend a book for you to read and i guarantee you will never ask whats wrong with socialism ever again its called “The anti-capitalist mentality” by Ludwig von Mises, richmond public libray has it, its a short read.
Socialism does not respect what consumers want in a free market, instead govt. planners decide everything. Socialism is simply an inferior economic system. The drugs your friend with cancer needs are made faster, are more plentiful, and delivered more efficiently in a capitalistic economic system than by a socialist economic system, this is just one example of why socialism sucks.
Capitalism is about entrepreneurs, capital, and labor in equal parts freely coming together to bring to market what consumers(you and I) want for relieve whatever causes us uneasiness. Socialism is govt. experts deciding what consumers(you and I) need, and you end up with Hitler.
You cant combine capitalism and socialism.
Why dont you want to keep your own money and choose who to give charity and help to.
I’m trying to help you realize that socialism is evil, it feels like youre resisting my help, i guess some people dont want help, but under socialism you are forced to accept help if thats what the govt wants.
I guess you have to love freedom to understand.
I dont think Rosevelt’s New Deal did anything but make more people dependent on the govt.(aka guv luv)
I believe that solutions to problems are best met by entrepreneurs, capital and labor working freely in unison, if you wait for the govt. to do all this you are setting yourself up for disappoinment. i know this is just scratching the surface, i’m not such a good writer, get that book i told you about for better elucidation.
I like art that isnt political, or hides it well, like bob marley, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselevs can free our minds, have no faith in atomic energy, cause none of us can a stop-a the time, how long shall they kill our prophets as we stand aside and look”
This may come as a shock, but just because someone or something makes money doesn’t always make it right…
we don’t live in a free market system, it’s state-funded capitalism. None of the billionaires and neocons of the world want free markets. They want to continue to drain the treasury for their contracts.
But when you loosen rules on monopolies in the name of the so-called “free market”, you’re left with nothing but corporate tyrannies - power that is even more centralized than in the state
also, what these “liberatarians” fail to realize is that you cannot have excessive wealth without excessive poverty
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