Ryder Spearmann
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

This is all too much like being anti-police.

We look at the bad the war machine does (granted!). But we ignore it’s basic purpose and unseen utility and effect at our peril.

One can’t easily separate out the hazard from the benefit.

Like free speech, it presents us with some challenges, and just recently we failed an important test in that regard (by not resoundingly supporting the right of the Nazis to march in peace).

People are now saying free speech is a privilege. That’s a massive fail on our part.

It’s generally a *very bad thing* in my estimation to define yourself by what you are against. “I’m anti-war!” as if that was some kind of earth shattering breakthrough… as if that defined things well at all.

All it does is substitutes pathetic labels for genuine thought.

Liberal critique used to call on us to use reason and wisdom to chart our future… but then Marxist Critical Theory seduced us into polarizing everything in forming arguments.

But what about when you need to navigate a river instead of choosing a shore? (That’s fucking brilliant… I think I’ll write that one down. Oh, wait. )

Isn’t such navigation the bulk of what we need achieve in this life?

How can one choose women or men (feminism vs “The Patriarchy”)? Aren’t we stuck with each other? Isn’t this about navigating the issues as opposed to choosing a partisan side?

So it is with War making. Absolutely necessary. Absolutely horrific. We dare not embrace one or the other.

I will never be anti-war in the abstract.

Anyone who’s anti-war has never had their children threatened.

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    Ryder Spearmann

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