Anti-war Mentality Isn't Ending War


After World War II, two major events happened in the United States.  The first is that the US became a military superpower and the second is that people developed an anti-war response to this.  The anti-war mentality was seen throughout American culture including the arts.  Many poets started writing about war and how awful it is. The problem is, now that America is a military powerhouse, there’s no going back.

Despite the critiques that poets like Denise Levertov and Maxine Kumin wrote about war and war culture in  "Life at War" and "Woodchucks", war is still very present in American society. As great as it would be for us to be able to rid our lives of war and simply have peace, it’s impossible because the US government makes a lot of money from the military and selling military goods. The government also pours a lot of money into the military to create new products to be sold.

Image result for where does the us get its money
Photo from https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/

With all this money going towards the military and defense, it’s safe to say that America is dependent on war-or at least the revenue from war.  This means that the US government likes having wars since they can make money off of them even though they are killing their people or people in other countries.

I know I would love for wars and war life to end entirely, but I also realize that this mentality is not going to actually do anything since war is what’s helping our country stay afloat.  Forever ending wars doesn’t seem like something that could be done at this point in time, but maybe if people can find a different revenue option for the government, then war could end.

What do you think about the possibility of ending all wars for America? Do you think this is even possible?


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