I Declare The War Is Over...in 1968

For those of you who do not know who don't know who Phil Ochs is, he is possibly the greatest and most insightful folk singer to come out of the Vietnam era. His songs are also really really good, on top of being powerful. In fact, Bob Dylan once even said, “I just can't keep up with Phil. And he's getting better and better and better.” The reason you probably have never heard of Ochs is because he committed suicide at the age of 36. (Interesting, it was revealed after his death that the FBI had a 410-page file on him.)



On my way home today, I was listening to my iPod, thanks to my new iTrip (so cool, it let's me listen to my iPod over my car stereo). Anywho, the song, "I Declare The War Is Over" came on. Here is a snippet of the lyrics:

Angry artists painting angry signs
Use their vision just to blind the blind
Poisoned players of a grizzly game
One is guilty and the other gets the point to blame
Pardon me if I refrain

I declare the war is over
It's over, it's over

So do your duty, boys, and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide
Find the flags so you can wave goodbye
But just before the end even treason might be worth a try
This country is too young to die

I declare the war is over
It's over, it's over

The scary party is that I think that most of this is just as true today as it was almost 40 YEARS AGO.

The first part reminded me, of course, of the protests last August in front of the RNC, in New York City. There were over 30,000 protestors, changing slogans, but really, it was just a lot of anger, and I felt that that protest, and many protests in general, are really just an opportunity for some people to make themselves feel better. On that day, 30.000 people did absolutely nothing but clog up traffic in Midtown. No one's mind was changed as a result of the protest: conservatives probably became more conservative when they watched it and liberals just nodded their heads in agreement.

Wow, I was planning on writing a pretty negative entry, about how America is stupid for not learning from its past, and how the idea of studying history to not repeat mistakes is bullshit. I certainly believe the latter, and the fact that Phil Ochs could write song lyrics 40 years ago that fit the present day scenario perfectly seems to prove this.

But I think that below all of this is really a message of hope. Many people, from my friends, to family, to political pundits on TV, have said that the War on Terror is the end of the American Empire. They've said that we've lost our power in the world, and that we've lost the respect of almost every single other country. Further, if we ever do regain respect, it will take at least a generation or two.

I disagree.

40 years ago, people thought the exact same thing. They thought that we were being hegemons by invading countries we had no business invading. But look at what happened: Things turned out pretty okay. Now, I am not in any way, shape, or form supporting the War on Terror, or President Bush, or any of that. But maybe the one thing we can learn from the past is that things will be okay. As the fat black guy said in Harold and Kumar, "The universe tends to unfold as it should." Granted, "as it should" is a pretty subjective statement, but you get the point. I'm also not staying people should stop dissenting or anything. The sooner the War on Terror is over, the better.

I guess that we have a tendancy to make the worst of things, and to see ourselves, or our generation, as some sort of focal point of history. But, if we sit back, relax, and have a Pina Colada, we might just realize that life isn't as bad as we might make it out to be.