Now, I am a card-carrying legionnaire.
On the back of my Card are listed the Eligibility Dates--to wit:
WWI: April 6, 1917 - November 11, 1918
WWII: December 7, 1941 - December 31, 1946
Korean War: June 25, 1950 - January 31, 1955
Vietnam War: February 28, 1961 - May 7, 1975
Lebanon/Grenada: August 24, 1982 - July 31, 1984
Panama: December 20, 1989 - January 31, 1990
Gulf War: August 2, 1990 - Cessation of hostilities as determined by the U.S. Government.
It would be difficult to think of a shorter or more dramatic way to capsulize the course of American History within living memory than this series of dates, memories, and circumstances. I was born in 1938; I remember WWII from my vantage as a potential lampshade in a basement in Budapest; I remember the Korean War, having immigrated to the U.S. in its midst--in 1951; I remember the Vietnam War--my active service in the U.S. Navy (my claim on Legionnaire eligibility) dating from 1961 to 1965.
It would appear that the current war--it is not easy to remember this--has been continuous for the past 19 years--no doubt some--many--young soldiers and sailors were born after the current war began. Their memories are of Permanent and Interminable War. Of a permanent State of War. Or are they? Is there a psychopathology to everyday life? What do we notice; what do we remember?
I woke this AM (after a long night of La Traviata last night) to find a News Alert in my Inbox. It was from the NYT:
Over 100 Dead in Suicide Car Bombings in Baghdad
A pair of suicide car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad, killing at least 108 people and wounding 512, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Does or did it feel like Wartime to you this Morning? Have we become unconscious of the circumstance that we are in and of a State of War? What psychology are we using--what psychology is being deployed to keep this 19 year-old war going? It seems that there is some unbridgeable Gulf between this war and the University of Colorado Campus, with its talented students staging a performance of La Traviata--the fundraising dean--the Utterly Normal Campus with some--what is it --some 30,0000 draft-age youngsters partying... No, it's not Götterdämmerung Berlin Staatsoper 1945; it's more bizarre--the young students over here are utterly disconnected from their dying young or not-so-young active duty compatriots Over There.
Now, you may think that this is disconnected from my preceding blog entry about the possibility that Positive Psychology is undermining America.
My memory of last night's Audience at "The Wayward Woman" (La Traviata) tells me that maybe, just maybe, there is in the air a Positive Psychology making us all numb.
