On Losers.

I gather Donald is in trouble again for referring to the occupants of an American military cemetery as ‘losers.’ Well now, this is slightly complicated because, if you’re going to be rational about it, those who lose their life are, by definition, losers. But the point isn’t based on the rational. It’s based on the fact that in a systemically aggressive and violent culture like America, the word ‘loser’ is synonymous with ‘failure.’ In fact, it’s probably even more pejorative. And that’s what’s upsetting people, especially when it’s revealed that Donald was using the term as an excuse for not turning up because it was raining and he didn’t want to get his hair wet. (Though with a hairstyle like his, who can blame him?)

But let’s just sidetrack a little here. Much of the rhetoric being fired at Trump refers to ‘men who laid down their life in defence of their country.’ Did they really? The fact is that in most major wars, a large proportion of the military personnel are enlisted by a government (or King or President or whatever) which gave them no choice but to be there or be in gaol. And while they were out there they went where they were told to go and did what they were told to do without exception. And if they got their heads blown off in the process, it was because they were expendable pawns in the game of government policy (or that of the King or President or whatever.) The conscripts didn’t lay down their lives at all, they had it taken from them.

And of course, the real sufferers in the final analysis were – and continue to be – the friends and family and other loved ones left behind to mourn. And so the point is fairly made: Presidents should not be stepping on the toes of those who mourn.

As for the rest of us who are not mourning, maybe we should put the dead behind us. We all have to die anyway and life is, and always will be, about the living. But disrespecting those who are both living and suffering is a mark of the true psychopath.