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January/February
2003
Book Review War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
He is not a pacifist, but what Chris Hedges writes is what we wish all Americans would read and consider as this country is led (or shoved) into another disastrous war. Hedges has all the qualifications needed to make him an up-close-and-personal expert on the subject. As a New York Times correspondent for fifteen years, he covered wars (or conflicts that pass for wars) in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, the West Bank and Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, the Punjab, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, and Kosovo. He claims that his purpose in writing the book was "not to dissuade us from war but to understand it." For those who might be put off by the title of the book, Hedges explains in his introduction: The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of much of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble. And those who have the least meaning in their lives, the impoverished refugees in Gaza, the disenfranchised North African immigrants in France, even the legions of young men who live in the splendid indolence and safety of the industrialized world, are all susceptible to war's appeal. Hedges describes how he became caught up in war's intensity and finally in its sickness. He acknowledges that his attraction to war was an addiction that finally he was able to shake. He recounts with stunning honesty his experiences in all the reporters' "hot spots" of the last few decades. This reviewer's personal admiration for Chris Hedges goes back many years. Whenever I saw his byline on a story in the Times, I counted on its being the real thing. His reports were about human beings, not anonymous strangers, and there was no government propaganda interwoven in the news. He always reported from the thick of the action, not from a hotel in a distant city where he used a phone list to get his information. I've been at some of those bars and overheard exchanges between reporters about the reliability of their contacts "in the field." When during the Persian Gulf war Hedges was told he had to be part of a press pool that would be escorted by the military on field trips, or else sit and wait for official reports, he broke the rules. It was the only way he knew to get the truth. It should not come as news to us to read his views on wars that are defined as ethnic conflicts, based on age-old hatreds and rivalries. They are not in fact "clashes between cultures or civilizations," but are manufactured, Hedges says: "born out of the collapse of civil societies, perpetuated by fear, greed and paranoia, and ... run by gangsters" who terrorize those they claim to protect. He doesn't go easy on the media, either. But the public is all too ready to accept the myths served up by a press that sees its role as being in the service of the state, defending policies that are often senseless. There are many chilling stories in this book - of murder dressed up as heroism, of unspeakable brutality, of the cynicism of political leaders, of personal tragedies that have left permanent scars. When he was interviewed by Charlie Rose on TV, Chris Hedges said he had paid a terrible price for what he learned. "I saw far, far too much," he added. It wasn't a surprise to learn that Hedges was an English Literature major in college or that he had received a degree in theology. This book is deeply enriched by classical references from Greek and Latin mythology, the Bible, the writings of Shakespeare, theologians, novelists, and philosophers. It would be a superb choice as a book for group discussions. Chapters on the myth of war, the plague of nationalism, Eros and Thanatos, could keep a peace crowd engaged for hours. While no reasonable person will disagree with Hedges' conclusion that "To survive as a human being is possible only through love," it is disappointing that he never touches on the philosophy or practice of nonviolence. There is no reference to its historical or contemporary successes. (As I write, 4,000 Iranian students who have been demonstrating nonviolently in Tehran to protest the death penalty of a professor, have succeeded in gaining a review of his case.) The closest Hedges comes to speaking of ways to reach peace is to advise, "Until there is a common vocabulary and a shared historical memory there is no peace in any society, only an absence of war." This is true, especially in places like Israel/Palestine, the Balkans, Cyprus, to name a few. The challenge of how to reach that shared narrative looms before us and becomes more urgent every day. This book is a powerful voice against war. Maybe because it was not written by a pacifist it will be more available to the general reading public. Chris Hedges is an articulate and courageous reporter who has not only witnessed the effects of war but has been brave enough to dig deep into his memory and his psyche to examine and reveal the depths of himself. - Virginia Baron
Virginia Baron, former editor of Fellowship and interim director of the FOR, has just stepped down as interim president of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. She lives in Connecticut.
©2003 Fellowship of Reconciliation |
It's
pretty certain that he doesn't have to dissuade Fellowship readers
from war, but we may have a way to go in understanding its great
appeal. That's something important for us to grasp in these days
when war fever is running so high. And when we read about his contacts
with the peace movement, Hedges even gives us a few things to ponder
about the antiwar strategies we've employed.