THE DEADLY GAME

© 1983 by Stuart Norman


This article was published in RFD #37, Winter ‘83/84, “Radical Fairy Digest.”
Even with the Cold War over, nothing has changed since I wrote this.

        The arms race, the Cold War of espionage and the nuclear industry with its no fault insurance policies are a deadly game, perhaps a cultural death wish, based in paranoia. We humans fear loss of life, work possessions, way of life - all a loss of the familiar, a fear of the unknown. We act out of insecurity and a sense of powerlessness. Thus militarism is an obsession worldwide - a game played by those in power with the petty emotions of little boys. This irrational obsession has spawned the rape of the earth, human rape, racial rape, cultural rape - the death culture rules - poverty, prejudice, persecution from a sense of separation and alienation from ourselves.
        We play a game of one-upmanship in the arms race and in the limited war of espionage, marked by covert hostilities, based in a need for secrecy and security. Such security can never be realized. Yet we live in a world where there is little trust or respect, and secrecy is its product, further breeding and feeding the paranoia in a vicious cycle. And the opposition escalates creating a weapons race that ever brings us closer to disaster.
        This game is sapping the world of its natural and human resources. Money that could build shelters for the homeless and feed the poverty-stricken or discover new ways to heal - the list can be extended infinitely - is used for potential destruction. If this isn’t crazy, what is? The economy of nations is strained to the breaking point for this illusion of defense.
        Yet some people will argue that the defense industry creates jobs and bolsters the economy. They are right up to a point. But the end product is useless except to be destroyed or grow obsolete if not used. Nothing is given back. It is a monster that only devours and cannot refertilize the earth. Most of the money goes to the ruling elite, increasing their power, furthering their potential to lead us to destruction.
        Two super powers want to unify the world on their terms in attempts to impose their cultures on everyone else with no understanding that their ways won’t cure the ills and will surely wreak devastation upon a people. Yet nations want noninterference and a cultural identity (belonging), a certain lifestyle. Thus the world factions, fragments, nation fights nation, political groups fight political groups. The individual either joins or leads or is left out altogether and at the mercy of other powers organized against him. Therefore one is not allowed to make personal decisions and act freely on them.
        Recently we have seen the U.S. intervene in Lebanon, setting up another potential escalation to a third world war. And we invaded Grenada, a minor Caribean nation that could not be of any harm to us, even if communist. We rationalize that we act out of good will and to preserve the best political system, but is good will to be demonstrated through force of arms and military aid given to intervene in the affairs of other nations?
        The U.S. cannot police the world, or Russia. Yet there are always some people itching to put their manipulative fingers in another political skirmish somewhere in the world. The machinations and plottings of our leaders are not sane.
        We are involved in Nicaragua, San Salvador, Honduras and many other Central and South American nations, not caring for their people, but only to protect our own corporate interests. We are content to support right-wing dictatorships which will preserve our vested interests just as long as it doesn’t come home to us. Yet we say we support democracy. All the rhetoric from our government is bullshit. But what government in the world can be believed? An honest, truthful government seems a contradiction in terms.
        The only reason we have the freedoms we exercise in America is because we do exercise them and, too, there is that social inertia of tradition which aids our lawmakers in keeping to the constitution. But even those freedoms are being increasingly eroded by the paranoia of power.
        Because people project their personal problems out into the world, as if the causes of their woes are out there, and because of their paranoia they must scapegoat and blame others for their problems. Our leaders are in the same trap. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they wish to keep us powerless and try to ever increase their own. They foster scapegoating to focus our attention away
from their own ineptitude and greed as a manipulation in their power games. Thus we have racial and ideological-political prejudices up to the point of genocide. Indians are persecuted in Guatemala and Mexico, gays, blacks, Chicanos, here; the poor, everywhere.
        We tend to have a sense of powerlessness in this milieu of big government, institutions, corporations. However, power resides in all of us, even under the muzzle of a gun. It is only our belief in our powerlessness that makes us so. We live negative beliefs, but beliefs can be changed. We can change our culture only by living as we choose - acting in ways to be role models of positive living and sending out goodwill.
        Politics feeds on this powerlessness and its vacuum pulls in the worst of the power-hungry. Few enlightened people are in politics. Most political leaders are incapable of self-respect, responsibility, self-control, thus their inflated egos compel them to control others out of personal inadequacies. Only too often is politics ruled by the lower emotions and nothing more than a rationalization of those unreasonable drives unsuited to the complex technological culture we have built. Future Shock is slapping us hard in the face and escalating the crazy behavior.
        Yet we gays have given our power to the political systems of the world. Now it is time to withdraw our support - that is better than opposition. Ideologies are traps that we can spring. And we must be in the forefront as educators espousing new ways of life. We must call for individual, personal change, not for political solutions within the system or revolution without it.
        It is time to stop playing the games. We should know them well enough by now, and see their negative consequences. We’ve had to play them to learn our lessons. Now it is time to behave from a higher level of consciousness, cease our divisiveness and paranoia. People must have their consciousness raised beyond that of mere ideologies, technical solutions and political platitudes to see that a war economy is the most insidious form of oppression.
        It will take people of quiet courage and integrity to intelligently oppose the war machine. Some may actively demonstrate, put their lives in jeopardy, or lecture, write or work quietly behind the scenes. It is of prime importance to be sensitive to the needs and wants of people the world over, to hold a commitment to humanity stronger than belief in any ideology. As in the Indian philosophy, the goal is to protect life and the earth, to be of service to the world.
        
        I had hoped that the special sensitivities of gay people would lead us to a radical politics, or beyond that, to a spiritual view. To build a way, a vision of how to stop the insanity of world militarism and help bring people together. We have already broken many taboos in accepting ourselves, so it should be easy to break others and oppose war, nuclear threat, minority persecution. We can be a creative force to change our society rather than being accepted by it only on terms of our affectional preference while adapting to the prevailing cultural norm. We can take personal responsibility to be Government Watchers and call our leaders to take responsibility to a higher morality. Certainly there is a widespread feeling that events are building up to an explosive change, worldwide. Whether that change will be nuclear war or a change in consciousness and culture is up to us. But most people will agree that the state of the world cannot long remain as it is. What we have set in motion will certainly produce drastic world change in every facet of life very soon.

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