Howard Zinn on Our ‘Addiction to Massive Violence’
AlterNet By Yuri Loudon, The Internationalist Posted October 18, 2006 (m)
The man who changed the way we look at history explains where Iraq war resistance fits into the history of peace activism.
Howard Zinn has changed the way we read history. The People’s History of the United States pulled the mask off some of the enduring, and damaging myths about America. His writings and teachings encourage us to look beyond what we’ve been spoonfed and to question the “need” for violence. He continues to be an outspoken critic of war and political coruption and a vocal proponent of grassroots activism. The Internationalist caught up with him for our Worldly Advice Issue.
You argue that governments must convince the public to go to war; that war is not inherent of human nature. How did this happen with the Iraq war?
The government set out to present false information. Colin Powell presented a detailed account of Hussein’s WMDs, probably the most compact assembly of falsehoods that have ever been uttered in front of the United Nations. They then bombarded the public, aided by an uncritical press, with information that led them to believe that the United States was somehow in imminent danger and that we had to go to war. There was a barrage of information given to the public by the government, and then repeated by the press. This is clear evidence that the government cannot depend on the public’s natural instinct to go to war; they have to work very, very hard; they have to propagandize and persuade them [the public] that war is necessary.
In a recent article in The Progressive, you say that we have an “addiction to massive violence.” How can we shake this addiction?
It isn’t that the people are addicted to massive violence, but they can become addicted. That is, they can become accustomed to the idea that the only solution to a problem, when someone crosses a boundary or when a tyrant exists, war is the solution.
The wars are poisoning minds of the people engaged in them, and the answer is to look back in history, to look at the outcomes of war. Can you find that when you kill millions of people and maim hundreds of thousands, is there more democracy? More liberty? To learn about history is to kick the habit of violence and show that war is futile and addiction is a consequence of engagement in it. [more]