Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times boldly goes where no one else in the mainstream press will go; he criticizes his own by quoting Chris Hodges and Eric Hoffer. And gives new meaning to the word “collective farm”. Too bad the rest of the mainstream collectivized corporate press doesn’t have such courage:

A Pulitzer Prize winner, [Chris] Hedges knows a lot about war and war-related death. He was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. He covered the Balkans and the Middle East, including the first Gulf War, where he was captured by the Iraqis. He also covered Central America. He is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School.

I will not try to paraphrase Hedges’ eloquence. I will quote him at length:

“I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug. ... It is peddled by mythmakers - historians, war correspondents, filmmakers, novelists and the state. ... 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.

“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 who live in splendid indolence and safety of the industrialized world, are all susceptible to war’s appeal.”

Hedges indicts his colleagues in the press for being co-conspirators in the celebration of war:

“It is hard, maybe impossible, to fight a war if the cause is viewed as bankrupt. The sanctity of the cause is crucial to the effort. The state spends tremendous time protecting, explaining and promoting the cause. And some of the most important cheerleaders of the cause are the reporters. This is true in nearly every war. During the Gulf War, as in the weeks after the September attacks, communities gathered for vigils and worship services. The enterprise of the state became imbued with religious aura. We, even those in the press, spoke in the collective.”