American Ignorance of War
Creslaw Milosz's American Ignorance of War is a critique of America'sobliviousness to the fact that there could exist differences in socialorders and values, which could be as natural as the American way ofthinking and life. It is important to note here that Milosz goes to greatlength to prove that different states, such as war, can grow to become asnatural a condition as times of peace, since both become part of man'sexperience. To illustrate this point, he points out that human nature is sogeared to survival that it quickly learns to adapt to new livingconditions. Therefore, he says, that one can even conceive "...of the daywhen a thoroughly self-respecting citizen will crawl on all fours, sportinga tail of brightly colored feathers as a sign of conformity to the order he Milosz supports his argument in three ways. One, he explains thatAmerica's obliviousness is an outcome of Americans never having experiencedthe trauma of a war or social order that teac
hes men just how relativetheir judgments and thinking habits are. Although Milosz wrote American Ignorance of War in 1953, his almostprophetic warning has begun to assume more meaning today given the effectand aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, which belied theAmerican sense of security and belief in its social order. " (Milosz, 1953) In other words, Milosz opines that human kind'ssense of security about the perceived natural order of life is, at anypoint in time, always precariously on the edge and in danger of tripping. a little like Charlie Chaplin in'The Gold Rush,' bustling about in a shack poised precariously on the edgeof a cliff. Though the waragainst terrorism is taking place on foreign soil, the fact remains thatthe terrorist attacks changed the previous natural order of things. Milosz provides several examples to prove that the American belief inits social order is based on a false and shaky foundation, which couldcrumble at any time. For example, Miloszseems to have completely overlooked America's own struggle for freedom, thedeprivations of The Great Depression, or the fact that American lives, too,were lost in World War II. Milosz's critique, especially the examples he uses to illustrate hisargument, portrays American concepts as primarily stemming from thehistorical experience of a society that has enjoyed material success, aswell as peace. Three, the end result of such American concepts, Milosz feels, isan appalling lack of imagination of what it really means to live withhunger, disease, bombed cities, or the terror of a despotic government. Until then, to use Milosz'sexample, the average citizen will behave ". Take,for example, the heightened security at airports as against a time whentravelers were free to come and go. Though Milosz makes quite a few valid observations about human nature andthe fragility of peace at any given time, his assessment of the Americansystem is too one-dimensional to be considered as fair. The peace and prosperity has, however, led to foolisharrogance about the American way of life being the only 'natural' order.
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