On last week's Real Time, Bill Maher had a fascinating conversation with Sebastian Junger about Junger's new book, War.
Recounting the months Junger spent embedded with a 30-man platoon in Afghanistan's remote Korengal Valley, the book is divided into three parts. The first two deal with Fear and Killing. In the last section, Junger explained to Maher, he wanted to explore why, even after a soldier is put through "the worst experience possible," he often misses it when he returns home. "What's missing in society," Junger asked, "where he would say something like that?"
According to Junger, the answer is not the obvious -- that the soldiers are adrenaline junkies. The answer, in fact, is Love -- the title of War's third section.
"These guys are junkies, kind of, for the brotherly love," observed Maher.
"That's exactly right," replied Junger. "This one guy said to me 'you know there are guys in the platoon who straight up hate each other, but we would all die for each other.' Every guy in that platoon was necessary to everyone else and that necessariness, I think, is actually way more addictive than adrenaline is. I think that's what people are talking about when soldiers say 'I miss it over there.' You have an unshakable meaning in a small group that you can't duplicate in a society."
"Unshakable meaning." And "necessariness." We can duplicate both outside the battlefield. Indeed, we have to. In times of mortal danger, soldiers unconsciously create a sense of purpose and community and kinship. Right now, the perils we are facing here at home are not as tangible and immediate as those faced by our soldiers in Afghanistan. Nobody is shooting at us -- and I don't mean to draw an equivalency to the deadly threat our men and women in uniform are bravely facing every day. But 26 million people are unemployed or underemployed, with over four percent of U.S. workers having been unemployed for more than six months -- nearly twice the percentage it was back in 1983. And more and more people are entering the ranks of "the 99ers" -- those who have been unemployed for 99 weeks, after which all unemployment benefits end.
As Sandra Pianalto, the President and CEO of the Cleveland Fed, said on Tuesday, "our journey out of this deep recession [will] be a slow one."
Make no mistake: though it's not war, it is financial warfare -- and there's an enemy out there that does not wish you well. A few reform measures aren't going to change the fact that there are hugely powerful banks looking to ensnare you and your family in a cycle of debt. Foreclosures continue to surge. Health care costs are going to continue to skyrocket -- even for the insured. And long-term unemployment is going to be a fact of life for the foreseeable future.
The results of these can be deadly. "The suicide rate has already gone up, and my suspicion is that it will not go down," said Paula Clayton, director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. "There are data to substantiate a relationship between unemployment and suicide."
A 2002 study by researchers at Yale found that "high unemployment rates increase mortality and low unemployment decreases mortality and increases the sense of well being in a community." According to M. Harvey Brenner, one of the study's authors, economic growth is the single biggest factor in life expectancy. "Employment is the essential element of social status and it establishes a person as a contributing member of society and also has very important implications for self-esteem," he says. "When that is taken away, people become susceptible to depression, cardiovascular disease, AIDS and many other illnesses that increase mortality."
This economic crisis has put into question the American Dream and threatens the very survival of the middle class as the economic and cultural engine of our country.
It's also become clear -- not just in the United States but throughout the industrialized world -- that we're not going to be able to rely solely on government to fix things. Yes, we need the government to do all it can to create jobs and to wisely spend our tax dollars, but the question is, what can we do to help ourselves -- and each other? How can we recreate the sense of "unshakable meaning" and "necessariness" Junger describes? How can we create our own bands of brothers -- and sisters -- in communities all across the country that will not only give us that sense of purpose and necessariness, but allow us to face down these threats?
The truth is, we are hardwired to seek out unshakable meaning. The longing for necessariness is in our DNA. In The Fourth Instinct, I wrote about this part of ourselves -- the instinct that compels us all to go beyond our impulses for survival, sex, and power, and drives us to expand the boundaries of our caring beyond our solitary selves to include the world around us: "The call to community is not a hollow protestation of universal brotherhood. It is the call of our Fourth Instinct to make another's pain our own, to expand into our true self through giving. This is not the cold, abstract giving to humanity in general and to no human being in particular. It is concrete, intimate, tangible."
This is what the soldiers Junger wrote about were missing when they left the battlefield. And we can create it in our own lives. If we choose to. Evidence shows that when we look outward, reach out, and connect -- especially in times of trouble -- good things follow.
Take the case of Annette Arca, a Las Vegas commercial real estate professional. After she lost her job, she began to spend some of her newfound free time volunteering in her community. Even though she couldn't afford to make the payments on her townhouse, she figured there were still people in worse-off situations who needed help, so she set aside a chunk of hours each week to help deliver lunches to medical centers and work with homeless families. "It's a great opportunity to get involved, to help other people," she told the Las Vegas Review Journal. But volunteering also lent Arca a sense of purpose and positive outlook that complemented her job search. "If I'm negative, nothing's ever going to happen for me," she said.
Or Seth Reams, who lost his job as a concierge in December 2008. He took an energetic approach to his job hunt, circulating his resume to more than 300 potential employers. But when he got no bites, Reams told KOMO News, he felt useless, "like I wasn't a member of society anymore, like I wasn't contributing to [my] household anymore." Frustrated, he and his girlfriend, Michelle King, who worked as an assistant administrator analyst at a health insurance company, brainstormed ways for him to stay productive during his job search. And together, they came up with We've Got Time To Help, an online platform for locals who have extra time -- generally people who were laid-off -- and want to contribute to the community in Portland, Oregon, where Reams and King live. For the blog's first project, Reams helped a single, pregnant women, who also cared for her three siblings, move furniture into her home. And more projects soon followed: painting a room in a battered women's shelter, teaching refugees how to drive, helping a needy family repair the roof on their home. Within sixteen months of the site's launch in January 2009, We've Got Time To Help assembled more than a hundred volunteers, who've assisted hundreds of struggling locals.
If we're looking to create this sense of purpose and meaning, the Internet and social media can be valuable tools to connect us. The website DonorsChoose.org was conceived by Bronx high school social studies teacher Charles Best. It provides a forum for public school teachers from all over the country to post funding requests for classroom needs. Users then browse the listings -- which run the gamut from notebooks and pencils to projectors -- and donate. As of this month, ten years after the site launched, it has raised over $52 million for over 130,000 different proposals.
Even more locally focused is SeeClickFix.com, started by Connecticut web developer Ben Berkowitz. It invites users to post non-emergency problems in neighborhoods, such as a broken street lamp or potholed roads. Other members then chime in with solutions, and sometimes neighbors reply with fixes within minutes.
Then there are sites like Recessionwire.com, LayoffSupportNetwork.com, LayoffSpace.com, HowIGotLaidOff.com, and The405club.com, which are being used to share tips about finding work and getting by, and also give comfort by allowing people to safely voice anxieties and fears about the future. Or the aptly named I Need A Freakin' Job, which describes itself as "a grass roots American movement, giving voice to the millions affected by the crazy unemployment numbers."
And in this recession, those crazy numbers don't only represent those on the lower end of the economic spectrum. The Wall Street Journal has an entire blog devoted to the stories of those with MBAs who are unemployed and looking for work.
One thing is clear -- we're not going to be able to face the perils of this new economic landscape alone. And those of us who are under less of a threat need to reach out to those who have already been ensnared. When soldiers talk about being in a foxhole, it's always about who they are in the foxhole with -- it's not a place you want to be by yourself. There's not just strength in numbers -- there's purpose and meaning if we reach out and connect.
As Pablo Neruda said: "To feel the intimacy of brothers is a marvelous thing in life. To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life. But to feel the affection that comes from those whom we do not know, from those unknown to us, who are watching over our sleep and solitude, over our dangers and weaknesses -- that is something still greater and more beautiful because it widens out the boundaries of our being and unites all living things."
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
There are many myths about professional soldiers, this is only one of them, and does not reflect the whole truth. Recently the movie Hurt Locker claimed that soldiers were hooked on danger and adventure.
The "brotherly love" thesis does not work for professional soldiers, since their principal motive is material interest, not service to the larger society. It is often claimed that the US and many other nation state soldiers are not in it for material interest and that they are volunteers, but the material incentives used to lure them are well known.
The bare truth is that, we are like the ants when it comes to being programmed into social functions by chemicals, natural or artificial. Serving the ruling classes in work or violence is natural for humans. For most people, Bob Dylan was right;
"You are gonna have to serve somebody"
Only humans who declare their freedom from the natural cycles are truly free. Professional soldiers who serve functions designed by a narrow section of the society are not free people and can not be trusted as role models.
True love is universal.
I guess I'm also a perspective person. I have no idea how my husband and I survive month to month, but we just do. Just the other day, I asked my father if these times were any worse than the 70s. He thought and said "No, not really. Do you see mile long lines at the gas station?"
How many of you in subdivisions know your neighbors? How many of you who live in apartment complexes know very many of your neighbors? How many of you would share your last piece of bread with your neighbor? Not very many I would venture to guess.
"Bums" do it all the time.
I am the founder of a non-profit foundation, which aims to assist families in need by providing Job placement job certification or translation if needed, also an advocate for all clients needs. We don't get paid one red cent. The local law enforcement has set the grounds for us to be isolated and hated by the locals because we don't fit the description required by them our nationality is offensive to them. And we are told that we don't belong in their neighborhood. The fact of the mater is that I am a Muslim looking for the best interest and safety of my fellow Americans. So how do we practice charity, unity, and respect in a hateful world? In a time like this where people are truly in need of help one can only hop that they’re not distracted by hate mongers and Hippocrates
At the moment Muslims are at the top of the list because of recent activity. Fortunatly,this too will pass. IT will take time though until the majority come to a realization that most Muslims are just like them and not the bomb throwing, suicide vest wearing demons they have been portrayed.
As a group becomes larger you tend to lose that closeness. You don't feel a closeness with the person in the next city, the next state. That makes it much easier for you and "your buddies" to band together for your common good and survival. You don't know that person in the next state. Makes it much easier to throw them "under the bus" to insure your and your "buddies" survival.
so of course no one feels connected to even the local government or larger company
We also need to shake the mentality that Big Daddy corporations and Wall Street have our best interests at heart and are responsible for America's greatness. The US is quickly becoming the world's biggest has-been, thanks to Reagan, Bush, Clinton (bad NAFTA, good budget surplus though), and the ultimate horror, the Cheney/Dubya human hybrid.””
Disenchanted
A reverse spell
floats down on my head
buzzing flakes of white.
My mother's malaise
her unfulfilled life
my unfulfilled life.
My eyes are about to close
a kind of coma
of the soul
I have danced
myself into this corner
while working to crack
what does not work
or works too hard.
Suffering is plentiful.
I breathe it in and out
daily now, so much so
it takes constant residence
in my lungs, throat & nose.
Disfigures my belly,
my face. Erases
memory&recall
of a past self
full of life and enthusiasm
So much to give.
Infuses its presence
upon and strands
me within its fuzzy
confines-Limitless
& with little mercy.
Turns me into a beggar
a ne'er do well
the worst self I could become
or fulfill-
Once everyone's promise
now everyone's baggage
This is the spell it casts on me.
Poor pitiful suffering
I pray my eyes see through
and pierce your invisibility
rendering you harmless
or useful.
A red-gold larva
glowing in a midnight
blue pool.
I pray for your well being.
A song that captures Arianna's message:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AalyJ_UvC_4