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By Theodore Jerome Saed III
Two cows were talking. One said, ``Aren't you worried about mad cows disease?" The other replied, "No, I am not worried about that, I am a horse.''
This was a joke in a TEFL newsletter. The article on May 9, ``Mad at US beef and 'Americow' Disease'' is also a horse, or equine scatology that is. Calling Chinese students brainwashed is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan-made movies for General Electric for the far right in the U.S., as is talking about ``brainwashing'' by the Koreans of the U.S. invaders, shown in high schools in the 1950s.
Bob Marley sang reggae songs about the brainwashing style of education capitalism, giving a view from the other side of the political spectrum. Brainwashing as a term is a rather trite Cold War anachronism, and in this context culturally chauvinist, smacking of some racism.
Referring to the sanity of being pro-American as given in the article, being an American from California, it has been an embarrassment to be associated with U.S. policy since the illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, unjust and criminal invasion of Vietnam by the U.S. government. About 80 percent of Americans opposed that war by 1972. So there is no joy in seeing mighty Casey strike out. The U.S. government has continued its illegal thumbing of its nose at the world in Iraq. Most Europeans, Asians, and even about 65 percent of Americans rightly oppose such U.S. government actions, and the cultural imperialism they represent.
Fifty thousand U.S. Vietnam vets committed suicide. Why? Because it was noble to fight there? It is the vortices of unreason, and apotheosis of the absurd to defend such history.
The meta-point is Korea is not the strongest power in the world ruling most of the economies as the U.S. does, so it is good for her to be nationalistic, and cultivate Korean traditions, while modernizing at the same time, the best of both worlds. The U.S. has to think more globally, and the electorate there is moving in that direction now.
The article claims China is to blame for the failure to reunify, but American presidents opposed the sunshine policy, which is not dead yet. China did not send troops to the Yalu River, and threaten to invade China. McArthur did, and only Truman out of political expediency stopped him from nuking or invading China. Korea was arbitrarily divided at the 38th parallel in 1948 into North and South by Western neo-colonialists, so it is ridiculous to claim the Chinese caused this problem. After this division by the U.N., naturally the Koreans fought back, as they fought Tang China in 670 A.D.
Tibet invaded China in 714 A.D., and occupied the capital and the horse lands, the seat of imperial power, when China was the greatest power in the world. So the sensationalist and trendy anti-Chinese protestors need history lessons. There is more to the story than the sensationalist conventional press reports. So what brainwashing are we talking about here. Probably the U.S.'s attempt to justify its robbery of the poor throughout history, replacing the British and other former colonial pirates after WW I.
But even more egregious errors occur in the article when beginning the defense of U.S. beef. Korea is about 20 percent Buddhist, a larger number loosely identifying with these traditions as they were formed in Korea. Thailand is 98 percent Buddhist, India largely Hindu, so it is an insult to recommend that beef-eating be promoted, as Buddhism and Hinduism strongly oppose beef-eating as the most serious of offence against God, or the Dharma. Korea also has a large Christian population. The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus has a passage interpreted as a vegetarian tract.
Ecologists have documented well the case against beef being 15 times less efficient as a food source than the alternatives. The human body has 18 feet to 20 feet of intestine, small canines, and large molars, all designed for a vegetarian diet, and indeed the Asian diet reflects this reality. About 40 percent of Americans are obese, the highest percentage in the world, and that shows how monstrous the McDiet really is. Call that sane? Yes protein produces brain cells, aids memory, and helps with stress, but the above shows beef is the worst source for it.
As to the ``sanity'' of pro-American beef-eating as written in the article, Thomas Szasz has books like the Myth of Mental Illness, where he shows that so-called mental illness is a recent diagnosis, and represents, as Wilhelm Reich would also explain, projection and repression, in other words those who call others crazy are themselves crazy. No need to say anything bad about anybody, we are all in the same horse herd they say, not crazy. So enjoy the green pastures while we have them. Beef eating will deplete the pastures that much sooner. Get the fish on the grill, the soy in the soup, the beans in the pot, and the nuts on the menu, the world will forever thank you. The cows in Thailand and around the world are as cute as pets. Have a heart.
The writer teaches English at Kookmin University. He can be reached at toddsaed@hotmail.com.
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