Words are flowing out like endless rain into a papercup: We Need a War...HOL

In my rhetoric class we read a piece discussing the way that Americans talk about almost everything as if it were a war. Everything is "The War on Terrorism", "The War on Crime" "The Battle Against Breast Cancer". My own blogs are often some tale of petty warfare between myself and some unwitting person or thing. (ie: my dentist, the vending machine, etc.) Can difficult issues be reduced to good vs. bad. Aren't there more variables than that?

I realize that the things we preface with "The War on..." are soul depleting, heart wrenching and life ruining but can a personal trauma, or complex social problem be called a war? The word war makes it seem that a problem can be solved through destruction, or conquering, when it seems most problems must be addressed constructively for any change to take place. There needs to be cooperation and understanding not the need to win. When you divide issues into two camps you destroy any hope of compromise. In order to keep things in black and white, you have to deny truth if it discredits your position. Rather than solving problems we need to win. Problems that arise are no longer issues to be dealt with they are competitions to be won. Our war mentality is due to our competetive nature as Americans. And to do this we have to keep the world in black and white.

Not even my saga with the vending machine is quite so clear cut. Sometimes the little guy antagonizes me with his obstinance, but most times he delivers my purchased goods in a timely fashion and drops me a gratis morsel now and again. So is this truly a war? It's more like a relationship with highs and lows, not man versus machine or an epic battle against good and evil. Even a black and white film has shades of gray, in fact it's the shades of gray that create a cohesive picture, without those you would have black and white stripes and splotches that made no sense.

In other news, I stopped by the Andy Warhol exhibit on campus today that was FREE instead of $8 since I'm an OSU student. Go Bucks. Boo-ya. Mr. Warhol was a strange fellow. I was uncomfortable and yet intrigued by his art. He both defined and transcended his generation. I noted in one of the film installations his muse Edie Sedgwick was sporting the ELUSIVE NAUTICAL TEE, and some person or another in each of his films wearing some version of the striped tee, not mention he often wore one himself. Yes, he was a genius.