THE GREAT SWINDLE

CONTENTS

• Vietnam War
• Vietnam Vets' 'Double Whammy'
• Distractors Combined = War
• Gangs / Drunks / Wife-Beaters

Just the name we have given this particular Grand Distractor will pretty much describe it for those of us who came of age during the 1950s - 1980s.

It is the attitude toward the male of our species which was consistently fostered, nurtured, portrayed, symbolized and exploited by the well known actor John Wayne, in his movies during that era.

It is a view of 'manhood' which glorifies aggressiveness, stubbornness, quick-temperedness and pointless and avoidable physical confrontation, violence and war.

It sanctifies the utility of physical 'toughness', while denigrating the value and worth of the softer, more vulnerable, and more spiritual aspects of our nature as men.

It is the view that holds that "real" men are tough, self-reliant, invincible and aloof. They are aloof not only from others, but from their own feelings as well. It is the outlook that causes many of us to parrot, and even BELIEVE, that "real" men don't cry or otherwise show any form of emotion, no matter how much they might be hurting or otherwise feeling. And, neither do 'big' boys.

It is a view of manhood exemplified not only by all the modern day 'cowboys' who try to pattern themselves after the fictional characters portrayed by John Wayne, but which is also exemplified, and well embedded, in the Latino culture, from which another term for it has arisen - 'macho'.

It is the glorification of the supposed virtues of the warrior and of the idealized version of the cowboy of the American frontier west.

It is the BELIEF that the softer and more spiritual qualities of the human psyche are a form of 'weakness', and that rigid control and suppression of these qualities is 'strength'.

And, to paraphrase the vernacular of the American old west, it is 'pure-dee', 100% excrement of the male bovine those American cowboys tended.

In truth, it is a view of, and a BELIEF about, 'manhood', which is not only inaccurate and false, but outright and directly dangerous.

The 'John Wayne' Syndrome is, without any question, fully entitled to its place in this listing of the Grand Distractors.

This erroneous view of "real" men consigns half the population of our species into a netherland of half human being, and half unfeeling robot. It denies to the males of our species half of what makes a human being human. Indeed, it denies to them the higher and better half of what they are as beings - spirituality and the finer emotions. While purporting to define what a "real" man should be, it directly confines him into being something less than half of a whole person.

It is wrong! It is widespread. And it is deadly  !

One of the most recent, and best, examples of the evils this particular Grand Distractor can work was the involvement of American military forces in Southeast Asia during the '60s and '70s.

Many of the American veterans who managed to survive and return from that macabre and grotesque absurdity, made pointed mention of their attempt to live up to their image of 'John Wayne' in determining and judging their own feelings, outlooks and behavior while in Vietnam.

Every one of them, to one extent or another, were distracted by the 'John Wayne' Syndrome into not only not recognizing that it was wrong, but into actually convincing themselves that it was proper and 'manly', to choke back the natural and human revulsion they each felt in their guts at the indiscriminate killing, burning and mutilating of other human beings (men, women and children), which took place all around them, and in which they, themselves, participated.

They shipped over to Vietnam with visions in their minds of being a 'hero', just like John Wayne. In interviews afterward, that is precisely what a goodly number of them said:

It was only after each of them had returned (those who did), and after the damage was done (to themselves and their buddies as well as to the Vietnamese), that they were able to bring it all into clearer focus and attain a better grasp as to just what had happened to them.

The 'John Wayne' Syndrome is just that powerful!

Each of these young men thought he was doing the right thing. Each of them thought that the image of John Wayne was a proper one. And each of them tried to live up to that image.

But in trying to live up to it, each of them had to betray his own inner sense of human decency, and, in the end, each found his own sense of humanity and self-worth seriously compromised for having tried to do so.

Although the Vietnam War was, in essential fundamentals, typical of all wars, it did have some additional, and unusual, qualities to it. As a result, the veterans of that war, unlike the vets of most earlier American wars, suffered an additional 'double whammy' for ever having participated in it.

First, they didn't win the war. They lost! There's no hiding that fact. Although America has been involved in other military actions which were far less than successful, this was the first such action, large enough to be called a 'war', in which the government's attempt to claim 'victory' was so obviously and transparently feeble.

They didn't ask for it, but, upon being called to go, they went and did the best they could. And, having done so, which they thought, and were told by their government and their elders, was the right thing to do, and having inflicted upon others, and having suffered, themselves, horrors beyond description, the whole thing now seems totally pointless.

Second, as if the first 'whammy' wasn't bad enough, upon returning home, not only were they not given a hero's welcome, they were actually castigated by some of their own countrymen for having gone in the first place.

The whole Vietnam situation, in a very unique way, clearly shows the potency for evil inherent not only in the 'John Wayne' Syndrome, but in several other of the Grand Distractors, and in the Conceit of Self, especially when they all come together at the same time.

The Vietnam conflict (as with any war) could not have taken place at all were it not for 'Us' vs.'Them' allowing for the battle lines to be drawn in the first place.

Then (and, again, as with many other wars), once it became apparent to the combat soldier that the whole situation made little sense, and was, in essence, a gratuitous exercise in atrocious and inhumane excesses, the soldiers, themselves, realized that 'something' was 'wrong.

But, the 'experts' (generals and politicians) kept them distracted away from heeding their Intuitive sense of 'wrongness', by reinforcing 'Us' vs. 'Them' and 'John Wayne' as the proper model for how they should feel (or not  feel) about what they were doing.

Finally, our returning vets would not have had to suffer the cold shoulder and embarrassed silence of all those who had watched the whole thing in living color on the evening t.v. news, and yet did nothing to stop it, either because they, too had been caught up in 'Us' vs.'Them', 'John Wayne' and the 'The Need for Experts', or were suffering from the apathy of 'Who? Little Ole Me?'.

Nor would our returning vets have suffered the indignant, self-righteous scorn of a few others, if those few others hadn't been caught up in the Conceit of their 'oh, so moral' and judgmental selves.

And, in these ways, the Distractors of the Great Swindle converged within each, and all, of us, to cause us to participate (either directly or indirectly) in a war most of us really didn't want, and then caused many of us (again, either directly or indirectly) to turn on those who most directly symbolized our involvement in that war, and try to lay all the blame on them.

For a FACT, the totality of all of these manifestations of the Great Swindle, operating together, were so effective in concealing themselves and their operation from us, that rather than putting the blame where it truly lay, on our own erroneous modes of thinking (the Grand Distractors and the Swindle, itself), we wound up blaming one another.

This is a clear cut example of how the Great Swindle can operate, and how damaging its consequences can be.

But, 'John Wayne' also operates on a less grandiose scale as well.

It is the two drunks fighting in a bar because neither of them can back down over some inconsequential insult that neither of them really meant.

It is the husband beating his wife and otherwise insisting that she obey his every command, because he has to be the 'man' of the house. And it is the wife going along with this because she too has bought into the syndrome.

It is the proud papa telling his son that it is better to be a football hero than to read and understand the works of Plato and Shakespeare.

It is the gangs of the Latino Barrios killing one another in order to prove which is more 'macho'.

There have been some significant inroads made into the 'John Wayne' Syndrome during the past several years.

But it is far from dead.

And, until it is dead, it will continue poisoning minds and lives.