Henry Imler June 21st, 2006

While driving from Osage Beach to Kansas City last Saturday, we listened to “Masters of War”
by Dylan. It is a great sounding song and I think has a great warning
about profiting from war. However, there is subtle irony in the last
stanza of the song :

And I hope that you die
And your death’ll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead

The song assumes that the war is fought for un-noble reasons, yet I
don’t think that really applies to any of the wars that the US has
fought in this century. This is however beside the point.

The irony I think lies in Dylan’s professed hatred of the
war-profiteer. What is worse, enjoying profiting from war or letting
injustice corrupt your soul to the point that you hope for the death of
another person?

It is when people allow injustice (or perceived injustice) to breed
hatred that some of the worlds worst conflicts brew. Often this sense
of injustice is shifted onto scapegoats. It happened in Christianity
thought the Middle Ages, culminating in the Holocaust; and is it
happening thought the impoverished Middle East and South Asia right now.

Beware of hating ideas and attaching them to people, they often come back to corrupt your very soul.

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