Soldiers suffering much for nothing much at all

This Wednesday is ‘ANZAC Day’ in Australia, a day on which we remember those men and women who marched bravely off to war and especially those who did not return. For those who did, a necessary myth of the unrelenting war machine is that just as young soldiers must be honourably blown to bits by land mines (or whatever), the damaged ex-veterans must carry themselves with quiet dignity. There is little sympathy shown for any solider who comes home and cannot keep his shite together. That war is necessarily horrific and commonly traumatic are deadly facts obscured behind the carefully constructed facade that these deeply troubled men were already predisposed to their now, demonstrable madness. Moreover, solutions to this centuries’ old problem increasingly hinge on building up young recruits to become even more resilient in the face of constantly anticipating or participating in death and destruction. In fact, perhaps the most bizarre solution I have heard about involves using Martin Seligman’s positive psychology approach against soldiers, simultaneously stripping the war machine of any culpability while compelling those hapless soldiers to simply try harder.

It will not work.

War stinks…

Gay men getting madder by the minute

The second ‘Private Lives‘ study here in Australia has confirmed that us pewfs are totally fucking mad and are getting madder, still, by the minute. This report conveniently apportions absolute blame for our burgeoning psychopathology to ‘heterosexism’…

‘There is now a well established body of research showing significant variations in the prevalence and patterns of mental ill-health between GLBT and mainstream communities (Corboz, Dowsett, et al. 2008; Herek and Garnets 2007; Meyer 2003; Smith et al. 2003). In particular, the research suggests that GLBT people are at increased risk of a range of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety disorders, self-harm and suicide, due to their experiences of heterosexist discrimination and abuse (Cochran and Mays 2000; Cochran, Sullivan and Mays 2003; Cox, Dawaele et al. 2009; Hillier, Jones et al. 2010; Pitts, Mitchell et al. 2006; Suicide Prevention Australia 2009)’.

While I can admire the ‘good politics’ of holding onto the now dated concept that heterosexism renders us fags crazy, that quaint finding is not reflected in how other researchers approach this problematic, which is mostly through the epigenetic lens, whereby gay men are born with a genetic predisposition to madness, but alternatively, for some researchers, in which homosexuality and mental illness are melded into one. Thus, cure one, cure the other.

The rush to get as many fags as possible into mainstream health services to have their madness treated will instantly leave at the door discussions about the impacts of ‘heterosexism’ or whatever upon our mental health to instead have us become the passive recipients of the pharmacological gear to which we will be plied, and our pathetic transition into the category of diseased subjects.

When, for example, serial homophobe Jeff Kennett claims that he wants to help out, we should all be extremely concerned…