"and it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for? don't know and ah don't give a damn, next stop is viet nam" what good is poetics? Back in Davis in 1966 I took a course called Rhetoric. Thought it would be something like public speaking. The national debate topic that year was something like "resolved, the U.S. should maintain its overseas commitments." And I decided to research the negative. There was a war going on. Of course, I was against the war in a kind of hazy, anti-establishment, student-hippie youth culture sort of way. Fuck the war, I woulda rather slept in. War is death. Death hurts. Why bother? Let's go the beach instead. Nobody ever answered the question, why are we in Vietnam? I read every single Vital Speech of the Day on the topic and nobody ever gave a good reason. But I know why. Because as a skinny, stringy-haired 18 year-old incipient drug addict or alcoholic rummaging through the library at the University of California at Davis, I stumbled across The Plan. If you think the war in viet nam had any geo-political significance whatsoever you couldn't have seen The Plan. The war in viet nam could as easily have been fought against penguins at the South Pole, if only you could get them damn penguins to fight back and kill a few of our boys for good measure. Chicken shit penguins! The Plan was something called "defense manpower channelling" and its rationale was the recognition that modern warfare is a scientific-industrial undertaking that requires the permanent mobilization of the civilian, as well as the military, population. Selective service was the instrument by which the civilian population would be sorted and streamed into the educational pathways that would make the nation's laboratories, strategic think tanks and munitions plants bristle with talent, energy and -- most important of all -- sheer bulk. "What did you do during the war, daddy?" "I went to graduate school, my son." There are two ways to look at the 1A selective service classification. You could view 1A as the point of the whole exercise and you'd be wrong. Or you could view 1A as an admission of failure to comply with the intricate requirements for exemption and deferment -- a booby prize for the drop outs and malcontents. Deferment and exemption were the golden keys to personal success and career fulfillment in the permanently mobilized national security state. Ask Bill Clinton. Ask Newt Gingrich. Viet nam happened because of a defense manpower surplus. A lot of knifes and forks on the table, you gotta eat something. A demographic glut and biological inevitability. So, what's it all got to do with mutual funds? Do the arithmetic, folks. And don't forget The Plan. Deferment and exemption were not ways to avoid the draft under selective service. Not by a long shot. They WERE the draft. The post war U.S. tax code has remarkably similar features to the selective service regulations. Tax exemptions and deferments ARE the tax. For the generation born after the war, retirement savings and pension plans were the grad schools of the 1990s. The same demographic bulge that threw the defense manpower channelling plan for a loop tried to squeeze through the "retirement savings" loopholes thirty years later. The fund managers had a lot of knifes and forks on the table. They had to eat something. Emerging markets. High tech. Penguins. Whatever. Mah fellow Uhmuhrikins, Uncle Sam wanted you to go to graduate school. But there were too many of you. Then, Uncle Sam wanted you to buy mutual funds. But there were still too many of you. The great bull market of the 1990s made about as much sense as the war in viet nam. And for precisely the same reasons. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Or was that just a glint in the eye of the bear in the depths of the cave? You're born, you grow up, you get old, you die. Not necessarily in that order. Regards, Tom Walker ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
