In the Interests of Full Disclosure

I suppose that one reason it took me so many years to consistently embrace pacifism was the fact that I had, growing up, a vested interest in the Military-Industrial-Complex: my father was a physical chemist who was employed for many years by Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory. So it always seemed somewhat hypocritical to me to take a hard-line anti-military stance when it was the MIC that had put food on my table and a roof over my head, the clothes on my back, the braces on my teeth, provided the health insurance policy that paid for medical care, the income that allowed me to live in a leafy suburb with an excellent school system, paid my college tuition, etc., etc. It was never my desire to be ungrateful. Nor did I wish to dishonor my own father's service to this country through his employment. I therefore understood and continue to understand fully the plight of others who, likewise, have vested interests in the current system in one way or another. And I do not doubt that I continue to have vested interests in the system in many ways of which I am not specifically aware. And yet...

And yet, this is the way that they buy your silence.