We the disposable masses
“We the people” has become a passé saying, a footnote to that once venerated enterprise called liberal democracy. In the bizarre reality of 2026, “We the disposable masses” is a more fitting motto.
In these times of polarization, there are multitudes of expendable, i.e. disposable humans in many countries, regardless of the regime type. As long as monarchs, dictators, autocrats, theocrats and just plain heads of state keep selling us their linear way of thinking that “we are right and they are wrong,” we are all screwed. As long as malicious mullahs, rabid rabbis and crusading clerics chant “God is on our side,” we are all godless.
Here’s the kicker: It doesn’t matter if we trust in the sacred righteousness, drink the government Kool-aide or cry bullshit every time we hear the news. As we face each other in the underground miklatim, the last thing anyone cares about is listening to the other guy’s point of view on politics and religion. In a public bomb shelter without reception, it’s more important to get the wi-fi password.
The world leaders who made this US-Israel-Iran outburst happen, each for reasons that have more to do with extremism, self-aggrandizement and political survival than anything that smacks of national interest, have turned us all into handy disposables.
US military doctrine has a name for this kind of expendable wartime casualty: “Reasonable collateral damage.” To be clear, “reasonable” isn’t limited to soldiers or legitimate military targets, and most certainly includes innocents who tragically get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Against this dark backdrop, a bright idea came to us yesterday afternoon as my wife and I were sitting in a Tel-Aviv café and got an advance alert, before the sirens, for incoming missiles. We got up and took our coffees with us to the bomb shelter. That’s what happens after surviving a hundred or so air raids. We’ve become so accustomed to the routine of taking cover that we are learning to normalize it. This morning, with the sounding of the 4:30 AM sirens, we were talking about making pessach with our neighbors in the shelter. We even joked about who’s going to bring the wine and matzah; one neighbor suggested we can do without the maror as we already have enough of a bitter taste.
With all the alerts and sirens in the air, the one thing we can be sure of is that the longer this war lasts, the more among us who will end up as reasonable collateral damage.
We the disposable masses of Israel were fed the pretense for this war way back when, on day one: that we are fighting for future generations. I am ashamed to say that, unlike most Americans, most Israelis bought into this lifeless way of thinking. I don’t trust anyone who implies that living and breathing Israeli citizens, my wife and kids included, are less important than unborn future generations. That’s the opposite of what my father, of blessed memory, must have had in mind when at the age of nineteen he fought for his life in a concentration camp. My dad’s personal survival of the holocaust enabled him to start a family. He and his heroic cohorts lived on to produce the next generations. In sharp contrast, the architects of this war of choice don’t care about anything beyond the next elections.
We the disposable masses of the State of Israel have long realized that we are up against a cruel enemy. There is no doubt that Iran’s fanatical jihadists want to destroy Israel. That said, between their wanting and destroying we started two wars with them, each without tangible results or an exit strategy to speak of. Just like our total loss war with Hamas.
This one-war-to-the next mess that we, the disposable masses of Israel, have been trapped in since October 7th is not an example of good against evil, it is more about pure evil against a lesser evil. Whatever we had left of our moral high ground was lost when we settled for that lesser evil.
No one asked us if we were ready for this war, even as we were reeling from losses of life and limb and severe post-trauma that have afflicted so many Israelis as a result of our previous wars with the Ayatollah’s regime, Hamas and Hezbollah, none of which amounted to anything but lofty claims, negligible gains and overall failure.
Disposable masses all over the Middle East are suffering from this latest round of hostilities, notably in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. With all the blind hatred that afflicts the region, there are always high numbers of expendables on both sides of conflicts in the Middle East.
The main thing all disposable masses have in common: our distress is always dwarfed by big profits for those who stand to gain shamelessly from our endless wars.
Perhaps, in these polarizing times, war victims in the Middle East can revive the lost art of talking to each other by acknowledging the sameness of our suffering and identifying the root cause, i.e. the real deep state: The banks, which always seem to profit from disasters, and all those military contractors who are lining up to replenish the stockpiles of the still unfallen Hamas, Hezbollah and now the latest Ayatollah’s regime.
In the meantime, we the disposable masses of Israel can wonder where this spreading regional war is taking us. Kurt Vonnegut called the world wars of the last century mankind’s first and second unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide. This war is starting to look like attempt number three.
