A Brief Op-Ed on Pacifism

Pacifism is not a moral philosophy of inaction or passivity. Quite the opposite, it is electric, expansive, even forceful. See Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches if you don’t believe me. A pacifist cannot be a coward, but must be prepared to stand up and speak on behalf of peace and higher ideals, even humbly, even faced with violent retribution.

As a pacifist, I see no problem with people who are not catagorically opposed to war, but with war apologists and warmongers. Journalist Chris Hedges refers to the “mythmakers” of war who fly the flag of patriotic glory while shunting compassion, caution, and bitter reality into a dark closet of the architecture of social conscience. (War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges, 2002 Anchor Books)

A moderate approach to violence is far better than an extreme thirst for glory and battlefield meaning. While my own philosophy may lie far to an extreme, I am at least able to respect the “moderates.” The same cannot be said for those at the other end of the spectrum.

As a species, we must defy the dictates of the gods of war, starve them of their blood sacrifices, and evolve past their station. Conflict, strife, and even violence may be human, but mass killings are well beneath us. We can no longer attempt to justify such behavior with a thin veneer of false idealism. It is time now, with our ever-increasing capacity for mass suicide, to take this stand and hold our ranks firm in the name of peace and prosperity.

~ NG

Another Burma Post

The situation in Burma is much worse than the American media knows or says.

Duh. I have no comment on this at this time.

~ NG, again

You Must Be The Change

As cliche as it has become, Mahatma Gandhi revealed his wisdom when he said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

One of the problems I have with progressives, anarchists, and other peace-loving types like myself is that they are too aggressive and, often, mean about… just about everything. They have not personally integrated the traits which they preach the loudest, such as peace and tolerance. If they had, they wouldn’t be so ready to jump down the throats of opponents and allies alike in the case of minor factual mistakes or a simple difference in experience or opinion.

“Arrogant Jerks for Peace” is not a movement you’re likely to run into, and yet it’s the message being broadcast by the intelligentsia of this country every day. Perhaps instead of trying to solve All The Big Problems all the time, we should first focus upon fixing our own problems. Society is a collection of individuals. If those individuals are not ready to evolve, neither will their social and political institutions.

To sum-up, a little compassion and understanding goes a long way.

~ NG

Iran A More and More Viable Military Target

And yes, I see this as a problem. Iran’s president is not one of my favorite people, but attacking Iran would have a ridiculously great destabilizing effect upon the entire Middle East region. Seymour Hersh on today’s Democracy Now! went so far as to say that if we were to compare Iraq to Vietnam, an attack on Iran would be much worse than Cambodia. As he pointed out, the Vietnam war, as stupid and awful as it was, never went beyond the tactical boundaries of the conflict, whereas the wars in Iraq and the almost forgotten Afghanistan (we Americans have such short memories, it seems) have already had a strong largely negative impact upon the entire region. War with Iran would be much worse, drawing nearly the entire Middle East into the conflict including Pakistan and Israel.

In related news, a Pentagon official was quoted as saying, “I hate all Iranians.” Cute. And cuter still, the Democrat-run Senate OKed $150 billion in additional war funds. This goes to show that we Americans need to grow out of the dualistic view that the parties can be easily differentiated into “good” and “evil”, “right” and “wrong”, or even “peaceful” and “warlike”. It simply isn’t true! Neither of the two big parties is “good” or even “on our side”. They are purely self-serving. Learn that and integrate it into your own political reality. See today’s headlines on Democracy Now!

~ NG