Comments on: how does it feel to war on the world?

By: sweetleaf

sweetleaf — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:04:42 +0000

you are on the right path for solution nez, stay strong.

i just read as a reminder, how gandhi encouraged people to think for themselves and to create change without the use of violence, but to rather use “peaceful non-cooperation”. gandhi’s passive resistance is responsible for releasing india from the finacial, social, political, and spiritual tyranny of the british empire, from what i understand.

i wake up more or less like you do nezua, in an easy way relatively speaking. maybe it is because i don’t have the taliban, the mob, or drug cartels settin up shop in my neighborhood or family that i don’t understand the agenda and hoped for results in the middle east, as well as other areas. i wonder who or what are you referring to whit, when you say “our” neighbors and families?

i don’t see where the public flogging of man, woman, or child is justification to send in drones anywhere…(what about darfur?)
i don’t get it – that education, communication, negotiations, “peaceful resistance”, a better/healthier way than drones, or a better way than a costly military occupation of an area isn’t even discussed, let alone planned, let alone attempted? personally, it makes me question what is really going on, and makes me feel like i obviously don’t have the whole story here.

i also have to say i found the referred to video very questionable on a few levels. but won’t belabor that.

of course it’s “not as simple as to say that everyone is innocent”. it is probably safer to say no one is innocent. that seems to be what nezua is addressing really, “I think about the forces coming to bear and I think that there’s got to be a good number of us willing to be part of that better way. And to know what it is and how that way might manifest. And how we can reinforce it outside of our self as well as within.” there lies how to address the complicity in my own life.

i do believe in the ability for a solidarity of a consciousness to manifest results. that consciousness must begin with self, even if introduced by another, to then unify with like minded/hearted people to become it’s own force. that is why i like to say…

peace, one love, and pass it on

By: Whit

Whit — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:49:59 +0000

No, it’s probably innocent people who want all this craziness to stop so they can just feed their damn families who are dying, while the evil heartless bastards hide under a rock til the buzzing goes away. And the innocent life lost isn’t a fair price to pay if even one piece of scum is made to feel a little justice. But it’s not as simple as saying that everyone is innocent, either. Because they’re not. There’s a lot of complicity that we all do every day, by paying our taxes to the war machine, by allowing the Taliban or the mob or the drug cartels to set up shop in our neighborhoods and families. That complicity and nuance gets lost in a lot of discussions.

By: nezua

nezua — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:58:01 +0000

i think that is how a lot of us stay okay with the kind of thing i’m writing about. we imagine that the worst types of people we can imagine are the ones being killed by our rockets or drones or bombs or troops. and yet, that’s not really how it works. if only.

By: Whit

Whit — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:23:27 +0000

You know, I do think about this when I pay my taxes, but the great thing (apparently) about being near the poverty line is that they give it all back. I don't think Obama is going to live up to his anti-war rhetoric from the campaign season, now that he's face to face with the realities of the situation. I think that ending the war in Iraq and getting the hell out of Afghanistan is not just the rock but also the hard place, and it won't be easy to continue on, but it will still be easier than behaving as if brown people's lives and right to self-determination mattered. I don't wish death on anyone, but if any of the men who were present here are suffering a little bit, I am not disquieted.