[PAA-Discuss] Research Project for Peacemakers

[Ed O'Rourke]

Research Project for Peacemakers

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in
England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or
no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country
to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. 

John F. Kennedy




"Of course people don't want war. Why should a poor slob on a farm want to
risk his life in a war when the best thing he can get out of it is to come
back to his farm in one piece?"


Hermann Goering

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something
that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside
group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very
few at the expense of the masses.

Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

"In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to
shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A
time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other."


>From Wangari Maathai's Nobel Lecture, delivered in Oslo, 10 December 2004.

There have been many excellent studies showing how companies induce people
to buy products or services that they could easily get along without.  Vance
Packard started with his 1957 classic, The Hidden Persuaders.  More
recently, Martin Lindstrom's Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate
Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy show that the companies are far more
sophisticated than they were in 1957.

The surprise is that there has been zero detailed research showing how the
military industrial complex pulls the big con in history: telling us that
war is glorious and necessary. 

Progressives must recognize the awesome sales job made by government
propaganda that war is necessary and glorious, like a football game.  The
war sport is like mountain climbing or deep sea diving, far more dangerous
than everyday life.  As in a football game, we root for our side to win
because a defeat would bring catastrophic consequences.  In World War Two, a
victory by the Axis Powers would have brought slavery for all and
extermination for many.

As a teenager (born in 1944), I saw war as a great adventure.  Of course, a
fellow could get killed.  In the comic books, movies and documentaries, I
did not see burn victims nor injured soldiers who lost limbs.  Dead soldiers
looked like they were asleep.

The best war propaganda ever made was the 1952 NBC series Victory at Sea.
The editors reviewed 11,000 miles of film, prepared a stirring musical score
and narrative making 26 episodes lasting about 26 minutes each.  Television
reviewers wondered who would want to watch war documentaries on a Sunday
afternoon.  By the second week, they got their answer: just about everybody.

On YouTube see the finale for the episode, Beneath the Southern Cross, which
described the successful efforts by the American and Brazilian navies to
protect convoys in the South Atlantic.  This is the ending narrative:

And the convoys come through,

Bearing the wealth of the Southern Hemisphere, 

Refusing to pay one cent for tribute but willing to spend millions for
defense,

The American republics have swept from the ocean highways of the South
Atlantic their common foe.

Spread wide across the sea

Guarded by the might of nations that can fight side by side because they
have learned to live side by side.

The ships stream toward their goal Allied victory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-uLV7Qups
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku-uLV7Qups&feature=related>
&feature=related

Progressives must offer a peace vision through songs, poems, short stories,
movies and plays.  Offer contests with some prize money and much
recognition. My favorite peace vision comes from the 1967 hit, Crystal Blue
Persuasion by Tommy James and the Shondells:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXz4gZQSfYQ

Peacemakers must offer specifics. Otherwise, war criminals like George W.
Bush and Barack Obama will talk about peace until the cows come home. Here
are some specifics:

1) reduce the bloated US military budget by 90%, 

2) tax international arms sales,
3) begin a  moratorium on weapons research,
4) start a world-wide anti-poverty program,
5) train our armed forces for disaster relief,
6) establishing a cabinet level Department of Peace,
7) reduce nuclear weapons to zero, and,
8) negotiate to take all the world's nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert.




Note that each proposal can become a bumper sticker.  I invite progressives
to copy the excellent communication skills demonstrated our right-winger
friends, who have done well with simple slogans. People can instantly
understand what right-wingers want.  

Make no mistake. Humans must end war or war will end us and all life on our
planet.  This is not just an idea from hippies and Quakers.  See this plea
from General Douglas MacArthur when he spoke to the US Congress on April 19,
1951:

"I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more
revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very
destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of
settling international disputes... 

"Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn
failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter
destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last
chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our
Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and
involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that
will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art,
literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two
thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh." 



Environmentalists may be the first major group to accept war abolition
although, up to now, they have been indifferent to military spending.  I
hope they wake up for two reasons: 1) a nuclear war will end our
civilization in an afternoon and 2) the resources devoted to the military
means crumbs off the table for everything else.  We all want cleaner energy
and to reverse global warming but all these efforts achieve little as long
as the military goes full speed ahead.

Since Lloyd George remarked at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that
making peace was more complicated than making war, seeing this charade will
not be easy.  However, it must be done. With courage and vision, humans can
follow Isaiah by turning swords into plowshares saving ourselves and all
life on our planet.

Useful research material:

Kurlansky, Mark (with a forward by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Nonviolence:
Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea.

Regan, Geoffrey. Picking the Past: Reclaiming the Past from Politicians. The
Spanish language title is better: Guerras, Politicos y Mentiras: Como nos
enganan manipulando el pasado y el presente (Wars, Politicians and Lies: How
They Deceive by Manipulating the Past and  the Present).

Ed O'Rourke is a retired certified public accountant living in Medellin,
Colombia. 

eorourke at pdq.net

 

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