Where Is Everyone?

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Peace is a good thing...

So, why do you think more people aren't supporting it?

[Dar]

That is a very good question but the answer is as complex as people themselves.
History is rife with war, many seemingly justifiable. Who among us would stand by, in the name of peace, and watch our livlihoods stripped from us, our homes taken from us and our families murdered?
Who among us didn't feel we were watching honor and courage incarnate when we watched Mel Gibson in "The Patriot" or "The Lord of the Rings"?
While the line between good and evil may seem black and white to some of us, that is only because we are comfortable and not living in war. Innumerable smaller situations innundate every day in chaos, making that line between black and white blur to gray. This is what has happened to so many of our soldiers in Iraq.
It is the nature of all beings to survive. Humans have an extra piece to that; they want to survive and conquer- greed is inherent in human nature.If a war for greed can be disguised as a war for honor or homeland, more is the support for it. Attaching people's emotions to a cause is vital. It has always been those very qualities that we admired in William Wallace and Aragorn that, when combined with any number of personal belief systems can wreak havoc on the world. Some of the most heinous mass murderers in history went to their graves feeling much as William Wallace did-like they died fighting for a cause they knew to be true. The suffering and the glory are but 2 sides of the same coin. People are expert at rationalizing their beliefs-to the greater good or the greater peril-of us all.
SO why don't people support peace? That is a question that will garner a billion individual answers.

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Dar!!!!
Extremely insightful and poignant analysis!
Nearly poetic in its power!!
Worthy of prominent display!!!

~ Alex

P.S. Can I put it in my blog?

[Dar]

Alex! You are so very kind! Of course-feel free to pu tit in your blog-I would be honored!!

[Alexander M Zoltai]

O.K. It's a blog post.!

Well...
It was a blog post to start with...
So...

It's a re-blogged post!!

[Joseph Bernard]

Peace is a very good thing. Very few people will disagree. The trouble I see is that our lives are fully of worry and hurry. Many live way beyond their means and are always just trying to survive. Others work mundane jobs and spend most of their time in the trance of life just getting by hoping for better times. Still others are run by their habits and really can't see out of the deep grooves they have created. These me and mine directed lives leaves little time to think bigger, to open to a larger view of the world.

Fear is another issue. Fear has been used by those in power to control the masses. This whole terrorist campaign by our government has many willing to give up rights to be protected. In fear things are not questioned and those that say they will protect us can do what they want just so things will be alright.

Offsetting these reasons can be challenging. I think raising awareness and consciousness is one antidote. Another possible solution is to help people reconnect with their hearts and again open to having compassion for each other beyond their families. One other idea is to help people expand their viewpoints beyond the microscope of their own lives and to discover that we all share hopes, dreams and desires for a better life and world. Together we are a much more powerful force.

Joseph at Explorelifeblog.com

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Joseph,
Thank you for your comments.
Every day I try again to raise my fervor for the rest of my Human Family. I know, first hand, what it takes to Care...
Now, to let my little light shine...

~ Alex

[Max Herschfeld]

I think the lack of a draft has allowed this younger generation to avoid the unpleasantness of war, and I think it is the plan of the current administration to keep this war being fought by the peasants.

If the current crop of young college educated men & women faced the prospect of being killed in a war that they thought was throwing away their generation... they would be in the streets in greater numbers. Instead they stay distracted & entertained, ensconced in their own little lives, with nothing driving them to unite.

I'm proud to say that my 20 something son is active in the peace movement. It turns my stomach every time I see the lists of the dead from Iraq that are his age. I picketed & printed leaflets in my day & he is doing the same.

The other side of this that I see is the intimidation of "patriotism" that hovers over all of us, through the belligerent "with us or agin' us" attitude of this administration. We saw our congress roll over and support a war that many had doubts about.

Finally, fear & frustration engender violent simple solutions. The urge to cut the Gordian knot with a sword is very strong.

For myself, I vote, but I'm not active in any local peace movements.

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Trenchant comments and very to the point!

You may be interested in a rather scary news story:
Bush's Shadow Army
http://www.alternet.org/story/49307/
"The Bush Administration is increasingly dependent on private security forces to do its dirty work, Jeremy Scahill reveals in his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army."

Plus, two other links I like are:
http://www.afmpgame.com/
http://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/index.htm

[Patrick]

I appreciate the answers that have already been given. I feel that in the natural course of events, people as a whole are only willing to give up peace and embrace war when their survival is at stake. In the past, there was often a scarcity of resources, leading groups of people to make war on each other. Of course, war was not as horrific an affair before the age of industrialization. But now, there is an abundance of resources, so no need for further war so long as we can share those resources fairly.

However, there are powerful interests at work in the world that favor war even when survival is not at stake. Large corporations that profit from "services" on the battlefield, powerful states like our own that seek control of strategic resources, and other companies that ally themselves with one state or another in the search for profit.

Unfortunately, those interests have managed to distort the debate and perceptions to such a degree that many Americans wrongly believed, for example, that Saddam Hussein was a threat to our survival (and the Communists before him and the Iranians now). I feel we need to aggressively promote the truth about our situation and organize ourselves, as people, against pro-war forces.

[Alexander M Zoltai]

Patrick, your comments are clearly "to the Point"!

I'll post this link again:
http://www.afmpgame.com/
because you'd said, "I feel we need to aggressively promote the truth about our situation and organize ourselves, as people, against pro-war forces."
And, the simulation, A Force More Powerful, can be used to train people to engage with non-violent "weapons"...

~ Alex