New York, New York
Few in modern times have been as engagingly direct in pointedly speaking truth to power as the late George Carlin. Throughout his illustrious career as a stand-up comedian he was an outspoken critic of the United States’ war-mongering tendencies—e.g. here and here (filmed decades apart, both with explicit language warnings) are excellent samples of his pacifist Leitmotif. You certainly can’t accuse the man of being subtle…
Kabul, Afghanistan
It’s eight years ago today(!) that the United States, backed by coerced “coalition partners,” launched its war in/on the hapless nation of Afghanistan under the moniker Operation Enduring Freedom. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost, and tens of thousands more have been seriously injured. There are no clear indications of what it would take to actually “win” this particular war (which suits the hawks and those who continue to profit from ongoing conflicts such as this manufactured, never-ending “war on terror”)—in fact it’s unclear such a misadventure even can be “won” or how one would measure such a victory. The majority of the world (including most U.S. citizens, of late) is firmly opposed to the ongoing military operations and occupation of Afghanistan. It’s time to finally end this senseless conflict!
(I know my expressing a pacifist stance here, on my blog, is “safe” and does not involve a lot of effort or courage—yet it is at least something that I can do. I hope that many of the two-hundred or so of you who visit this blog each day will, if you agree, also take action and lend your voice in opposition to this inane war—and I welcome you to let me know what you are doing in this regard… please do contact me. While a solitary voice here and there may seem quiet and weak, many voices joined together can have the powerful and moving influence of a mighty choir).
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
—Jeannette Rankin
This is the third International Day of Non-Violence (as designated by the United Nations in 2007), also celebrated as the national holiday Gandhi Jayanti in India, marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi—140 years ago on this day.
Here are a few (mostly well-known) quotables by that great little man…
When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it—always.
I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include
the freedom to make mistakes.
Happiness is when what you think, what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.
It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.
Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Ashram at Wardha, India (July, 1939)
Just over a month before Germany invades Poland (on 1 September 1939, seventy years ago this month), therewith triggering World War II, the great Mahatma Gandhi writes the first of two letters to Adolf Hitler in an attempt to prevent the oncoming war. This particular letter never reaches Hitler, due to an intervention by the government… letter found here; more information here; a transcript of the typewritten letter above follows (Note: knowing a bit about Gandhi, I’d suggest that his sign-off “Your sincere friend” is rhetorical [and more than a wee bit passive aggressive]):
As at Wardha
C. P.
India
23.7.’39.Dear friend,
Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity. But I have resisted their request, because of the feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence. Something tells me that I must not calculate and that I must make my appeal for whatever it may be worth.
It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to a savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success? Any way I anticipate your forgiveness, if I have erred in writing to you.
I remain,
Your sincere friend
M. K. Gandhi
HERR HITLER
BERLIN
GERMANY.
If you like ephemera and old letters (as I very much do), you’ll find the website Letters of Note to be a treasure trove.
Thanks for the link, Gregor!
Starting on the Polish border, then spreading almost everywhere…
The start of World War II took place on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, followed by declarations of war on Germany by most of the countries in the British Empire and Commonwealth, and by France. The war was the most widespread in history, a global military conflict involving a majority of the world’s nations and the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel. Over seventy million people were killed (the majority of whom were civilians) making this the deadliest conflict in human history.
White Lake, New York
This weekend marks 40 years since the Woodstock Music & Art Fair held at Max Yasgur’s 600 acre dairy farm. Thirty-two acts performed during a rainy weekend in front of nearly half a million concertgoers—little did they know at the time that ‘Woodstock’ would come to be regarded as both the height of the peaceful counterculture revolution as well as one of the greatest moments in popular music history (the three top acts of the 1960s, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan had all declined to appear at the festival). Later that year Joni Mitchell wrote a hit song commemorating the event—performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The song’s lyrics:
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going?
This he told me
Said, I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm,
Gonna join in a rock and roll band.
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel myself a cog in somethin’ turning.
And maybe it’s the time of year,
Yes and maybe it’s the time of man.
And I don’t know who I am,
But life is for learning.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
By the time we got to Woodstock,
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration.
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation.
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil’s bargain,
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
Kilchberg, Switzerland
Paul Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual. His analysis and critique of the European and German soul used modernized German and Biblical stories, as well as the ideas of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Schopenhauer.
His writing career began with a gig for the great satirical German weekly magazine Simplicissimus (just after it was launched in 1896). As I’m a fan of quotations, here are some I’ve gleaned from Mann… for the record:
+ + +
War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.
A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth.
Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.
An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates.
Every reasonable human being should be a moderate Socialist.
Has the world ever been changed by anything save the thought and its magic vehicle the Word?
I don’t think anyone is thinking long-term now.
If you are possessed by an idea, you find it expressed everywhere,
you even smell it.
Speech is civilization itself.
Time has no divisions to mark its passage, there is never a thunder-storm or blare of trumpets to announce the beginning of a new month or year. Even when a new century begins it is only we mortals who ring bells and fire off pistols.
What a wonderful phenomenon it is, carefully considered, when the human eye, that jewel of organic structures, concentrates its moist brilliance on another human creature!
A young man wanting to find truth goes to see a famous guru. “Master, can you teach me meditation and truth?” he asks.
The guru agrees, and the disciple immediately assumes the lotus posture, closing his eyes and breathing rhythmically to show what he knows. The master doesn’t say anything but picks up two stones from the ground and starts rubbing them against each other. Hearing the strange noise, the disciple opens his eyes and asks, “Master, what are you doing?”
The guru answers “I am rubbing these stones against each other to polish them into a mirror so I can look at myself.”
The disciple laughs,“But master, if you don’t mind my telling you: you’ll never be able to make a mirror of these stones by rubbing them against each other. You can do that forever, and it won’t work.”
“Similarly, my friend,” the master says, “you can sit like that forever, but you’ll never be meditating or understanding truth.”
(as told by Jiddu Krishnamurti)
