Can the Militarist See Outside the Box?
Marc Batko | 01.09.2004 12:51 | Anti-militarism | World
Liberation theology and the theology of hope can give us strength against fundamentalism, intolerance and jingoism generated by hyper-materialism. As prejudice is a stepping stone to understanding, false consciousness, false security and false religion can be replaced by exchanging roles and egalitarian passion.
CAN THE MILITARIST SEE OUTSIDE THE BOX?
By Marc Batko
“Truth is forever n the scaffold while wrong is forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future.” (Martin Luther King)
If mothers lived patriarchal love (love according to performance and obedience), we would not even exist today
War is not natural but sadism, mostly a product of governments. The fact that individuals and cultures have lived peacefully proves that war is not a natural or inevitable condition. (Erich Fromm)
The inside of the cup must be cleansed, not only the outside. Beware those who see the specks in their brother’s eye while turning countries into parking lots. Before you become teachers, be sure public goods are not privatized, education not narrowed to apprenticeship and conformity, mini-jobs and pseudo-independence and social risks (old age, sickness and unemployment) not recast as personal responsibility. The mosaic works while the melting pot rewards intimidators and hucksters.
Resistance traditions could give us courage and orientation in a time of arrogance and ignorance in one nation under educated. Apathy is a luxury we cannot afford (Dorothee Soelle). Apathy is the rival of love (Erich Fromm).
Liberation theology and the theology of hope can give us strength against the fundamentalism, intolerance and jingoism generated by hyper-materialism. As prejudice is a stepping stone to understanding (Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 1960), false consciousness, false security and false religion can be replaced by exchanging role and egalitarian passion. The war on terrorism could become a war on poverty. Economic assistance could become security policy. (Ernst-Otto Czempiel).
The industrialized man can be overcome by anxieties from a pathological economy of injustice and exclusion. Time is saved so it can be destroyed. Productivity grows while working hours increase and wages stagnate. Gifts and visions like memory and hope can fall by the wayside, dismissed as unrealistic in a culture that idolizes the short-term and the outside of the cup. Without festivity and fantasy, memory and hope, we become “ephemeral bubbles”. (Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools, 1969).
Worldly distinctions can be seen as the actor’s costume. (Soren Kierkegaard). The ego must die so the self can be born. There is good in every person. Nonviolence is stronger than violence. (Martin Luther King). Cooperation, not violence, characterizes human existence. As carrots and beans thrive together (Gottfried Orth in “Cooperation not Violence” on
http://www.mbtranslations.com/), the human world flourishes in exchanging roles, self-criticism, humility and egalitarian passion.
Communities like individuals can plan for a future-friendly world. Communities like individuals can traumatize and terrorize themselves. We are called to double vision, to universal and particular history, to mystery, memory and hope. We are called to plant seeds of hope, faith and love and not to be obsessed with success.
The occupiers in Iraq lose control of major cities and pipelines. Humility and self-criticism are strengths for communities and individuals. The lesson of Vietnam is that imperial overreach, the hubris of vast military power and cultural presumption are no match for indigenous people filled with love for land, life and truth.
The myths of US exceptionalism and invincibility/invulnerability only prove our inability to learn, remember and mourn. Whoever builds his life on truth is like the man who built his house on the rock. The winds and storms will only destroy those whose houses are built on sand.
By Marc Batko
“Truth is forever n the scaffold while wrong is forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future.” (Martin Luther King)
If mothers lived patriarchal love (love according to performance and obedience), we would not even exist today
War is not natural but sadism, mostly a product of governments. The fact that individuals and cultures have lived peacefully proves that war is not a natural or inevitable condition. (Erich Fromm)
The inside of the cup must be cleansed, not only the outside. Beware those who see the specks in their brother’s eye while turning countries into parking lots. Before you become teachers, be sure public goods are not privatized, education not narrowed to apprenticeship and conformity, mini-jobs and pseudo-independence and social risks (old age, sickness and unemployment) not recast as personal responsibility. The mosaic works while the melting pot rewards intimidators and hucksters.
Resistance traditions could give us courage and orientation in a time of arrogance and ignorance in one nation under educated. Apathy is a luxury we cannot afford (Dorothee Soelle). Apathy is the rival of love (Erich Fromm).
Liberation theology and the theology of hope can give us strength against the fundamentalism, intolerance and jingoism generated by hyper-materialism. As prejudice is a stepping stone to understanding (Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 1960), false consciousness, false security and false religion can be replaced by exchanging role and egalitarian passion. The war on terrorism could become a war on poverty. Economic assistance could become security policy. (Ernst-Otto Czempiel).
The industrialized man can be overcome by anxieties from a pathological economy of injustice and exclusion. Time is saved so it can be destroyed. Productivity grows while working hours increase and wages stagnate. Gifts and visions like memory and hope can fall by the wayside, dismissed as unrealistic in a culture that idolizes the short-term and the outside of the cup. Without festivity and fantasy, memory and hope, we become “ephemeral bubbles”. (Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools, 1969).
Worldly distinctions can be seen as the actor’s costume. (Soren Kierkegaard). The ego must die so the self can be born. There is good in every person. Nonviolence is stronger than violence. (Martin Luther King). Cooperation, not violence, characterizes human existence. As carrots and beans thrive together (Gottfried Orth in “Cooperation not Violence” on
http://www.mbtranslations.com/), the human world flourishes in exchanging roles, self-criticism, humility and egalitarian passion. Communities like individuals can plan for a future-friendly world. Communities like individuals can traumatize and terrorize themselves. We are called to double vision, to universal and particular history, to mystery, memory and hope. We are called to plant seeds of hope, faith and love and not to be obsessed with success.
The occupiers in Iraq lose control of major cities and pipelines. Humility and self-criticism are strengths for communities and individuals. The lesson of Vietnam is that imperial overreach, the hubris of vast military power and cultural presumption are no match for indigenous people filled with love for land, life and truth.
The myths of US exceptionalism and invincibility/invulnerability only prove our inability to learn, remember and mourn. Whoever builds his life on truth is like the man who built his house on the rock. The winds and storms will only destroy those whose houses are built on sand.
Marc Batko
e-mail:
mbatko@lycos.com
Homepage:
http://www.mbtranslations.com
Comments
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Yawn
01.09.2004 14:56
Ehrich
Making the wise choice
03.09.2004 16:24
In generations to come people will look back at America during this time period and study it under history modules entitled “the downfall of liberty”. The Americans are setting themselves, and their core ideals, up for a fall of titanic proportions. The tyranny of the majority rules supreme. Perhaps people will never again be trusted to think for themselves, the majority of the American public are inadequately educated to make such important decisions like who should control the most powerful nation in the world.
The Americans are in need of a second enlightenment. They are Christian and Jewish zealots, they believe full heartedly that they cannot be wrong. These are the most dangerous types of people. America is terrorising the rest of the world, its intentions are grand. Its execution is fatally flawed.
If Blair losses his place, (yet even that looks unlikely) then Bush will have lost all of his supporters. Europe, once Americas greatest ally, despise America now. God knows what there enemies must now think.
God Bless America’s people, Bless them with some perspective.
Down with Bush. He even makes a lousy republican, increasing government and protectionism. Terrible.
I get angry, I shout at the TV, I spit with rage.
Then I turn on the TV and see the Russian school siege end in disaster. Hundreds of Children murdered by Islamic terrorists.
American and Russia have far more in common now then they have ever had for over 80 years. Islam is picking fights with everyone. Why? Why is Islam so violent?
Do they have a grudge against the rest of the world? There religion tells them they are the best, their prophet was the most important. This belief surely has to be seen through, there is no logic in dogmatic beliefs. Like I believe, any person that is led more by religion then rational thought is irrational. There is no reason, there is no excuse to kill hundreds of people, hundreds of children.
Russia I suppose is partly to blame, but by using violence you instantly ensure that Russia CAN NOT EVER back down or give into demands. If a nation shows that violence can be used to effectively force it into making certain decisions then everybody would be doing it. Nation states do not, and must not tolerate terrorism.
Islam has come in for quite a bashing of late, and they are reacting exactly the same way the Americans are. They are two sides of the coin, Islam adopting their prophets and fighting for an age long, and misguided cause, whilst America alone on its continent sits scared of its own shadow. Both sides are under attack, both in response are spiralling into even greater self destructive patterns of self defence. Just as Americans see Muslims and see a threat that must be countered at all costs Muslims sit in their homes and view Americans in exactly the same way.
Europe sits cautiously between this war. Often caught up in it as proved by the Madrid train bombings and the hostage taking of nationals conducted in Iraq. It doesn’t want to contribute to any sides anger. Europe can save the world. If not then in a hundred years, after having sat back and witnessed a new kind of warfare yet again in a new world war we shall say “never again”, “never again will we be so short sighted as to let our differences stand between us”.
World War I was indeed the very last European war. World War II, which we can say ended in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall acted to unite Europe. World War III will act to unite – who knows? I can not even predict. Or begin to guess. Important events have not yet occurred which will show us the way this war between civilisations is to develop. Who is to say that Europe will even stay united?
Enlightened leaders are required at a time like this. Leaders willing to make the tough and clever choices that lead to a more united and peaceful world.
This world cannot be brought about by force.
Clive McThomas
e-mail:
karic@lycos.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.clivemcthomas.4t.com