Friday 18 March 2011

“All we are saying is give peace a chance”

If you so choose to subscribe to one of the world’s major religions then the taking of a human life is the ultimate blasphemy. There are no circumstances that I know of that allow you to usurp your god and exercise the power of life or death over another human being. For the religious person murder and war have to be an anathema. That doesn’t mean to say that only those that need religion are against war. Pacifism is about love and respect for one’s fellow citizens of this planet. That love and respect is not conditional. You don’t need a god to tell you that peace is the only sane way forward.

War never achieves peace. Peace cannot be forced upon people. Peace only happens when people want it and when they live it. Being a pacifist is not an easy option. In fact it is often a very difficult and challenging belief. Some people feel threatened by the notion which has always struck me as ironic. Pacifism is widely misunderstood. As a pacifist I could never endeavour to take or condone the taking of a fellow human being’s life. Not even if they were intent on taking mine. Peace is more than just not fighting. It is a state of mind. War never achieves. It only destroys.

Whilst governments and corporations are hell bent profiting from the manufacture and sale of arms we will continue to have wars. War is a capitalist moneymaking opportunity. To the capitalist money is more important than someone else’s life. War exists to perpetuate the retention of power and wealth in the hands of a few. That few may well change but the small numbers do not. No society can ever be civilised whilst it has an arms industry. The arms trade export misery and suffering world-wide. It has to stop! Human advancement has so often been brought about by people who are prepared to think the unthinkable, and are prepared to attempt the impossible. Peace can be the universal option if we have the courage to believe in it and do something about it. “War is over if you want it”



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