The missing ‘peace’

It’s been a long time since I don’t hear or see the word peace anywhere.

The last time that word was trending was in the 60s, you know, when the stoned-headed hippies were tripping with it. It gave them a bad reputation, that and the acid they were consuming, courtesy of the CIA.

 

The First World War was “the war to end all wars”. That was the first and last time humanity actually fought for peace itself. The newly minted working-class (product of the new kid on the block, heavy industry and capitalism) took their masters to task. In Germany, there were actually legislation demanding “peace without annexation”, and international solidarity among the workers (male and female). There were uprisings of soldiers and sailors against the war.

New Yorkers carry a peace banner down Fifth Avenue in a protest against the First World War.

Text supplied by the German Federal Archive: “With the rebellion of the sailors and workers on 3 November 1918 in Kiel the November revolution starts. On 6 November the revolutionary movement reaches Wilhelmshaven. Our picture shows the soldiers’ council of the Prinzregent Luitpold.”

Those were the days. Well, those were the days of open warfare between the working class and the capitalists; that’s what it was really all about, that and colonialism for stealing the wealth of weak nations for the industrialists’ profit.

Today…well, today we still go to war to take the wealth of other nations; we still cover the truth with words like “for freedom”, “to save people from their dictators” while bombing said people.

What can be said about today’s working class? They don’t have that spirit of the past; they are merely trying to survive in their own nations. They are so poor, they are willing to sell themselves as soldiers-of-fortune. They can’t even elect people willing to pass a resolution against any war. And don’t tell me it’s because the “democratic party is the party of Wall Street”; that’s a cop-out. The only thing people do here is vote and call their ‘representatives’. That was fine for a while, can’t you see it’s not working anymore?

The word peace has become permanent collateral damage of our permanent wars ever since…”The only thing to fear is fear itself”, said Roosevelt to walk Americans towards war, and we have marched towards war ever since. We haven’t been without wars since then. Then the new millennium started with Bush’s invasion of Iraq after 9/11; now it seems we are marching towards another atomic conflagration, another hecatomb, this time in North Korea. Our crazy president may have to nuke the people of that nation to save them from their own crazy leader.

I tell you, war is ‘so cheap’; people buy it wholesale for $0.50, the cost of the newspapers they read filled with pro-war propaganda they accept mindlessly. That word, mindlessly, reminded me of The Buddha.

The Buddha had an interesting message: The Doctrine of the Mind. He said that

Whatsoever  there is of evil, connected with evil, belonging to evil – all issues from the mind.

Whatsoever there is of good, connected with good, belonging to good – all issues from the mind.

He then taught:

1. to know the mind – that is so near to us, and yet is so unknown;
2. to shape the mind – that is so unwieldy and obstinate, and yet may turn so pliant;
3. to free the mind – that is in bondage all over, and yet may win freedom here and now.

But I’m done with humans. I have come to accept that the human race is incorrigible. They believe Trump and admire warmongering billionaires like Tillerson, but mock The Buddha. They care not about another atomic hecatomb, this time in North Korea.

So I will go on reminding people about the word ‘peace’. It is in our minds if we want it to be. Don’t put conditions on peace; if you want peace, then it can’t be “after Assad is removed from power”, or “after we get rid of Isil”.

It has to be NOW, PERIOD.  Demand a NEGOTIATED PEACE without bombing for it.