Re: Transformation from War to Peace

Shifting the direction of civilization?  The first and foremost prerequisite I
argue is global demilitarization.  The foundations of capitalist civilization 
are
based on militarism and war, as well as the divestment of the means of violence
from civilians by the state(s), the US being the exception. (Cf. Tilly 1991).

Shift the direction of civilization?  The second and perhaps more fundamental
prerequisite is to stop thinking in terms of the individual and the I that has
come to define the Western sense of self.  The puerile narcissism of
individualities, this mania for acquisitiveness, this plundering of nature and 
of
civilizations of the South, and this apathy and ignorance of the 'larger
landscapes of hopelessness and despair' (Sassen), it is this that needs to 
shift.

Shift the direction of civilization?  You are right about the pointer to Native
American Indians - they knew how to relate with nature, how to learn from it, 
how
to be with it instead of systematically devouring and destroying it.  So yes, a
lot to learn from them as well as from other peoples from the South.  Will that
happen?   Give up the automobile?  Give up the refrigerator and the television?
Give up the warmth of the house?  For what?  For whom?  Why?  Having only one
life, the economists teach us to maximize, maximize, maximize, it is the law of
life!  Get what you can while there is still time, for the barbarians are here,
there, and everywhere.

Shift the grounds of civilization?  I wish you could.  I am, in my more
pessimistic moments, inclined to affirm the Marx who read Goethe - 'all that
exists deserves to perish'.  From creative destruction the world is made; 
perhaps
at the very limit, the moment when absolute annihilation of all life become more
than merely certain, perhaps at that moment we can think again of creating new
grounds for a  tragicomedy.  Perhaps by then we will all have become
Shakespearians and say collectively 'O how my achievements constantly mock me!'.
But not until then....

For the world is not short of thinkers and seers and prophets.  What it has 
always
been short of is thinkers and seers and visionaries in power.  The West in
particular has only one way of expressing itself -reason and violence, 'reason
riding piggy back on capital' (Chatterji) and drowning in its murderous trail 
all
those myriad forms of life that do not have the capacity to murder.  Ganesh
Trichur.

Jay Fenello wrote:

> FYI:
>
> At 4/12/2003  11:44 PM, Richard K. Moore wrote:
>
> > Friends,
> >
> > This transformation thread is not something I dreamed
> > up on my own. It is a response to a change in the kind
> > of mail I've been receiving.  Since the Iraq invasion
> > started, people in many parts of the world have been
> > inspired to dig deeper, to think harder, to listen to
> > their hearts -- seeking solutions to our crisis.
> >
> > People seem to be realizing that the Iraq episode is
> > not an exception -- it is rather the epitome of where
> > our civilization is heading.  People are seeing that
> > the war cannot be opposed on its own, rather the
> > direction of our civilization must be shifted.  I'm not
> > sure why these kinds of realizations are being inspired
> > by Iraq in particular, but they are.
> >
> > Below are two such pieces.  They are very different and
> > yet very much the same.  One is called "Revolution for
> > Global Peace" and the other "Transformation from War to
> > Peace".  One is from a German-speaking academic, and
> > the other says it is an "American Indian message to the
> > world".  (Both appear to be genuine.)
> >
> > I put the American Indian piece last, since it is
> > longer.  But I hope you have time to look at it.  Those
> > of you who have been following my work probably know
> > why I consider that piece especially important.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > When one is lost, it often helps to think back to where
> > you went wrong in your wanderings. Sometimes the best
> > strategy is to go back to where you lost your way and
> > start again.  Our civilization has lost its way.  I
> > suggest that we must look deeply at the question,
> > "Where did we first lose our way?".
> >
> > Was it merely the coming to power of the
> > Rumsfield-Cheney clique?   Was it the elections of
> > Reagan and Thatcher and the launch of the neoliberal
> > globalization program?   Was it the assassination of
> > JFK?  Was it the industrial revolution and capitalism?
> > How far back do you go before you can find a time we
> > were not lost?  Were we better off under kings and
> > aristocratic rule?   Under the Catholic Church?  Under
> > the Roman Empire?  When were there EVER good old days?
> > When were we ever not already on the path to where we
> > are now?
> >
> > I came to the conclusion some time ago that we need to
> > look back very far indeed before any credible case can
> > be made for the existence of societies worth emulating.
> > We must look before the advent of civilization --
> > because the history of civilization is nothing other
> > than the history of ever-expanding power hierarchies.
> > It is the history of ever-more sophisticated means of
> > control, and every-more-efficient means of
> > exploitation.  To the extent we cannot see this, we
> > only provide evidence for the efficacy of the
> > propaganda-education-media-matrix machine.
> >
> > I've often pointed to the Native Americans as a
> > particularly valuable place to look.  Their cultures
> > were a broad canvas, serving as a not-bad rough
> > representation of the kinds of cultures we evolved from
> > ourselves, before the advent of systematic agriculture
> > and civilization.  (I am specifically not including the
> > Aztecs and Incas, culture which were already on our
> > same civilization path.)  Equally important, the
> > (other) Native American cultures were studied and
> > documented in great detail, and many eloquent expressions
> > are available from Native Americans themselves ("Black Elk
> > Speaks", and the like).
> >
> > ---
> >
> > The piece I've forwarded at the bottom is especially
> > relevant to this question of "Where did we go wrong?"
> > It deals with the time when certain tribes made the
> > transition from habitual warfare to peaceful
> > coexistence.  They made this transition long before the
> > arrival of the White Man, and they seem to have come up
> > with a somewhat stable and worth-examining system.  A
> > system which allows for local autonomy while providing
> > order on the larger scale.
> >
> > Our own cultural ancestors faced that same transition.
> > The dominant solution in our case was not peaceful
> > co-existence, but rather the conquest of the weaker
> > tribes by the stronger ones.  Bush is simply the latest
> > example of someone carrying that millenniums-old banner
> > forward.
> >
> > regards,
> > rkm
> > http://cyberjournal.org
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Delivered-To: richard@cyberjournal.org
> > From: Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit <igf@tamera.org>
> > Subject: D.Duhm: Revolution for Global Peace (regarding the Iraq war)
> > Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 15:56:30 +0100
> >
> >     The Revolution for Peace
> >     Third comment regarding the Iraq War
> >     (Dieter Duhm, March 2003)
> >     http://www.tamera.org/english/aktuelltext/Irakdd3.html
> >
> > [extracts]
> > I want to say the truth and still serve peace. I thank
> > the peace movements and the demonstrations all over the
> > world. Maybe never have so many people demonstrated for
> > peace as now (March 2003). A thanks - for this time -
> > also to the German federal chancellor Gerhard Schröder
> > for his consistent "no" to this war. The demonstrations
> > must not stop now. They can start a historic change for
> > the whole world. We need a global peace plan for a new
> > earth.
> >
> > We are witnesses to a wrong civilisation in which we,
> > ourselves, belong. We are experiencing a war by two
> > barbarian cultures and governments. The barbarism of a
> > US-American government and the barbarism of a
> > dictatorship in Iraq are two aspects of the same
> > devastating history, and the same continuum of
> > violence.The same injustices are happening here as in
> > Afghanistan, in Israel/Palestine, in Chechnya, in the
> > Balkans, in Latin America, in Africa, Indonesia and
> > almost everywhere on the earth.
> >
> > There is hardly any island left on the earth that is not
> > besieged by this world-wide disease. It is a similar
> > form of barbarism as previously in Chile or Vietnam
> > just with another amount of concealment and propaganda.
> >
> > (....) Murder is transmitted to us in a sterile way by
> > means of figures, tables and electronic technology. The
> > daily mass-murder has become a inconspicuous part of
> > our whole life-system. Behind the clean medicine, the
> > cosmetics, or the stock exchange figures stands the
> > nameless misery of the tortured creature. This torture
> > has long since become global. The keyword for it is
> > "globalisation". It is the globalisation of violence.
> > But we need the globalisation of peace. The life forces
> > of evolution must be steered in a new direction. (....)
> >
> > We, the ones who are standing behind these words, can
> > no longer remain spectators in a Disneyland where the
> > war is presented as a computer game. Awakened by our
> > own thoughts, we can no longer look away from what is
> > really happening on the side of the victims. We have
> > friends in Palestine and in Israel. Others have friends
> > in Iraq. No human being who looks to what is happening
> > there could accept the war for a single second. The
> > children, the friends and beloved ones who are dying
> > there could be our own. The cruelty of a dictatorship
> > regime (Saddam Hussein) cannot be ended by means of the
> > cruel killing of humans and animals in a war, they
> > would only be continued with different means. We
> > experience this now in Afghanistan and in Chechnya.
> > (...)
> >
> > We are here to build up a new life form. Our pacifism
> > is militant and absolute; this means unconditional. But
> > it is free of hatred, for it has surpassed hatred. The
> > absolute NO lies beyond hatred or revenge. Those who
> > have said this NO don't need to hate any more. It is
> > not an emotion, it is not a religious belief, and not a
> > philosophical or religious position. It is pure
> > existence and truth. We say NO because any other
> > statement would be self-denial. We say NO because
> > otherwise we would no longer feel trustworthy and
> > secure in front of each other. We say NO because we
> > want to become truthful again in our own friendships
> > and love relationships. At the same time, we connect
> > ourselves with a YES as powerful to life, yes to all
> > creatures, yes to a joyful coexistence and co-operation
> > of all living beings - toward the One (....).
> >
> >  > Forwarded by:
> >   Summer-University 2003  "Movement for a Free Earth"
> >   July 28th - August 6th of 2003
> >   IGF - Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit (Institute
> >   for Global Peace Work), Monte do Cerro, P-7630 Colos,
> >   http://www.tamera.org
> >   igf@tamera.org
> >   Tel: +351-283 635 3-06, Fax: -74
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Delivered-To:richard@cyberjournal.org
> > Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 22:39:29 -0700 (MST)
> > From: Evan D Ravitz <evan@vote.org>
> > To: misc. groups
> > Subject: American Indian message to world
> >
> > (Lest we forget how civilization got this far... Evan Ravitz)
> >
> >
> >     COMBING THE SNAKES OUT OF ATOTARHO'S HAIR
> >     A Transformation from War to Peace
> >
> > Both the Charter of the United Nations and the
> > Constitution of the United States of America are
> > founded on the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Great Law of
> > Peace.  We, the carriers of the Haudenosaunee
> > traditions consider it our duty to remind the world of
> > the basic principles and spirit of the Great Law for
> > bringing peace and harmony to human relations.
> >
> > In our teachings, there was a man named Atotarho.
> > Atotarho is described as a powerful evil man who spread
> > fear and death everywhere he went - visually he is
> > represented with snakes coming out of his head and as
> > having a crooked and misshapen body.  He was a
> > cannibal, a sorcerer who killed and maimed people for
> > his pleasure and caused dissention, exploiting people
> > to feed his own selfish greed.  The world was at war.
> > Sound familiar?
> >
> > Long before the Europeans came to North America, two
> > men, Dekanawida and Ayonwatha taught the warring
> > nations about the Great Law of Peace which brought
> > peace and established the Confederation of Five
> > Nations. Over 200 nations allied themselves with the
> > Confederacy and accepted the terms of equality and
> > peace.
> >
> > How did Dekanawida and Ayonwatha straighten Atotarho
> > out and comb the snakes out of his hair?
> >
> > When Dekanawida was trying to bring peace to the
> > warring nations by forming the Confederacy and showing
> > people how to work together, he had trouble convincing
> > the Onondaga to join because they were lead by
> > Atotarho.  Atotarho enjoyed the power and fear he put
> > into people.
> >
> > Dekanawida and Ayonwatha sang him a song to help him
> > calm down. They massaged his aching, crooked body and
> > then started to gently comb the snakes out of his hair.
> > As they did so, they taught him about the Great Law of
> > Peace.
> >
> > Dekanawida and Ayonwatha worked gently and with great
> > patience. As Atotarho began to relax, he was
> > transformed and became straight, strong and whole
> > again.  Atotarho, after he was pacified, became head of
> > the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
> > Atotarho learned the ohenton kariwateken, the words of
> > thanksgiving that come before any gathering of the
> > people.  As he began to understand his place in the
> > universe - a universe where everything and all people
> > are interconnected and equal - he could no longer
> > exploit the fears of others.
> >
> > Instead of removing him from any position of power in
> > the new confederacy, he was given the opportunity to
> > act as chairman, listening to everything everyone else
> > had to say and presiding over discussions.  He acted as
> > a peacemaker and diplomat, listening to all the
> > positions carried from the people by their
> > representatives.  He made sure that relations were
> > conducted in a friendly and respectful manner.  This
> > position still exists in the modern day Confederacy.
> >
> > In this position, he does not represent anybody or any
> > nation.  He does not force others to follow his way.
> > He is a mediator for all of the nations and for the
> > Great Law of Peace.  It is understood that because he
> > had been so crooked to begin with, he understood the
> > opposition and imbalance that could occur among people.
> >
> > The person who sits in Atotarho's place cannot be in
> > two canoes at once - that of war and that of peace - he
> > would fall into the river. Their paths naturally go in
> > opposite directions.  Atotarho realizes that if you
> > have everything, you have nothing.  He knows the
> > importance of keeping balance within the circle where
> > everyone is equal.
> >
> > Where is our Atotarho today? Is there anyone who knows
> > how to comb the snakes out of the hair of our most
> > recalcitrant warring leaders so we can have peace? Have
> > we forgotten the lessons of the past?  Why is America
> > at war?
> >
> > We are all like Atotarho. We are living in a time of
> > violence and destruction.  We all have snakes in our
> > hair.  Our minds are crooked and we are wasting our
> > energies.  But we all have power.  We have the power to
> > look after each other, to comb the snakes from each
> > other's hair, to straighten aching bodies and to learn
> > the soothing songs of peace.
> >
> > There is no need to go back to the time before Atotarho
> > learned the Great Law of Peace.  We must bring back the
> > principles that Atotarho learned.
> >
> > We must not be afraid. We must take on the
> > responsibility of making sure that all people are cared
> > for. We must give up our positions of dominance and
> > remember our connectedness to all people and all
> > things. We must remember the small condolence where we
> > wipe our eyes with the softest cloth so we can look at
> > reality.  We must take an eagle feather and gently wipe
> > our ears so we can listen and hear what is really being
> > said.  We must drink pure water to soothe our rasping
> > throats so our words are soft and clear, without sharp
> > edges.
> >
> > We must ask ourselves, are we ready to hear the message
> > of Deganawida? Are we strong enough to learn from the
> > past?  Surely we have suffered enough. The mountains
> > are cracking.  The rivers are boiling.  The fish are
> > turning with their bellies up.  We must leave the
> > millennia of death and destruction behind.  We can link
> > our hands together in peace.  We have the United
> > Nations already, let's use it!
> >
> > We can make the world safe and beautiful for everyone.
> > The Indigenous spirit can come back. Our brothers and
> > sisters from all parts of the world can teach us. We
> > can burn our good medicines and call on Creation, so
> > Deganawida's message returns like a light from the
> > east. We can respect each others' differences and live
> > in harmony together.
> >
> > Now is the time for us to take responsibility for our
> > future and the future generations.  We must use our
> > voices and speak up!  Act out! We are not powerless.
> > We have to let people know that we all have the power
> > to do something about this conflict and
> > misunderstanding!
> >
> >     Kahn-Tineta Horn, Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Mother, Grandmother
> >     Kahente Horn-Miller, Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Mother
> >     Karonhioko'he, daughter
> >     Kokowa, daughter
> >     Grace Lix-Xiu Woo, Aunt, Sister, Ally
> >     Ekiyan, Mi'kmaq Son, Ally
> >     Orakwa@paulcomm.ca
> >     Kahntineta@hotmail.com
> >
> >
> > --
> >
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> >
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> +++
>
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> "Our enemies are never as bad as we make them out to be,
> and we are never as good as we think" - Hans Morgenthau