Lazy talk is not for a soldier in the battle of words. But if it is really peace you desire, then strain to understand each other's true meaning.
When talk is of war, it is already too late. Obama’s Nobel speech may have been a defense of war, but it missed the point of peace. It really doesn’t matter whether or not there is any morality involved in waging war. What matters is that it is too late. The opportunity for permanent peace has been lost already. What I wish Obama had spoken about instead was peace. How peace is maintained by avoiding aggression, and that it is the un-addressed actions that lead to war that are what we are missing in our deliberating of how to exist as a society.
Aggression. Greed. Lust. Paranoia. Hatred. Elitism. Sadism. These are evils that history has shown over and over that when they go unregulated they result in their own feedback loop of compulsive evil behavior. These evils exist, but when they rule, war is inevitable. When humanity can arrive at a consensus about the inevitable end of evil, then peace can happen. It, too, is inevitable.
I’m no saint. I’m no rocket scientist. But I can thank God that at least I can see this to be true, and can understand that the consequences of my actions are as important as the motivations are. Saying that the ends justify the means, is just another way of saying the consequences of one’s actions don’t matter any more. The shorter version of this: It’s too late. Time to invoke the Shock Doctrine. The Bush Doctrine was a corollary of the Shock Doctrine. Preemptive war is just another tool of unchecked aggression. It only delays the inevitable consequences of evil, which, when the inevitable does arrive, will have been too late.
My first thought about capitalism is a cynical one: Capitalism is what soulless socialism looks like. But so was communism. Naziism. Fascism. Monopolism. Plantationism. Feudalism. Empirism. If capitalism actually was practiced as the conservatives who idealize it believe- but we’ve never seen that any more than we’ve seen socialism’s ideal manifestation- perhaps then it could be not too late. And because instead we have preferred to debate, compete, ego-worship both ideas into oblivion rather than to see the identical three reasons proponents of both economic ideas are willing to march into hell to defend- Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness- it is too late.
When mainstream economic dogma labels workers as factors of production, and sanctions the omission of environmental costs as part of the company balance sheet, greed wins. Over and over. And when it shows up in the textbooks as such, the Sanction of Authority makes it an official principle. When the kidnapping of innocent people by governments to be sent away and tortured is given the Sanction of Authority- again, made official- you know that aggression has won again. By their fruits ye shall know them.
It is not human thought that is inherently evil. It may be imperfect, but not necessarily hopelessly doomed to hellfire. No, it is evil that is evil. Always has been, always will be.
Here’s a truth for the imperfectly-articulated doctrinaire of capitalism to consider. For an individual, excessive gain inevitably leads to excessive pain. Yet for all of society it is a bountiful blessing. The issue is not over what the whole of humanity looks like and is called. It is how we as individuals participate. Do we control our own personal and communal evil-doing, or not? When we consider our actions in the light of that kind of discipline, then perhaps it is not too late after all.
How badly do we want peace for our loved ones? And before we once again begin parsing the meaning of peace, let us at least stipulate that it begins with a set of certain inalienable rights, among which are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And then add, For all loved ones, everywhere. On Earth as it is in Heaven. A little something to believe in this season.