Today is a difficult day for someone who believes in the cause of peace. The United States is firing missiles into Libya and along with France, Great Britain and Canada sending planes in to take out Kaddafi's military capabilities.
As supporters of freedom from tyranny for everyone I am sure that we are all in support of the Libyan rebels. So there is a certain amount of natural support for the international community coming to their rescue. But I see among the comments on the early diaries on this occasion lots of cheering for this turn of events.
I would like to remind people that is in effect cheering for people dying.
We are currently killing one set of people so that another set of people might not be killed by them and my support along with everyone else's is with those we are trying to prevent from being killed. But this is the great moral dilemma. Supporting or even cheering the killing of one group of people over another.
Even the best weapon
is an unhappy tool,
hateful to living things.
So the follower of the Way
stays away from it.
Weapons are unhappy tools,
not chosen by thoughtful people,
to be used only when there is no choice,
and with a calm, still mind,
without enjoyment.
To enjoy weapons
is to enjoy killing people,
and to enjoy killing people
is to lose your share in the common good.
It is right that the murder of many people
be mourned and lamented.
It is right that a victor in war
be received with funeral ceremonies.
-Tao Te Ching #31
Ursula K. LeGuin's rendition
Everyone has a right to defend themselves and we do not have to accept unacceptable behavior. These are things I believe. Sadly, there are times when we appear to have little or no choice but to resort to violence but it is always, always a sign of failure. Failure to resolve our problems by other means. Failure to ensure the Kaddafi's of the world don't get into positions of power and abuse. Failure to ensure the rights of all people to live in peace. Failure to ensure that all people can share in the overflowing abundance of our world.
Failure to rein in our shared human tendency towards greed.
When the world's on the Way,
they use horses to haul manure.
When the world gets off the Way,
they breed warhorses on the common.
The greatest evil: wanting more.
The worst luck: discontent.
Greed's the curse of life.
To know enough's enough
is enough to know.
-Tao Te Ching #46
Ursula K. LeGuin's rendition
Today is a day of mourning.
The U.S. and its allies are doing what apparently must be done but it is to be done “with a calm, still mind, without enjoyment.” People are dying.
And greed's the thing.
On Kaddafi's side and on ours.
I see no U.N. Resolution regarding Bahrain. I see no coalition of good guys blowing up Saudi troops intervening and slaughtering protesters there. The hypocrisy of it is clear as day.
Today is a sad day. In one place the “right” people are being killed and we're doing it. In another the “wrong” people are being killed and we are ignoring it.
And the human race goes on doing what it has always done throughout the centuries... slaughtering each other because we're too damn greedy to share the worlds abundant resources with each other and too damn short sighted to realize there is another Way.
"To know enough is enough is enough to know."
Peace be with you all,
Andrew