271) Ukraine vs. America: What side are YOU on?
Before 1994, Ukraine had the THIRD LARGEST nuclear arsenal in the world. It gave up its nukes for promises of protection, the internationally-agreed-upon guarantee that Ukraine would retain its territorial sovereignty.
216) Having a great summer weekend
How do we live with this dissonance?
How do we have “good weekends” with a heart-at-peace, knowing our fellow humans are being exterminated as if they are vermin?
169) The despair you are feeling right now: Dead children, bombed hospitals, the lies of tyranny in a dying world, and the crushing hopelessness of “What the hell can I DO about any of this?”
What can we do, in the midst of a genocide? What can we do, in the midst of tyranny that’s been happening, and strengthening, since before we were born? We can we do, in a world that burns its own living flesh, due to the greed of the most-privileged minority who clamour for ever-more wealth and power?
None of us want this.
117) Moral hypocrisy and the consequent impossibility of lasting international peace
Do we really believe, as a society, in a system of morality in which we get do precisely what we deny to others, because we are convinced of our moral superiority? Can “we” kill but “they” can’t, because we simply believe “we are Good, and they are Evil?”
And this will lead to lasting peace…how?
108) War, Part 4: Solutions?
It seems to me that war stops only when one of two conditions are met. Neither of these conditions are very likely, or easy. They are definitely easy to critique, easy to dismiss. But the alternative, as we discussed previously, is more war in a world, bristling with weapons, poised on the brink of global ecological collapse. So….yeah, we can have that, or we can figure out which of the following conditions we are most likely to be able to meet.
107) War, Part 3: The 21st Century
Can you imagine how you’d react if, in each of those stories, just as the Enemy is at the gate and the Heroes are gathering for their courageous final battle, the whole thing just….stops? The heroes decide at the last moment to just say fuck it and go do something else? Like, instead of battling for the Earth, let’s take our IronMan suit and Captain America shield and let’s go fuck something up, take over a country maybe, and make ourselves rich! MWAAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!
106) War, Part 2: Hate and Heroism
Most critically, what we give the Bad Guys, what’s more important than money and weapons, is followers. It’s obedience. Invariably, the Aggressors of history are aggressors because lots and lots and lots of people follow them.
So it’s not just Bad Guys that are “the problem”. It’s Followers.
105) War, Part 1: Love
“Hey Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma…..What did you do during the Great War?”
Have you ever thought of how you will answer questions like that? Because your future will, if you are lucky, arrive, and you will have lived through whatever atrocities humankind inflicts on each other in the present days and coming years. And someday, someone you will care about very much is likely going to ask you that question. … Nobody wants to know, “deep down inside”, that when it really mattered, they failed.