A confession. I don’t profess any “religion”. I believe in Blake’s dictum that one must create one’s own belief system or be ruled by that of another. However, one thing I’m convinced of and adhere to is the Quacker belief in pacifism - that one must not engage in war, ever sanction war. Also, that the state is complicit in warring and thus, should not be obeyed nor trusted. A complete disavowing of the state, nationalism and its warring foundation and founding premise.
“We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever." - Declaration made to Charles II in 1660 after the English Civil Wars
We don’t realize how much the world of “events” around us, is part of a marketing plan, part of a society that runs on “for-profit”. If there is a hand that makes the world turn, that hand is $.
A book that has had a tremendous impact on my own view of the world was Tolstoy’s The Law Of Love and The Law Of Violence. Still hard-hitting and relevant today. I urge any and all to digest his message. The basic question is - why haven’t our leaders, our society sought peace and set up a world of “never again” war? Why haven’t we worked hard for peace but instead spend all our time and money on war, either in it or preparing for it? Why? Follow the money. Our riches, your house, my car - are really symbols, results of our focus and support of a society of profit - and war is the biggest profit of all.
“A terrible weight of evil is hanging over the people of the earth, and presses upon them. Those standing under this weight, and more and more crushed by it, seek ways to rid themselves of it. They know that with their united strength they could lift the weight and throw it off, but they cannot agree to undertake it all together, and each one stoops lower and lower, to let the weight rest on the shoulders of the others. So the weight presses down more and more, and would have long since crushed them, were it not for those who are guided in their actions not by considerations of the external results of their actions, but only by an inner accord between their conduct and the voice of conscience.” - Lev Tolstoy
Imagine a society that holds mothers and fathers hostage as their baby’s health is on the line. They either pay or else. That is our society.
Imagine a society that holds young men and young men hostage as their jobs and lives are turned upside down by war. A war that profits only a few big corporations safe in their shiny buildings. That is our society.
I don’t believe our leaders. Not even as far as I can throw them. I don’t believe the messages we are receiving about the efficacy of drugs, about the efficacy of war. No. I refuse. They are just telling an age-old hucksters story, to get us all to pay, pay up - with our lives, with our money, with our work and obedience. With our very souls. Masters of Profit.
It’s the poor folk like you and I who will suffer by war, by making a world run by profit, for profit. In the last 7 days, the large war corporations (Raytheon, Lockheed, BAE, Haliburton, Boeing et al …) have increased their share values 4x. In the last 2 years, drug corporations have increased profits 1,000x fold. They sit on their yachts and watch the world, watch lives burn down. Yemen is not enough to keep the river of $ flowing …
I look at Putin, I look at Zelensky. All I see are masters of war. Both billionaires, rich beyond our imaginations. Playing with our lives on their chessboard. Forget all the propaganda about both men, on both sides. The truth is, they are both master manipulators and behind the scenes, they stuff their money into digitally secure banks in Cyprus, in the Br. Virgin Islands.
We are being duped. The first casualty of war is the truth. In Russia, they are told that without war, the nation is in danger, will perish from the West’s aggression. In the West, we are told stories of heroism, of defiance, stories beating the drums of war, stories filled with lies, aligning all events into the myth of heroism. Pulling us along into a long war where guns, bombs, ammunition, armaments, medals for the dead become the new vaccine and candy for profiteers to suck on.
This is a very intelligent man - Chris Hedges. He outlines what the proper stance should be regarding Ukraine. Listen, understand. How we are in the hands of larger forces.
As always, or usually, a poem to wrap up.