War Talk

Yesterday afternoon we went to a barbeque at the in-laws' wonderful home. The place was built to entertain, with roaming gardens, three koi ponds call connected by a circulating stream, and magnificent vistas of Flathead Lake. Add to that good food, a nice Malbec or Cornoa beer, and a set of gregarious and friendly people, and you have a time ripe for good conversation.

You never know what you will hear, or learn.

I spent a good part of the occasion getting to know a fellow named Jop. He is a Dutchman, aged 84, who still has an eye for the ladies, an active mind and keen views on politics, war and the world with which I found myself in complete agreement. I learned that Jop was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and that he was 12 when the Germans attacked Holland. It was the bombing of Rotterdam that forced the Dutch to capitulate after only five days of fighting -- Jop was there.

At various points during his career as a research scientist, Jop was involved in understanding the effects of radiation poisoning, for a considerable period at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and more recently in Chernobyl. It was interesting to hear that the damage done by Chernobyl may not have killed nearly as many people as the dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities, but the damage overall was much more wide-spread there; more territory, more drift -- and, though Jop did not allude to it, the crushing blow to the Soviet system. Still, he believes in the ultimate viability of nuclear power when run properly and carefully.

Having seen all this, Jop is a devout pacifist.

It is a belief system I understand well, and share. It is not a matter of age; I have always felt this way. If an enemy who had no regard for life attacked us, I think I would not last two minutes in the holocaust that might follow. I accept that, just as surely as I accept the serious unlikelihood that anyone in today's world could attack us and maintain that attack without destroying their own economy in the bargain, well before their troops reached Montana.

War is outdated, and so is the standing army prepared for war. Unfortunately, no one seems to realize this, and we spend billions of dollars and thousands of lives under our illusions. Al Qeda will not conquer the United States -- and does not want to -- but they can hurt us where we live, in our pocketbooks, and have done.
But only because we let them. As long as there is money in it for someone . . .

The 84 year old and the 62 year old have some wisdom to impart. We have learned from history, from the history we lived through and the history we studied. We scream against ignorance and forgetfulness. It's our job.

There are those who listen. The number is growing.

Not My Words

Today's blog is a little different, and not because I'm being lazy. I present to you a series of quotes that are related, to serve as a reminder to both you and myself that no ground we can cover is really new, except the unseen ground of peace, and that others much wiser than me have been commenting on the human condition for a very long time. It was Georges Santayana who said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I spend my days wondering at what goes on in the world. It is a different place from the world the people quoted below knew, and yet the principles remain the same and the vigilance we are required to exercise is of ever greater importance, simply because, as the German people in the 1920's did not see what was coming, neither do we.

Enough said. So:

“One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.
----- Josef Stalin


“Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.”
----- William James


“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
----- Elie Wiesel


“When Hitler attacked the Jews, I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the Protestant Church == and there was nobody left to be comcerned.”
----- Martin Niemoeller


“The art of leadership . . . consists in consolidating the attention of the people against a common adversary and taking care that nothing will split up that attention.”
----- Adolph Hitler


“In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.”
----- Alexander Solzhenitsyn


“So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.”
----- Aldous Huxley


“In all government, there is a perpetual intestine struggle, open or secret, between Authority and Liberty, and neither of them can absolutely prevail in the contest.”
----- David Hume


“All the world knows that the weak overcome the strong and the soft overcomes the hard.
“But none can practice it.”
----- Lao Tsu


“In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.”
----- Mahatma Gandhi

Wisdom with Age?

They say age brings cynicism. I say it brings retrospect, but hope doesn't exactly disappear just because you become disappointed in our lack of progress. After all, after all we have seen, we still buy on credit, eat fatty and sugar-loaded foods, support war, and ignore climate change. But not all of us. And the numbers keep growing among the, dare I say, opposition.

There is a book that says old is fifteen years older than you are right now. That means age, like hope, is a relative thing, and depends on your own heart, your own approach. You choose. You can choose misery or happiness, regardless of what the world outside is up to on any given day. You do not have to bury your head in the sand to remain hopeful. You can see hope being smothered and still believe in it. Stay curious, have fun, and dream.