Dan Pallotta

Thursday, April 29, 2004

On about page four or five of the L.A. Times today there is a story that 8 more U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday in Iraq. This is how Vietnam happened. In the first year U.S. troop deaths were reported on page one. Then, as we became normalized to the death, they became less and less prominently reported.

They say of you drop a frog into boiling water it will jump out immediately. But if you put in cold water and slowly increase the temperature to a boil it will stay in and die.

This is exactly the way military escalation works.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

A good friend wrote today and asked, with respect to issues of non-violence, what we do about the crazy people like Bin Laden and Hussein. I am afraid there is no easy answer. That is not to say there isn't an answer. Just not an easy one.

It is a bit like an alcoholic saying that he wants to continue drinking but asking what he should do about the nasty problem of the hangovers. We have to go back to the idea of how the Husseins and the Bin Ladens got created in the first place. And by that I don't mean the fact that the U.S. government gave them their start. That is true but it so far removed from the real root of the problem as to be irrelevant.

Somewhere along the line humanity decided that it was better to repress emotion and build resentment than to communicate honest feelings. This led to resentment which led to anger which led to violence which led to militarism which created weapons which are available to the likes of anyone who wants to create trouble. We have chosen this as our way of life, and we choose it every day, not just in the way nation treats nation, but in the way father treats son and neighbor treats neighbor. So you see, there will always be another Bin Laden and another Hussein, and they will get worse and worse as the repression of the human spirit and the repression of love gets stronger and stronger. Bin laden and Hussein are symptoms. The root problem lies so much deeper as to make them irrelevant too.

We must change our entire way of life. This is not easy to swallow, but it is simple. And in the long run, it will be much easier to swallow than life will be when the violence gets completely out of hand. And make no mistake about it, it will.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

"Great spirits will always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds."

Albert Einstein

Monday, April 26, 2004

"The adherents of the old order have a powerful ally in the natural law of inertia inherent in humanity which is, as it were, a natural defense against change. Thus pacifism faces no easy struggle. The question of whether violence or law shall prevail between states is the most vital of the problems of our eventful era, and the most serious in its repercussions. The beneficial results of a secure world peace are almost inconceivable, but even more inconceivable are the consequences of the threatening world war which many misguided people are prepared to precipitate. The advocates of pacifism are well aware how meager are their resources of personal influence and power. They know that they are still few in number and weak in authority, but when they realistically consider themselves and the ideal they serve, they see themselves as the servants of the greatest of all causes."

-- Bertha von Suttner, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1905