Just Thinking

"Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good."
- Mohandas Gandhi

In todays world it is easy to say that the problems are so great that as individuals we cannot affect them. That is exactly the cause of problems - that no-one stands against seemingly overwhelming forces. Just which snowflake in an avalanche can be held responsible? Another view ...

…We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don’t ‘win’ there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope. An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

- Howard Zinn

I have taken the above quote from NonviolenceUnited.org who always capitalise the "Non" but never the "violence". This is an organisation aiming to get people to think and act in new ways that help reduce violence of all types in the world right now, not waiting for the next election, not waiting for someone else to act, but each of us choosing to do what we can do now. The site is full of inspiration thoughts and quotes and advice on how to live with these ideas in your heart at all times.

We nearly all think of Gandhi as a great man, but how many of us follow his advice? There is much evil in the world today, with especially the large and powerful nations having governments controlled by very corrupt people, and this situation can easily lead people to despair. But that is exactly what those leaders and manipulators want us to do. We can instead decide that we will be millions or billions of people simply not co-operating with their schemes of invasion, enslavement and greed.

"We can re-invent civil disobedience in a million different ways... The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling -- their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."

- Arundhati Roy

Arundhati Roy is the author of "The God of Small Things" for which she received the 1997 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. She gave a 44 minute speech Come September as the Lannan foundation lecture for September 2002. She is Indian and talks particularly about the situation in India and Pakistan as well as the World. She speaks of living outside of patriotism, something that I have long felt is necessary to solving international conflicts. "My country right or wrong" is always wrong. Roy is an inspirational speaker and I recommend this video. Some brief excerpts ...

"flags are pieces of coloured cloth that people use, first to shrink-wrap people's brains, and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead"

"grief ... the death of dreaming ... the (absolute) unfairness of the world"

In 1989 Bush Snr said that Saddam Hussein was committing genocide on the Kurds. He sent him $500,000,000 in subsidies that year, and $1,000,000,000 the following year. After the first gulf war he implemented sanctions that caused the death of 500,000 children.

Wikipedia on Arundhati Roy.

"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

Literally speaking, ahimsa means non-violence towards life but it has much higher meaning. It means that you may not offend anybody; you may not harbor uncharitable thought, even in connection with those whom you consider your enemies. To one who follows this doctrine, there are no enemies. A man who believes in the efficacy of this doctrine finds in the ultimate stage, when he is about to reach the goal, the whole world at his feet. If you express your love—ahimsa—in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your so-called enemy, he must return that love.

This doctrine tells us that we may guard the honor of those under our charge by delivering our own lives into the hands of the man who would commit the sacrilege. And that requires far greater courage than delivering of blows.

Ahimsa or non-injury, of course, implies non-killing. But, non-injury is not merely non-killing. In its comprehensive meaning, ahimsa or non-injury means entire abstinence from causing any pain or harm to another living being, either by thought, word, or deed. Non-injury requires a harmless mind, mouth, and hand."

- Mohandas Gandhi

Ahimsa is actually a central tenet of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, but is also present in the West through the Hippocratic Oath taken by doctors which includes the statement "I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone" and often summarised as "first do no harm". It is present also in Christ's advice to "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemy". It is the foundation of a peaceful and moral life regardless of one's religion.

I recommend NonviolenceUnited.org as a useful resource for those who would embark on a path of trying to make this world a better place to live.