Meditations in a Time of Delusions and Lies 19: Peace Comes to the World
Israelis and Palestinians are eager to share. No one gets killed in Jerusalem, no knives, no bombs, no soldiers, and everyone forgets that the holy shrines exist. Holy what?
All the looted artifacts and ancient Sumerian stone books wiggle their way back into the Baghdad Museum.
Dick Cheney really does have a change of heart, not just a heart attack.
Politics becomes a way to meet new people and make sense of the world, a kind of dating service and Department of Public Works in one.
The suicide bomber walks into the marketplace, yanks the string. Candies shoot out in all directions. He's become a suicide pinata, except he forgets to die in the explosion of sweets.
Generals decide that the military's job will be to watch the skies for dangerous asteroids that may hit us. In the meantime, they'll clean up the planet, reverse global warming, and zap computer spam.
Millions watch TV and walk away smarter.
Oil is no longer needed. Machines run on dreams.
Iraqis never do learn how to play baseball, and they are glad.
Sri Lanka is no longer divided, Ireland is no longer divided, Kashmir is no longer divided, Cyprus is one. Koreans skip across the DMV. Palestinian refugees return to their homes, and their Israeli neighbors no longer know why they wanted them to leave.
The LAPD snaps on soft handcuffs, the officers smiling and winking at suspects and TV cameras.
No one is forced to give a blow job in a high school broom closet.
Crack and heroin and speed no longer have any effect, and cocaine might as well be talcum powder. Addictions become old movies to laugh at.
Indians shave off the faces of the presidents from Mt. Rushmore.
Hilton Obenzinger is the author of "American Palestine: Melville, Twain and the Holy Land Mania," among many other books of criticism, poetry and fiction, and the recipient of the American Book Award. He is a long-time Jewish American advocate of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Hilton Obenzinger teaches writing and American literature at Stanford University.
"Memoirs of a Nice Irish-American 'Girl's Life in Occupied Territory" was released yesterday.
I would love to send you a copy to review- good or bad-I can take it!
It is all about NONVIOLENT resisters to the occupation of Palestine.
I wrote about my experiences with ISM, Anarchists Against the Wall, ICAHD-a whole chapter is devoted to the secular Jewish prophet Jeff Halper, the Christian prophet Rev Naim Ateek of SABEEL [Arabic and i think Hebrew too for "THE WAY" and "Living Spring"]
And the Shistleblower of Israel's WMD Program, Mordechai Vanunu who has endured a year long Freedom of Speech trial and verdict will be rendered in April 2007.
In my Memoirs, I am confronting the heretical and vile theology of the "Left Behind" series and the neo-con, neo-Christian Zionists who lust for nuclear holocaust.
I have been to the OPT four times since June 2005.
"Common sense is that which tells us the earth is flat."
Bertrand Russell
"Politicians...are able to order their lives so that every waking hour is busy, so that self-enquiry or self doubt need never intrude."
Brian Aldiss
"When we observe world affairs, is it not quite plain that fortune cares little for wisdom or foolishness but converts one to the other with capricious delight."
Tacitus
Annals, III.c.110
This world of ours will never achieve that which the article above embraces until such time as we the people truly understand that it is our world after all, not the property of venal and calculating profit minded old white guys.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 9:30:57 AM
like it or not Joree, my nitpicking and quite wrong on this one friend, the rulers of this world have been and mostly continue to be, white old men. Of course there are a few Sunni Saudis in the mix and an oriental or three, but my remarks were to make a point and yours were to do what?
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 9:40:25 AM
Peace doesn't come to the world, it is made IN the world
The effort to establish a new direction in the world requires concrete actions and real means of implementing them. It requires steps in new directions when it becomes obvious that steps in old directions continue to produce the same results. It requires new political leaders, new political agendas, new political strategies and new political programmes. It requires starting from the premise of non-violence proceeding to establish mutual interests and concerns, working towards common goals and developing common organization that move in a common direction. Arguing against Likkud is as meaningless as arguing against Hamas. Their uselessness needs to be demonstrated. The alternative needs to be proven feasible and operative. In other words, peace has to be demonstrated as a workable alternative. Is that too difficult?
by
Martin Zehr (38 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 77 comments)
on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 12:33:24 PM
Lovely stuff, and one thing is sure. Peace cannot happen, with the manifestations described, until it is imagined. Thanks for that.
Peace must come from the source of peace, which is the power behind the universe. Call it God, call it life, call it Love - by connecting with our source we connect with peace.
Most marvelous of all, we are, right now, creating peace in the world through these tiny little thoughts, actions and finding peace within.
Peace to all!
by
Jim Prues (15 articles, 33 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 73 comments)
on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 1:15:02 PM
It is only by demonstrating the reality of alternatives, not the thoughts of alternatives that people have something to choose from. This is on-the-ground politics, not metaphysical manifestations. First without, then within. They have to buy-in to the possibility of peace before they are willing to develop new patterns of thinking and new ways of living. A vision of one person takes the energies and actions of many to become reality. Working together establishes a mutual stake in the outcome and a common interest in the future.
by
Martin Zehr (38 articles, 2 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 77 comments)
on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 5:53:11 PM
There are no delusions about how humorous and true is your nostalgically haunting thought of an Earthly Paradise. When that day comes, when/if the lion and the lamb lay down together, and the lamb isn't biting it's toenails and perspiring profusely, eyeing the lion out of the corner of it's big eyes, I will buy chocolate ice cream cake rolls for the world! Set-em up I'm Buying!
For that to happen read my prescriptions elsewhere. It merely takes a massive educational, psychiatric revolution.
However, in a nutshell: Identify the avaricious, delusional and violent ones before they leave college or enter the job market, then whisk them away from the parents who instilled in them their sick views of life, and put them in separate but equal, pleasant Homes for the Conscience Impaired so they can do no harm to themselves or the rest of the world, until they are cured or the rest of their lives, whichever comes first... and leave room for return engagements as needed.
by
Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo (144 articles, 1 quicklinks, 95 diaries, 1311 comments)
on Saturday, February 17, 2007 at 4:40:23 PM
11 comments
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