That is an old one, dear sister. "Turn the other cheek" from (Matthew 5:38:45). Or sometimes, when in doubt, change the subject - that is an old female ‘trick' (not the oldest, of course)!
However, I doubt that such passivism has saved lives today or ever. And I'm not certain that since it is of the "I will overcome." syndrome that it is not those more overt actions of others who made the changes - not the passivists who cried out.
Sure, everyone likes to think that the stubbornness of Martin Luther KIng changed anything. All he did was to bring attention to the problem and it was the activists who made the changes. That was also true of Gandhi. All he got was the attention of people who rose up and said, "Hmmmm. This just isn't right!"
So what I'm saying is that people like Gandhi and King and other whistle blowers are to be admired for their efforts - but they were only successful because many thousands of others decided that changes should be made.
Our problems today, I think, are quite different and won't be changed by hunger strikes, marches of the Gandhi or King ilk or even popular opinion. The American people could create a wailing wall of their choice, but to no avail. We have made our bed and we must sleep in it.
No one is going to dissuade the Al-Qaeda and its myriad of splinter groups to stop terrorizing westerners by anyone in the west going on a hunger strike - as Gandhy did, nor someone claiming that we're just innocent lambs being led to slaughter by oil people like Dick Cheney.
We are imperialists, have always been since at least the Civil War, and are paying the price for our aggressions. We didn't get where we are as the lead nation of the world simply by hard work and innovation - that is BS! We got where we are through aggressive business dealings and power mongering.
We have created a world of hatred by those who feel they should have been better served and also those who envy us because with good reason they feel they certainly should live as well as we.
So here we are, the fifth year after 9/11 and a few of us huddle together in fear of yet another attack by the evil "fascist Islamics." Yet what do we hear from our elected leader?
From the AP, we find that: " WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has in recent days recast the global war on terror into a "war against Islamic fascism." Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzzword for Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq.
Yet from Wikipedia we learn that, "Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism." Hmmmmmmm! Doesn't that sound a bit Republican?
Perhaps if we apply a little logic to this ‘hatred of us thing' (as George Bush, Sr. would say) we could take the heat off us by not occupying and controlling most of the world! Just a thought.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment