By KP, Alan and Editor-idiots
What is needed now is for anti-militarism to be the focal point of our struggle/movement. Militarism as an ideology rooted in a culture of patriarchy, command, hierarchy, fear, impunity, greed, deceit, theft, debt and ultimately violence and killing. The War System maintains the existing political and economic power realities. The war system, and its wider culture of domination, injures nearly everyone. Trauma is endemic, even for the victors with blood on their hands.
War is the biggest polluter, oil consumer, waster of life and love. The sea is warming, the protozoa dying, the sixth extinction coming. The forests are burning, the droughts spreading, the alarm sounding.
A shift of focus and priorities is the fierce urgency of now.
The peace system aspires to “Full Spectrum Cooperation.” Peace envisions gender rebalancing in decision making, democracy, restorative justice, accountability, honesty and often reparations. Caring, sharing, helping and healing are the virtues of peace. Compassion and Empathy are the needed … and Courage. A “turning of hearts” is the experience bridging old divisions.
The need is not to dominate. Recognize multiple overlapping sovereignties and centers of power from families to workplaces to nations and the regions of the world.
A future without war requires undoing social inequalities. How can we have a world without conflict if one third of the world prospers at the expense of the other two thirds?