An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi
All we are saying is give peace a chance
John Lennon
All wars are fought for money.
Socrates, 469-399 B.C.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Isaac Asimov
War is Terrorism with a Bigger Budget
sign at the SF peace rally, 1/18/2003
...it seemed to me we had the kind of awakening that the great
religions first intended, and that somehow it involved everybody.
There were kids there. There were old people there, and in other
parts of the building there were people just dancing and dancing... we
had a chance to awaken our hearts, unbound by any particular cultural
or religious commitments to this group or that. It seemed to me, and
I'm meaning this very seriously, a prime religious experience that
transcended all the bondages and definitions of who and what we are
that are the curse of the world today. This, I would say, is the
answer to the atom bomb.
Joseph Campbell
speaking about watching Deadheads
at a Grateful Dead Show (1988)
Smiling is very important. If we are not able to smile, then the world will
not have peace. It is not by going out for a demonstration against nuclear
missiles that we can bring about peace. It is with our capacity of smiling,
breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Violence := Any act that reduces self-esteem
There is no way to peace, peace is the way
A.J. Muste
You cannot simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.
Albert Einstein
Nuclear war would really set back cable.
Ted Turner
When the song of the angel is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks
The real work of Christmas begins.
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoners
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among brothers
To make music in the heart.
Nineteenth Century Quaker Benediction
Traditionally Spoken at Christmas
The loud little handful--as usual--will shout for the war. The pulpit
will--warily and cautiously--object--at first; the great, big, dull bulk of
the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a
war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, 'It is unjust and dishonorable,
and there is no necessity for it.'
Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side
will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at
first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last
long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war
audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from
the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who
in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned
speakers--as earlier--but do not dare to say so. And now the whole
nation--pulpit and all--will take up the war-cry, and shout itself
hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and
presently such mouths will cease to open.
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the
nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those
conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and
refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by
convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the
better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque
self-deception.
Mark Twain, "The Mysterious Stranger," 1910
STRANGE GAME.
THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS NOT TO PLAY.
Joshua - the computer simulation in War Games
after trying to find a way to "win" at nuclear war