Don’t just hate war: Try loving peace instead!
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The chain reaction of evil–wars producing more wars — must be broken,
or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
(Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Yesterday, something interesting and unexpectedly though-provoking happened, which some of you might have noticed. You see, I had decided to take and old obnoxious video and submit into DIGG. As I done so, I was rather confident that most people would not be indifferent, since there was a significant mass appeal, both aesthetic and intellectual – mainly evoked by the loud, annoying hardcore music and the tongue-in-cheek message that “WE ALL HATE WAR “. I was positive this would be a controversial entry, and it turns out I wasn’t exactly wrong, even though the video got promptly buried – after reaching the much sought-after 15 minutes of fame: if you read through all the following verbose you’ll hopefully understand the *true* reason why this was a successful experiment. Be warned though, the subsequent logic will require that you think somewhat out of the box… or rather, out from the Russian dolls. Please try to keep your eyes on the big picture, as we progressively step back, striving to achieve some perspective.
Only one thing can conquer war–that attitude of mind which can see nothing in war but destruction and annihilation… (Ludwig von Mises)
First and foremost, I shall proceed to explain what came about: quite simply, the “WE ALL HATE WAR!” video really did become popular after nearly 24 hours; yet it seems to have have been buried after a short while. Judging from the traffic stats, it must have remained popular for less than one hour; still it was sufficient time to gather about 130 diggs and over a hundred comments. Nonetheless, the powers that be hastily raped and plunged and plummeted the article back into the darkness from whence it had apparently came. The obvious reason for the funeral was most likely because it was a shallow, futile, and pointless entry. Well, hello? I was the first one to proclaim the video had “No point, no purpose, just bloody senseless violence”. So, if you think of it, accusing the video of the same thing I had accused it on the first place seems like… well, kind of pointless also. Still, I don’t really understand how an article which raised such notable discussion and controversy would be so easily dubbed pointless. How is this relevant? Think Russian dolls, and keep reading.
Acts of terror have never brought down liberal democracies. Acts of parliament have closed a few.
(Lt. General William E. Odom, US Army)
You see, this will possibly sound somewhat far-fetched, but the “WE ALL HATE WAR!” video I submitted was actually intended to serve both as social experiment and a mirror aimed at our common sense. The reasoning behind the “WE ALL HATE WAR!” article was somewhat of a sleight of hand: the video itself was really just a pointless coy; I was more interested in learning how people would react to the motto “WE ALL HATE WAR!”; for me, the ongoing discussion would provide the real substance, while the video served as nothing but a redundant carcass. And boy, was there ever a discussion! As you can check from skimming through the nearly 100 comments here, the article really served as a war theatre of sorts. There were people who enjoyed the motion, people who hated it, and people who merely shrugged. I’ll proceed to scrutinize the discussion, while trying to make an honest, hopefully articulate point. If you haven’t by now, please do take notice: This is not about defending neither my prematurely buried video, nor my so-called “artistic” integrity. I don’t really care much about either things, and what I’m really trying to impress upon you is actually carved between the lines, so I urge you to please be attentive.
How does one prevail in war? Both sides have already lost.
(Logan Kodysz)
Before I get deeper into my reasoning, please allow me to explain the artistic intention behind the “WE ALL HATE WAR!” video. First and foremost, it was never really intended to be clever, but rather to provide and utterly ironic statement that would cause people to REACT. The concept is quite simple: there’s an animated loop featuring two figures who keep shooting each other down, interleaved with a psychedelic background featuring the motto “WE ALL HATE WAR!”, coupled with an intentionally annoying, aggressive piece of hard-core dance music. You see, the impression I was trying to convey was that war really is a shallow, futile and pointless thing. Of course, all the haters merely assumed that I – the author – am also a shallow, futile artsy type, making pointless attempts to get recognition on the Internet (as expressed by such whimsical comments as: “hey guys, let’s reword a sentence and pretend to be intelligent to impress the Internet!”). The obvious result? Lots of hate, and down goes the whole charade. One of the most insightful commentators from the bunch actually put it quite clearly as he wrote “That video sucked, so the most logical conclusion for why it is on the digg front page is that we all in fact do hate war.” Why, it’s good to know at least one person actually caught a glimpse of what I was really up to!
Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
(Mahatma Gandhi)
Fortunately, there were actually several people who could relate with the overarching feeling: ” There will be no wars when “the people” decide to stop fighting them. Ultimately, the people go to war, politicians do not”, but not as many were able to see through my actual intentions. I suppose this is a good thing, otherwise it would be unlikely there were as many passionate comments. Would *you* have commented if I had merely asked “hey do you hate war?”. As I write this open article while looking back to the abundant comments which did occur, I’d say there were three types of people involved: people who supported the topic, people who shrugged, and people who hated it. Nothing really new, since this is what happens in most discussions; however let’s take yet another step back and compare the whole scenario with an actual war: there are always people who support war, people who oppose, and people who shrug. War is a thing for adults, its seems, and it’s actually quite a complicated intricate matter: ” (this video is) simple minded pseudo-philosophy. Real life situations are far more complicated”. I firmly beg to differ, in this respect: as far as I can see, war is utterly childish, and if there’s a solution it’s bound to be something deceitfully simple, such as … walking away in the opposite direction! Don’t *hate* war, just let go of it. Don’t just let it go and stand there: actively make peace! But never, ever make war to make peace, because that simply won’t work!
The war on terrorism is akin to the war on drugs…unwinable, unless you kill everyone…or address the root causes. (K. W. Ibrahim)
I never intended to save the world with an annoying 40-second video; I merely tried to alert people that war is annoying, and that if we don’t like it, we should really back away. War is not something that just happens in the middle-east, or the third-world countries. War is a state of mind, and it’s all around us. Part of human nature? Maybe. Can we evolve beyond that? I like to think that we actually can! I’m just a hopeless dreamer like that. I believe that war (as well as peace) is something that starts within us, something that propagates outwards in our life, in all our daily interactions. There is no point in hating war, because that would amount to a huge irony: war is fueled by hate, so by hating war, we’d actually help in propelling it. We should merely aim to recognize the extremely subtle processes within ourselves which underlie and catalyze all conflicts, and we should strive consciously to shift these patterns. We should set our mind towards peace!
That actually means we should not hate war: We should let go of it, starting within ourselves, and yielding outwards in our every daily interaction. As you let go of war, peace will come along naturally. You may think that I’m a senseless dreamer, but trust me on this one… if we all start making peace around us and spreading consciousness and common sense, war will eventually become an obsolete, primitive thing of the past… such as living in caves, or eating raw meat. We’re all living through endless layered loops of hatred, discrimination and mutual repression, and sometimes we don’t even notice! If you’re really against war, then you might as well start loving peace… without the least boundary or reserve. Hating war is just a means of supporting the same old senseless cycles of destruction. Now, is that ironic or what?
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