Doing the right thing

Mohave Indians; Indians of North America; Military personnel. Around 1868. Author: Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882 (photographer). In the public domain.

by Anthony J. Marsella

Let’s change October 11 to Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

In our Global Era, we need to move away from Euro-American domination–including domination of history and the historical record.

It’s time to look at that record honestly. Reminders of genocides, enslavement, exploitation, repression of identity, and destruction of cultures can lead to opportunities for understanding, respect, and justice.

Columbus’ voyage had monumental consequences for indigenous people.. Even now, in the Amazon, as well as in Alaska, Hawaii, and other parts of the USA indigenous people struggle for human rights denied them by colonial and imperialistic powers. Time for change! There must be place and privilege for all.

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., ProfessorEmeritus, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822

Republished, with light editing, from the Psychologists for Social Responsibility discussion group, 10-11-19.


Kerala: The graveyard of all war propaganda, Part III

WWII A Nazi propaganda poster. In English: “Marxism is the guardian angel of capitalism.” his file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Dontworryifixedit.

by Ian Hansen, PhD

Pointless War #3: The War on “Bourgeois” Liberty and Democracy

Finally, consider liberty-protecting electoral democracy.  Over in these “Western” parts we adore liberty-protecting electoral democracy, of course.  But other world players have considered it so evil that Der Fuhrers, Dear Leaders, Big Brothers, Generalissimos, Chairmans and Commandantes have all felt obliged to smash and destroy it with totalitarian enslavement, sometimes garnished with genocide.  Though their methods may have seemed harsh, these figures imagined they were merely breaking the eggs necessary to make beautiful, radiant omelets, like, say a thousand-year Reich of Righteousness from the fascist/Nazi side, or True Democracy from the totalitarian communist side (“democracy” embodied in obsequious groveling obedience to The Party).  In the totalitarian view, legally-protected liberty and the electoral-parliamentary forms of democracy were the eggs that had to be smashed in order to prevent them from poisoning people’s minds away from these utopian projects.  Totalitarians feared that “Western”-style individual liberty and electoral parliamentary democracy would turn the precious volk into capitalists, selfish individualists, bourgeois liberals and rejectors of civilization and sublimity.

But Kerala defies both forms of totalitarian genocidal expectations by being a liberty-protecting, parliamentary democratic kind of place where communism flourishes politically and religion flourishes culturally.  Kerala has hammer and sickle flags flying all over.  It also bills itself as “God’s own country,” with ordinary people praying, God-believing and religious service-attending as far as the eye can see.  So liberty-protecting electoral democracy in Kerala did not destroy either communism or religion there, as totalitarian genocidals might have imagined it would.

And, for that matter, declining to destroy communism and religion did not lead to the implosion of liberty and democracy in Kerala, as anti-communists and anti-religionists might have imagined it would. If anything, bourgeois “Western” electoral parliamentary democracy and individual liberty have grown stronger in Kerala over the years.  And they’ve been growing in a fertile soil that combines regularly-elected communism with indigenous or indigenized Indian religions.

In another article, “Reconsidering Communism, Religion and Liberty-Protecting Democracy Through the Lens of Kerala” I present detailed empirical evidence that Kerala is a delightfully free and peaceful communism-inclined state, a delightfully free and peaceful religion-inclined culture, and a delightfully free and peaceful liberty-protecting democratic political entity.  I nevertheless argue that in none of these particulars is Kerala an “exception that proves the rule,” at least not in the usual sense of the phrase.  Kerala is not, in other words, a bright spot for X (X being communism, or religion, or liberty-protecting democracy) that just throws into sharper relief how repulsively evil X usually is by nature.

When avoiding post-hoc-ergo-propter-hoc fallacies and other failures to account for confounds, the relevant empirical data points in a surprising direction.  The data suggests that communism, religion and liberty-protecting electoral democracy are all somewhat salutary to peace and freedom and thus are compatible with each other in their most basic, stripped down, core value-grounded forms.  Want to spend another half hour wading through my prose so you can see that data?  Read the article here, and don’t forget to click the links.

Acceptable hate. Allowable hate. Sanctioned hate. Legal hate. Mandated hate. What’s the flavor of the day?

Members of Nevada Desert Experience hold a prayer vigil during the Easter period of 1982 at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site. In the public domain. Author: National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office.

By Rev. Doe West

I have been giving honest contemplation to sponsored hate throughout my life.

A kickover moment came when I posted something on Facebook about the POTUS using the word “animals” to describe immigrants and received a reply pointing out that he was applying that term very specifically to gang members, not all immigrants.

I get it, but that leads me to more questions:

  • should we ever allow this level of dehumanizing towards any human being?
  • Is it okay to dehumanize those who dehumanize others?
  • What does it do for ourselves, our society, humanity, to make hatred and dehumanization acceptable, even mandated?

Culturally acceptable ways to denigrate any group become signposts for directing our hate–sometimes literally, as in “no Irish,” “no Italians,” “no Chinese,” “no Colored.” People have found countless ways to communicate how and when and whom to hate.

Tragically, religious beliefs cannot be trusted to assure mercy, grace, and love, or lead society to higher ground.

On one hand, Father James Martin, SJ, a Jesuit priest, pulls no punches: “Calling people animals is sinful.  Every human being has infinite dignity.  Moreover, this is the same kind of language that led to the extermination of Jews (”vermin”) in Germany and of Tutsi (“cockroaches”) in Rwanda.  This kind of language cannot be normalized.  It is a grave sin.”

On the other hand, the most radicalized right religious of any faith consider anyone they hate to personify  sin and to be exterminated in the name of their God.

If God is not a safe covering for peace – if language can be easily swung from tool to weapon – if it all comes down to individual belief and personally comfortable boundaries, who is safe?  And who or what becomes a place of hope?  Is there no clear rallying cry or unifying moral understanding that we can count on to help us all rise to higher ground together?

Personally, I am holding space for hope, and I am working daily to help shape our culture by my words and actions.  Today, I will use the words from the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian text as I did in the ‘60s, when I worked for peace and justice, and as I continue to do today:

“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)

Engaging Peace vs. Lemmingcide

Lemmings. Popular Science Monthly, 1877. In the public domain.

by Kathie MM

Engaging peace.  For what purpose should we engage peace?

To resist violence. To prevent violence.  To end violence.

Violence is life-shattering, life-destroying.

Peace is life-affirming, love-affirming, future-affirming.

Right now life on Earth faces the most violent assault since the Ice Age, which wiped out not only dinosaurs but also countless other life-forms.

I am not talking about nuclear bombs or neutron bombs or drones or weapons of mass destruction, although all those threats are real enough, terrifying enough.

I am talking about the program of mass murder, mass suicide, and mass genocide that human beings have undertaken through their wholesale destruction of the life forces that sustain them.

What elements made it possible for the original life forms on Earth to evolve?  Water, a tolerable level of sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.

What do we need today if we are to survive? Water, a tolerable level of exposure to sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.

What are we doing to the elements that sustain life? Poisoning them. Destroying them. Making the earth uninhabitable for many plant and animal species that can include our own.

More than 15,000 scientists from more than 180 countries have recently issued a warning about the catastrophes that face us and the steps that can be taken. Read and take steps

Nobody has the right to participate in this suicidal process.

I will be writing more on this subject.