Tag: war

May Pete rest in peace

Posted on by kathiemm

Peace and social justice are what Pete Seeger tirelessly worked for and sang for throughout his life.

Seeger was the consummate activist, hounded by the FBI because he would not name names during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s reign as Chief Bully of the United States.

We should remember that terrifying reign well today, as we see once again how Big Brother’s henchmen can threaten all who support world peace and social justice.

The video at the beginning of this post highlights many of the causes to which he dedicated his life.

Pete’s songs have inspired and engaged people around the world on behalf of peace and justice. One internet site has versions of his songs in 33 different languages. His grandson carries on his tradition.

We cannot fill his shoes but we can follow in his footsteps.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

How would you define war?

Posted on by kathiemm

Before you read this article, please write down your own definition of war.

Mural of siege warfare. Genghis Khan Exhibit
Mural of siege warfare. Genghis Khan Exhibit, San Jose Tech Museum, 2010. By Bill Taroli, used under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license, from Wikimedia Commons.

Then you can learn about the major types of definitions provided by respondents to the Personal and Institutional Rights to Aggression and Peace Survey (PAIRTAPS) as administered by the Group on Perspectives on Governmental Aggression and Peace (GIPGAP).

Collected from more than 40 countries around the world, the definitions of war fall into five major categories:

  1. definitions identifying war with conflict (dictionary types of definitions)
  2. definitions focusing on the presumed causes of war
  3. definitions specifying particular criteria that were necessary to label particular events as constituting a war
  4. definitions focusing on the outcomes of war, and
  5. moral judgments concerning the nature of war.

Here are some of the definitions of war provided by people from around the world. Decide which of the five categories of definition each one represents:

  • “When all people die and you find no food, land is taken and destroyed.”
  • “Violent response to an aggressor nation.”
  • “Killing unnecessarily.”
  • “Armed conflict between states or nations.”
  • “Repeated and prolonged attacks of force by one country upon another.”

Now consider your own definition. Which category would it fall into?

We found a range of responses in how men and women from different regions defined war and categorized those definitions.

Which sex do you think was more likely to provide definitions that were essentially moral judgments on war?

Which sex do you think was more likely to provide definitions focusing on outcomes of war?

Which sex do you think focused more on the specific qualifications for calling something a war?

Watch for an upcoming post that provides the answer to these and other questions about our findings.  

Kathie Malley-Morrison

What more can be said of war?

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest writer Anthony J. Marsella

WAR

What more can be said of war

That has not already been said,

That has not already been written,

That has not already been sung in song,

Recited in verse, shared in epic tales?

 

What more can be said of war

That has not already been committed to screen

In iconic movies with legendary actors,

Fighting and dying with glory amidst waving flags,

Or in heralded documentaries carefully

Edited with photos, letters, poignant

Words of lament spoken amid haunting tunes?

 

What more can be said of war

That has not already been sculpted in marble,

Painted on canvases,

Photographed in back and white,

And vivid color,

Revealing blood is red, bone is white,

Death is endless.

What more can be said of war

That has not already been inscribed in minds and bodies

Of soldiers who survived,

Civilians who endured,

Prisoners captive to trauma,

Scars visible and invisible?

 

What more can be said of war

That has not already been carved

On ordered granite gravestones

In national cemeteries, honoring sacrifice,

Their death veiled in shade and sunlight?

 

What more can be said of war,

That has not already been said about heroes and villains,

Soldiers and generals,

Warriors and misfits,

Freedom fighters and terrorists,

Victims and collateral damage,

Apologies and reparations?

 

What more can be said of war,

That has not already been said about

Glorious and evil causes,

Lusts for power and control

Access to wealth and resources,

Messianic responsibilities, moral duties,

Domination . . . ascendancy . . . revenge?

 

What more can be said of war,

That has not already been eulogized

On fields of battle,

Where lives were lost, minds seared,

And historians’ crafts polished

With the biased narratives of victors:

Waterloo, Hue, Fallujah?

There is no winner in war!

 

And why, if so much has been

Spoken, written, and engraved,

Why do the lessons of war,

Continue to be ignored, denied, distorted?

And now . . .  Syria.

Comment:  I wrote this poem in the course of two days as I witnessed the tragedy of death and suffering in Syria, bewildered again and again, by the endless uses of so many death technologies. I was dismayed that a score of nations appear to be pursuing selfish interests amidst the ethnic and tribal cleansing and genocides occurring. We are living with endless war.  Nothing more can be said about war. Violence begets violence, war begets war! No cries of noble responsibilities to protect and defend from either side are sufficient or warranted. They are merely part of the tactics, strategies, and policies that sustain war. Who benefits from war?

Anthony J. Marsella, August 28-29, 2013

Arms for children

Posted on by kathiemm

By guest author Luciana Karine de Souza

What does a society do when its children kill? This question became intensely personal in Brazil with the recent shooting death of a college student in São Paulo. The victim was 19 years old; the shooter was 17.

Graffiti boy with gun
Seattle graffiti by bartleby78. Used under CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Child and adolescent psychologists teach us that emotional stability, autonomy, and independence come with time and flourish when children develop secure attachments to the adults who care for them. But what happens when the adults providing children and adolescents with reciprocity, sensibility, monitoring, and so on, do so not for a humane education, but for crime education?

In today’s world, adolescents, and even younger children, are often introduced to guns early and taught how to engage in crime, drug trafficking, robbery, kidnapping, and even planned assassination. These firearms can provide not only money, but also prestige, attention, guidance, safety, and, in a way, some sort of education (how to be brave and strong when shooting, how to be firm and clear when confronting).

When we study and teach the concept of attachment, we focus on the positive roles of reciprocity, sensibility, safety, proximity, and attention in child development. To promote strong and secure attachment, we try to give our children love, embrace them with warmth, and surround them with our dedication. We offer them our arms and a safe haven. We strive to protect them, educate them, listen to them, and learn with them.

These arms, the arms of love, are the arms our children and adolescents need: arms to embrace them, safe and fulfilling arms, arms that protect them from violence, war, and hate. Not arms that kill. Not arms that fill the gap left by weak attachments. Arms that make them want to live and to allow to live. No arms should be stronger.

Luciana Karine de Souza is a full professor at Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her teaching and research involve personality and social development in psychology, education, and leisure.