Sane people don’t glorify mass murder or respect it as “service.”
Let’s encourage young people to NOT throw away their lives for the insane fantasies of impotent old men who send them to kill people they don’t even know.
Glorifying militarism is another example of the true insanity of our failed civilization. And I’m talking about the so-called civilization worldwide.
We don’t need to waste time trying to persuade military policymakers at all. They are completely dead inside and don’t value human life whatsoever. Really, they don’t. Let’s say it clearly and directly: militarism is murder, and deserves our contempt — not respect.
We must make military “service” (sic) everywhere on Earth exposed as a cruel canard — which it is. We must create and promote a culture that respects life, and ridicules militarism and — most of all — refuses to participate.
Let’s create a worldwide soldier shortage. We don’t need an anti-war movement. We need an anti-fight movement. We won’t do it. Let the old farts who love war so much fight it themselves.
Excuses, Of Course
What about World War II? What about an invaded country like Ukraine?
If we reject militarism, what happens then? Maybe Putin would see even more defections, fleeing soldiers. Maybe these non-fighting conscripts would be welcomed in Ukraine. Maybe Ukrainians wouldn’t feel any need to fight because the young Russians are now their friends, drinking and listening to music and chatting together.
Maybe unwilling soldiers everywhere wake up and become friends and the commanders become helpless bystanders. This actually happened during World War I — the famous Christmas truce.
French and German soldiers put down their weapons and got together, sharing stories and pictures of family. That was brilliant. Stupidly, the war resumed.
We can do better than that. Still, this and other examples of soldiers humanizing each other, points the way.
What if a country loses a war, because they are unwilling to fight and the other county is? Well, if nonviolent noncooperation with evil becomes a widespread and ultimately universal approach…then the occupiers will become friends with the occupied. And neither will serve cruel and violent and stupid “masters.” This cultural change, this ethos, isn’t a narrow passing thing. This is a whole new world. A sane one.
We start small. We begin openly ridiculing war and dismissing soldiering as foolish, as naive people being used by cruel masters. We identify male soldiers as unmanly. We don’t thank them for their imaginary service. We encourage them to stop, to recognize what they’ve lost, to understand that they’ve been snookered and they can be better than that.
We welcome them to the side of LIFE and SANITY. We give them an opportunity to heal, to put soldiering behind them. And yes, we can’t necessarily heal PTSD. But we do what we can.
When we humanize everyone, especially those identified as enemies, we save our species from their worst instincts. And we begin disempowering the fools who have been making the decisions, from those who ruin everything.
We need to keep describing, and envisioning the world we want. We need to model that world with our behavior. And we need to move things in that direction by NOT doing bad things, no matter what “authorities” demand.
Please follow me on Medium. And see WeAreSaners.org.
