Friday, April 15, 2016

War and Peace, Imperialism and Ignorance, The Greatest Enemy of Truth, and More...

The U.S. spends more on military than the next 7 highest spenders combined.
 
from National Priorities Project

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

- Martin Luther King, Jr. 


You know, we live in a country where if you want to go bomb somebody, there's remarkably little discussion about how much it might cost, even though the costs almost inevitably end up being orders of magnitude larger than anybody projected at the outcome. But when you have a discussion about whether or not we can assist people who are suffering, then suddenly we come very, you know, cost-conscious.

  Andrew Bacevich
 
Imperialism is the factor in American policy, not just since 1898, but in fact long before it when we were expanding across this continent and taking  away Indian lands in order to enlarge the territory of the United States.  We have been an imperial power and an expansionist power for a very long time.

Howard Zinn 


Although most Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are likely to pay a steep price - individually and collectively - for their nation's continued efforts to dominate the global scene.

Chalmers Johnson


I really do think that if for one week in the United States we saw the true face of war, we saw people's limbs sheared off, we saw kids blown apart, for one week, war would be eradicated. Instead, what we see in the U.S. media is the video war game.

― Amy Goodman


America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and loose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. 

― Abraham Lincoln
 

We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. 

Thích Nhất Hạnh


Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes... reach the light of day?

― Amy Goodman


Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. 

― Albert Einstein


War and peace start in the human heart - and whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications. 

Pema Chödrön


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