broomcloset ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pagan Speak, March 2003 Here is my Pagan Speak collaboration for March 2003. Topic #3 : How Do You Feel About War? I wasn't actually going to write about this topic. I was going to do Topic #1: Pagan Press. (Check out the Pagan Speak web site for all the March topics) I didn't really want to touch the "war" subject as I've been focusing on avoiding any discussion of it. It makes me tired, especially where My Love is concerned. We are simply on either ends of the scale when it comes to the concept of war. But I guess I'm either brave or silly, and today I feel like writing a bit about it. I'm going to do this in a structured fashion and write about each individual question posed above. I find that in discussions like this, if you work them like a formal debate, there is slightly less chance of getting completely incoherent and starting to shout "You Suck!" "No, you suck!" "No, YOU suck!" etc. So here it goes... i) How do you, from your own spiritual perspective or tradition, view and/or cope with the ideals and realities of war and armed conflict? This is a tough one. I seem to be dealing with the current war in the Gulf through the art of crochet more than anything else. ;) I can't give a good explanation of how my spiritual beliefs effect my view of war, other than I feel they are completely integrated. But I held my views of war long before I found my spiritual path, so I'd say it's more likely that my existing views (not just on war, but the world in general) influenced my spiritual path rather than vice versa. I don't understand war. I don't believe war is a "necessary evil." I don't believe war is an innevitability. I think war is a cop out. I think war is a replacement for rational thought and discussion. Sure, call me naive. For example, "Saddam Husein is a crazy lunatic and must be stopped. Rational discussion won't work on him. War is the only way." Call me an idealist. Call me a bleeding heart liberal. Well, you know what? I am all those things. I'm also intelligent enough to do some pretty cool problem solving and I figure that war is no answer to your problems. If you think war is justified in large international conflicts, then don't get angry at anyone who, in smaller scale conflicts, punches you in the mouth if you disagree with them. I think war is an unjustifiable, irrational, and totally uncompassionate course of action. How can you have acceptable "collateral damage" in the form of snuffed-out human lives? How can bombing the tar out of regular non-criminal people be a justifiable act? If you can explain it to me, I'd be willing to listen. So far I haven't heard anything to convince me otherwise. ii) Do your political leanings influence how you feel? Definitely. As I mentioned above, I'm a "bleeding heart liberal" (which will mean something different to you if you live in the US than if you live in Canada). I vote on the left wing of things. I vote for the betterment of life for as many people as possible. I think that peace is the only way to ultimately solve problems. In war, you get too caught up in the individual battles at hand. It's so easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. iii) Do you have a difficult time explaining/defending/advocating your position to other Pagans or Heathens? Non-Pagans? Oh yeah. I find that I'm lacking the vocabulary to discuss this issue, on two fronts. First, I no longer have a grasp on the discourse that exists in insitutions of higher learning. I found that when I was in university I had a much easier time conveying my thoughts and views. I was able to string a sentence together. Now I can barely do that. Second, I've never had a good hold on society's general discourse. There seems to be a lack of vocabulary available to the regular person and so ideas can hardly begun to be formed let alone discussed. I think this is me being an intellectual snob, so if that's how this is coming off I do apologize, but you're right - I am a snob. ;) In general conversation I can't remain rational enough to discuss war with people who think war is a great idea. I get so frustrated and sad that emotion completely takes over. I can't spit anything out the way I want, and it comes out sounding all jumbled. I guess I haven't discussed the war with many other Pagans. I do know of one (yes, just one so far) that thinks it's about time this war happened. We didn't get much time to talk about it, and I must admit I didn't persue this line of discussion. I just wanted to avoid it. But I'd be interested in hearing from Pagans who do favour war. I'd like to know why they feel the way they do and how their views on war fit with their spiritual beliefs. Maybe I'd get a better understanding of why people want war in general. I guess that's it. My apologies for any incoherence you may find in this brief essay. As I mentioned above, I have a hard time talking about this issue in a logical way. I hope some of this made sense. BB, -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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