[Peace-discuss] Moon eclipse

Fri Feb 22 12:31:18 CST 2008

Even though my fate was not to be a Christian, I've found it interesting to read from and about Tolstoy, discovering once gain why we don't read what we don't read in school.

  DG

  In the last fifteen years (1895-1910) of his life Tolstoy wrote numerous articles and letters promoting the philosophy of nonviolence and the method of civil disobedience. He expressed his gratitude to several American writers who especially influenced him, namely, Garrison, Parker, Emerson, Ballou, and Thoreau. He repeated the basic principle that murder is wrong and that killing one's fellow human beings in any circumstances is murder. Thus the simple truth is that war and executions are murder, even though people try to justify them. The essential solution to war is for people to realize what it really is and call it by its right name.
    It should be understood
that an army is an instrument of murder,
that the recruiting and drilling of armies
which Kings, Emperors, and Presidents carry on
with so much self-assurance are preparations for murder.9
  Therefore a Christian cannot be a soldier, that is, a murderer, and a man with any sense will not enslave himself to a master whose business is killing. The way to end war, then, is for those who recognize that it is wrong, to refrain from fighting and even to cease supporting warlike governments by refusing to pay their taxes. Those who are not hypnotized into the wrongdoing must refuse; those who do follow reason, conscience, and God will always attain the best results for themselves and for the world. They say something like this: we realize that the danger they are so anxious to guard against is a fraud. All nations claim they want peace, but at the same time they are all arming themselves against others. We recognize the law that all people are of the same family, and it does not matter if one belongs to this country or that. Thus we are not frightened by the danger that other nations will attack. The law of God is more important than the requirement to participate
 in killing because our duty is not only not to kill but not to violate at all. Therefore we will not prepare for murder nor give money for that purpose. We will not attend your meetings designed to pervert people's minds and consciences in order to transform them into instruments of violence to obey any bad man choosing to use them.

  Now the real struggle is between those who use violence and those who refuse to be violent. Thus Tolstoy urged both officers and soldiers to resign. He exposed the cruel punishments the army uses to turn men into less than animals, into machines, which perform deeds most repulsive to human nature. He exhorted men to obey God rather than the shameful commands of men.

  We must learn to see through the perverted rationalizations that governments use to justify war. In 1894 Tolstoy wrote Christianity and Patriotism, warning against the dangerous sentiment of patriotism, which he defined as "the preference for one's own country or nation above the country or nation of any one else." He found it aptly illustrated in the German patriotic song, Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles. This sentiment he regarded as immoral because it violates the golden rule by trying to benefit oneself at the expense of others. For Tolstoy patriotism "is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power."10 Patriotism must inevitably yield to universal brotherhood.

  Tolstoy proposed that the most important changes in the life of humanity are not brought about by armies nor machines nor exhibitions nor labor unions nor revolutions nor inventions but by a change in public opinion. We need only to stop lying to ourselves and realize that strength is not in force but in truth. Oppressive governments fear the clear expression of thought more than anything else; spiritual force is free and always accessible in the depths of human consciousness. We must learn to use the consciousness of truth by expressing what we know is right. By expressing the truth the new public opinion will become enlightened. This truth is found in our consciences and is given to us by God. Christ gave us his peace, but it is up to us to bring it into realization.

Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:  Carl is right that Magellan probably did not say it, which is why I said it is
"attributed to" him, altho I unfortunately still made it seem that he did say it by
fumbling my tenses later on. My bad. The quote has been attributed to Magellan for
over a century, but I understand it's not actually found in any of Magellan's writings.
Maybe I was too focussed on not making it appear that I was glorifying Magellan, and
enjoying the sentiment in the quote.

But why we would assume it's "liberal" myth-making is far from clear. The original
source of the quote is unknown. Nowadays it has traction across several political
positions that I know of due to the Church's history of similar dogma in the face of
reality, most notably geocentrism (Earth at the center), which is what got Galileo in
hot water (or nearly did), and more recently other religious authorities concerning the
teaching of evolution in public schools. Poking fun at such authorities, even
inaccurately, is not necessarily "liberal".

Frankly, I still like the quote, whether the source is literary or historical, for more
general reasons: it expresses a basic skepticism in the face of stubborn authoritarian
dogma and/or ignorance, a sentiment that resonates with many people because dogma and
ignorance of one kind or another is still very real. (This includes Flat-Earthers,
literal and figurative.)

Michael Moore, for example, is someone whose work and quotes I greatly admire, even tho
he is sometimes inaccurate. (His oft-repeated statement that the US whisked a group of
Osama bin Laden's relatives out of the country when all other planes were grounded, for
example, is according to Moore based on a newspaper article that says no such thing.) 
But Moore expresses a frustration with our rulers from a working class perspective,
which is in short supply in the venues that he is able to climb into - plus, he is
usually basically right.

At any rate, even if it spoils our fun, we must agree when our missteps are pointed
out. 

Ricky 
--- "C. G. Estabrook" wrote:

> Liberal myth-making, I'm afraid (which is not unknown in our own time).
> 
> I doubt Magellan ever said any such thing, because educated Europeans
> (including church officials) of Magellan's time (and long before) did
> not think the earth was flat.
> 
> The standard model (as in Dante) was of a round earth at the center of a
> series of concentric spheres, each one (except the ninth) holding the
> the moon, sun, or one of the planets.
> 
> A quite brilliant book on the model of the world from ancient times
> through Shakespeare and Milton is C. S. Lewis, THE DISCARDED IMAGE. I
> used to insist my grad students in Renaissance studies read it. --CGE
> 
> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> > Hope you saw it, it was a nice one - and early enuf that even 
> > Catharine stayed up for it.
> > 
> > We were reminded of a quote attributed to a famous, and famously 
> > deeply flawed, earthbound explorer who despite his many barbarous 
> > acts and allegiances was able to look up from the muck and blood of 
> > brutal history and come up with this one:
> > 
> > "The Church says the Earth is flat, but I have seen its shadow on the
> > Moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church." - F. 
> > Magellan (not the first man to circumnavigate the globe)
> > 
> > Ricky
> > 
> > --- Karen Medina wrote:
> > 
> >>> A total moon eclipse may be seen around 9:01 PM this evening, if 
> >>> clouds permit. A
> >> fairly rare event, which may foretell nothing.
> >> 
> >> It may not even foretell a "change"?
> >> 
> >> -karen medina p.s. It is so nice to have peace and peace-discuss 
> >> lists back up again! Yay! 
> 

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