[Peace-discuss] Moon eclipse

[Ricky Baldwin]

Very nice.  Thanks, Dave!

Ricky

--- David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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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