speaking fearlessly

John Quiggin, who has a reliably critical perspective on war, had a post on his blog today discussing Anzac Day and commenting that Turkey could have been on the side of the allied powers in World War One. I had been thinking about Anzac Day, and the conflict I feel between the need to express anti-war views at a time like this, and a sense of hopelessness about doing so. His post prompted me to comment, and try to express some of my views. So I am reproducing that comment below, as a starting point, which I can further develop later or expand on in future posts. [In reply to John Quiggin]: Thank you for a thoughtful contribution to Anzac Day. Reading the linked article [ here ] it is depressing because it’s so obvious. The issue of the taken-for-granted, that which we can’t see because it’s normal. Patriarchal states in which a handful of men gain power, dress up in uniforms, fight over territory, form alliances in secret and so forth. Not all that much has changed. Weber th...

A quick post. I was thinking yesterday, seeing the news about America's (Trump's?) strikes on Syria, why don't more people speak against war? Why are our countries led by mindless fools using weapons to resolve disputes? I'm sure most people - the ones I know at least - don't support violence as a means to resolve disputes and specifically teach their children not to do that (although my grandsons LOOOVE playing with pretend guns). So why do we allow our leaders to do that? I know I've protested so many times against war for so many years. I guess the culmination, which I've probably written about on the other blog, and have certainly mentioned on Twitter, was the anti-Iraq war protest, the big one in Melbourne, with 200,000 people, in 2003 I think. The only protest on which all three of my kids have joined me, and one hich was totally and blatantly ignored by John Howard. The majority of people - not just in Melbourne, but in Australia as I recall - ...