In the strict sense of the word, enemies are viewed as sources of evil.
Their ultimate objective is the same – the utter destruction and annihilation of anything positive and constructive. In the culture of war society, which we inherited, several theories were developed to justify, at least under certain circumstances, actions that lead to devastation, agony and death. This has been going on now for centuries and a line needs to be drawn. The culture of war needs to be replaced by the culture of peace the sooner the better.
Tragedy of the Culture of War
To turn insult into injury, the culture of war has infiltrated brutally and mercilessly into the moral sphere of some of our leading religions of the world. That would include, above all, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. To this end, responsible religious leaders came with a variety of distinctions in an effort to justify, in some way or another, a variety of evils that our earthly community has experienced for so long. They maintain that it’s not what we do that ultimately counts in the supernatural sphere but the real motive behind our actions.
This explains why some deeply oriented spiritual people warned us that “the way to hell is paved with good intentions.” Needless to say, those that promote the sources of evil in apparent “good faith” are described in a variety of ways, depending on which side of the spectrum they happen to be. We often notice that those in power who promote evil they all claim to be following “God’s inspiration and will!” We may shortly illustrate this by an example.
In accordance with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the three greatest deadly enemies of our earthly society are tyranny, poverty, and war itself. If we were to analyze carefully these three mortal enemies we would soon discover that they share with each other the ability to promote everywhere crucial pain, which leads people to assured agony and eventual death.
Tyranny is viewed as the brutal suppression of people’s freedom to roam about and to speak their own mind in the open. Besides, tyranny is the result of ruthless dictatorship over the masses of people who are treated like they were a piece of furniture. Moreover, in tyranny we notice the infliction of enormous pain both physically and psychologically. Unfortunately, the world abounds with tyrants of one kind or another. Tyranny in itself is anathema to democracy because it consists of the imposition of one’s will over an entire population. In fact, democracy seems to be the only safeguard from tyranny.
Perspective of Poverty
Poverty consists of the deprivation of human basic needs like lack of adequate housing facilities, lack of appropriate nourishment or food, and lack of medical attention. In other words, poverty reduces people to the level of abandoned animals for all practical purposes. This is especially so when people are exploited mercilessly. In fact, in a quite a number of instances we find a link between tyranny and poverty.
Although the above two great enemies are clearly evident, when we come the third disastrous enemy, that is, war, the situation may be different. Since we are all born and raised in a culture of war, we have been indoctrinated from early childhood to rationalize and to justify our involvement in war. Hence, various governments, as well as synagogues, churches, and mosques came with distinctions as “waging a war as an act of terrorism versus waging a war for self-defense purposes.”
We have been trained to view those who destroy our infrastructure and kill our people as “terrorists,” while hailing those who destroy the infrastructure of another country and kill tens of thousands of innocent people as “patriots!” And the list relative to our various concepts of terrorism that stemmed from a culture of war goes on and on. Those who are not aware of this may be termed of doing evil in good faith, while those who are aware of such unjust and brutal events may be termed to be vicious and wicked for all practical purposes.
In a nation which is deeply versed in a culture of war, such as the United States for example, we witness clergymen praying for the successful mission of U.S. troops whose objective has been the destruction of the infrastructure of another nation and the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people as a result. At the same time, the same clergymen do not utter one word of prayer for those whose houses, schools, and hospitals were destroyed by American weapons in addition to countless thousands of innocent people that were massacred as a result. They may fear that this could be interpreted as “unpatriotic!”
The culture of war is a very serious problem because, regardless of what its adherents may want to say, it remains a fact that such a culture thrives on the creation of more struggles and the waging of more wars. Whereas a nation based on a culture of peace would offer help to other nations by providing them with adequate housing facilities, proper nutrition, medical equipment and educational material, a nation based on the culture of war, such as the United States, would offer primarily to other nations military equipment consisting of all kinds of weapons and machinery of annihilation and death. This is disgraceful to say the least and satanic to say the most.
Culture of War Mentality
The culture of war mentality views such disastrous transactions as “self-defense,” even if the people were to starve and die of all sorts of diseases and maladies as a result. St. Paul of Tarsus referred to faith, hope and love as the three great virtues, adding that love was the greatest. In fact, St. Augustine, who is viewed as the father of Christian education, said: “Ama et fac quod vis – love and do what you like.” He said this because he indicated that one who loves genuinely cannot do anything wrong.
By the same token, we could say without hesitation that tyranny, poverty and war are the three great evils of our time and of these, war is the greatest. As Pope Pius XII said to both Germany and England on the eve of World War II, “in a war everyone is a loser and no one is a winner.” In fact, Germany lost the war and its economy collapsed and poverty was everywhere. On the other hand, England won the war and its economy equally collapsed and poverty was everywhere. Not only so, but, in spite of the fact that England won the war, its British empire disintegrated and collapsed.
Unfortunately, the belligerent policies of the United States and its determination to solve all the world problems through the military and weapons of mass destruction, is already moving this nation toward its collapse, same way as the Soviet Union. Such a collapse will come all of a sudden, at a time least expected, before anyone would even know it.
The culture of war is based on a demonic mode of approach that is characterized not by love and concern but by hatred and indifference. However, it is never late to remedy the war problem. Maybe the clergymen in the USA and of all religions and denominations should ask their respective congregations to recite daily the well known and much respected prayer of St. Francis, which runs as follows:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so
Much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Guarding Against Deception
We should never give in to the malarkey of our politicians and clergymen when they start referring to the justification of war as a “necessity to protect the nation in turbulent times.” We have here sanctioned tyranny at work. We should never remain quiet when we see our politicians offering the poorest nations on earth the so called military aid instead of food, medicine, and housing facilities.
Such distorted priorities that emanate from our political leaders are nothing but a shameful disgrace. Above all, we should never believe anyone who comes to tell us that in dealing with other nations, war should always be an option to ultimately get what we want and bring everything under our control.
A recorded history of 6,000 years of civilization has taught us consistently and systematically that violence breeds violence and more violence breads more violence. Confronted with such a reality, it seems that most of the political leaders in leading countries on a global scale, are acting on the premise that war breeds money and more wars breed more money! What we forget is the fact that such money is blood money. It is cursed money which is bound to bring serious consequences beginning with those that secure it.
In spite of what has been stated, the culture of peace could still replace the culture of war in due time depending on how seriously we decide to become involved in bringing about such a change. Eventually, the culture of peace will ultimately triumph. It’s only a mater of time.
