This is a 5-part mini-series that I’d put together on the subject of War. Sometime post 26/11 & the Israel-Hamas flare-up of late 2008, I began asking myself some hard questions, and found no easy answers. I then started reading up & eventually made a compilation on this theme.
The 6th piece was put together later and I originally meant it remain only for private circulation, but later decided to let publish it as is.
I – Can we ever reconcile War ?
War confuses us, and leaves us dismayed, broken and increasingly cynical. But we do aspire to see a world without wars. What could get us there?
II – The elimination and passing of war?
Can there be a day when war becomes impossible? For all our dislike of war, and its consequences, is it even conceivable that nations and ideologies would one day just stop warring?
III – Heraclitus and Nietzsche on War, the Upanishadic view
Creation, destruction, war and the principle of harmlessness – what could they have in common, if anything at all?
IV – Peace, force and the psychological basis of war
Is it even reasonable to dream of a world without war? How would a clan, a state, a nation circumvent distrust? Why, if at all, would any self-respecting nation be willing to lay down its arms?
V – The Imperative before us
So the question for us boils down to something very fundamental – for our part, the side of the human equation that is directly in our hands, if we truly wish to change anything – are we willing to do any inner work?
VI – Non-violence, Gandhi’s Ahimsa and Pacifism
It is hard to study a subject as war, without considering the nature of violence; and harder still to deal with the subject of violence without giving sufficient attention to its opposite – the idea of non-violence
