Look Beyond War and Peace to Global Justice
Now that we have passed the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it’s a good time to step back for a look not at how we went wrong but what we need to do to get on the right path.
It has long been a staple of the anti-war movement that there can be no meaningful peace without justice on a global scale. Those of us living in the First World, especially in the United States, cannot pretend to be working for peace unless we also are working for a more just and equitable distribution of the world’s resources.
The anti-war/peace movement, therefore, must also be a movement focused on the grotesque inequalities in a predatory corporate capitalist system. In a world where half the population lives on less than $2 a day, it’s clear that the global economy is itself a form of war on billions of people. In such a profoundly unjust world, armed conflict is inevitable because there always will be resistance to inequality. Powerful states will respond militarily to any threat, real or perceived, to their dominance.
In other words: No justice, no peace.
Now it’s time for us to take the next step: We must recognize that there can be no justice over the long term without sustainability, and creating a sustainable world will require not only radical change in systems and structures of power but also a radical change in the way we in affluent societies live.
It’s time to recognize that if we are serious about the values of equality that we claim are the core of our politics, we must scale back the level at which we live.
No reduction in First World consumption, no justice; and no justice, no peace.
One cannot be a serious peace activist without putting peace in the context of justice and sustainability, and the high-energy/high-tech lifestyle of the First World is not sustainable and not compatible with the demands of justice. Meaningful peace requires real justice, which means we must learn to live with less.
We could start by applying a “Golden Rule” of consumption. Working from the common moral principle that we should follow a path based on rules that we would be willing to apply to all, we could begin with this: Consume at a level that, if applied throughout the world, would allow all people a decent life consistent with long-term sustainability. That doesn’t prescribe a destination but suggests a direction; instead of anyone sanctimoniously dictating a specific lifestyle, we can collectively recognize that we must move toward living lower on the food chain, using far less energy, consuming far fewer of the planet’s limited resources, generating far less toxic waste.
Though some might see this as a sacrifice - and in some sense, of course, we will have to give up material things that we have come to rely on and enjoy - this moment in history also provides us with a chance to redefine what it means to live a good life. Rather than accept the mad scramble to accumulate goods and insulate ourselves from the natural world - the good life as defined in a consumer capitalist society awash in high-tech toys and mass-mediated entertainment - we can reorient ourselves toward the traditional definition of a good life in terms of community and connection with others, service and sacrifice for others, and a deeper sense of meaning for ourselves.
Eloquent calls for peace are easy to make from the material comfort of the First World. Moving beyond that to a demand for meaningful justice gets us closer to the goal. A commitment to a sustainable level of consumption should be at the core of this work.
It will be a struggle, of course, often confusing and sometimes painful. But we can remember that there is joy in the struggle for a better world, which is always at the same time a struggle to become more fully human.
Jensen (rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu) is a journalism professor and a board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center (thirdcoastactivist.org). He is the author of “Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margin to the Mainstream.”
Copyright 2008 The Austin American-Statesman
Thank you, Robert Jensen. This idea is the only one that makes any sense. If anyone is committed to “peace on earth”, they must be committed to social and economic justice as well. The racism that is inherent in the attitude that we are more “worthy” of the world’s bounty is truly the product of ignorance as well as selfishness.
Every one of the world’s religions actually makes this a central tenet, but somehow the message doesn’t make it into the hearts and minds of too many of us, particularly in the US.
Damn right ! $2 a day won’t even get you a full gallon of gas. At times the so-called “anti-war” movement gets too war-wacky to even be taken seriously. Besides, flying to DC to protest won’t do shit. You have to attack your Congress people from your local areas and then get it going national, get it? Case in point, Stephanie Herseth doesn’t give a shit to civil liberties but will happily cave-in to gun toters, why? Because there are no pro-civil rights forces going local and then national whereas the NRA operates from local to national. The same thing with the pro-war and pro-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy gangs.
“It’s time to recognize that if we are serious about the values of equality that we claim are the core of our politics, we must scale back the level at which we live.”
We who?
Scale Paris Hilton back, scale Al Gore back, scale Dick Cheney back, but don’t ask me to give up what I don’t have.
A very good summation in total agreement is in the preface to “The Road To 9/11″
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9959.php
“…we can collectively recognize that we must move toward living lower on the food chain, USING FAR LESS ENERGY, consuming far fewer of the planet’s limited resources, generating far less toxic waste.” Thus saith Professor Jensen, whose heart is in the right place and who has a humane vision of a better future.
I keep asking the CD editors how to get the bold or italics in WordPad to work in the comments section, with no reply. But I capitalized “using far less energy” above because, with the exception of air travel, this is the ONE AREA where we don’t need to sacrifice! Modern energy freed us from our ancestors’ backbreaking toil; lots of luck convincing Americans we need to return to the Stone Age.
The sole problem with our energy usage is HOW we produce the energy. Mother Nature has given us an unlimited supply, but we’re still too chained to the 19th and 20th century ways — nuclear power, coal, oil, gas, wood — to get a massive reindustrialization program going. We CAN AND MUST replace it all with solar water heating, goethermal for heating/cooling, photovoltaics/wind turbines/tidal turbines for electricity, improved batteries for all-electric cars, and biodiesel fuels to power trucks, buses and trains (using plant materials that don’t compete with food production for water and land). That a massive program like this will produce millions of jobs is just icing on the cake. Americans need a vision of clean, renewable energy for the future, and they don’t want to give up their freedom to travel around our beautiful country either. To sell this politically, Professor Jensen has taken the wrong tack.
I have to admit that the last time I moved I gave up material things. I gave up a giant dumpster of material things that I really hadn’t even “come to rely on and enjoy” all that much. Things that no one even wanted to pay tag sale prices to have and that I couldn’t even give away. Why did I buy them? I would probably be insulted by my own answer, so I won’t answer.
Go to the library more often! Watch DVD’s with friends! Borrow or rent a tool you might use just once! I hope others will add to this list.
“No justice, no peace.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell “acknowledged that the past five years have not been easy, but urged the audience to remember that “the purpose of war is peace.”
Pres. Bush: “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
“Our ideas are the ones embraced by the folks,” Bush said.
I call for a world referendum to institute a global cap on personal Wealth/Power.
And to make the wealth cap inversely proportional to population growth, giving people a wealth incentive to lower it. The lower the world’s population, the more maximum wealth and power each person can have. The higher the world’s population, the less maximum wealth and power each person can have.
Any excess of wealth will be distributed by the possessor and will count toward the recipient’s wealth cap maximum. The cap excesses must be given to people, not to corporations, institutions or governments of any kind.
This is an example of what We the People could do if we had the power of the referendum that Senator Gravel’s National Initiative for Democracy seeks.
frank said:
“No justice, no peace.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell “acknowledged that the past five years have not been easy, but urged the audience to remember that “the purpose of war is peace.”
Pres. Bush: “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
“Our ideas are the ones embraced by the folks,” Bush said.
Orwell couldn’t have said it better.
“….there can be no meaningful peace without justice on a global scale.”
Sadly, Professor Jensen, the Anglo-American planners of empire-building countries continue to underestimate the power of the human spirit. All the state-of-the-art weapons and technology available to these criminal, capitalist, elitist bastards will never defeat the human spirit and popular will of the people - no matter where those people live.
If the resistance forces in Afghanistan and Iraq aren’t enough to convince these insane “masters of the universe” that inhumane and economically devastating social projects aren’t going to work, then they obviously need a reality check; particularly in America where the majority are now aware of the geopolitics involved in this alleged war on terrorism and from where most are being deployed to fight this ongoing war-game for the global elite.
This game can’t possibly continue for much longer unless the U.S. implements a “military draft”. When that happens, the $hit is going to hit fan. The Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, Homegrown Terrorism Act, or any other “Act” our legislators create to usurp “the people’s” sovereign authority will not prevent a major uprising in this country.
Robert Jensen has taken war resistance out of the theatrical and hypothetical and put it square in the laps of all of us.
Do you really hate the Bush-Cheney’s war machine? Then stop consuming so much of everything. Why do you think Dumbya urged us all to go shopping and take a vacation after 09/11? ’cause we gotta keep the economy humming along by extrravagent consumption.
Are you really dsigusted with the dumbed down news-media and all it’s corporate sponser enablers? Then stop consuming news and entertainment and the COMMERCIALS which they are designed to expose us to viewing.
If the selections of the two major political parties have disappointed you for the last time, you will cancel your registration in those parties and when it is time to vote write in someone, anyone, but the political idiot-savants from which you are expected to choose.
Otherwise you and I have pledged fidelity with the sneering Cheney who boldly proclaims that our way of life is not negotiable. Who wants that as their legacy?
Only one of the following suggests a level of ethical concern for humanity as a community of equals, as the faith traditions teach; only one offers productive direction.
Cheney’s “The American way of life is not negotiable.”
the Vatican’s “new” social sin (one of seven): “accumulating excessive wealth”
Jensen’s “No reduction in First World consumption, no justice; and no justice, no peace.”
Thanks, Bob. Keeping writing, keep speaking, and thanks for Third Coast Activist Resource Center.
Any guesses how long it will take the richest 1%, who have bought and paid for Congress, to divest themselves of their 50-60% of the US national wealth?
HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA
Finally, an analysis that looks beyond US “national interests” to the larger global crisis and its danger. Thanks, Bob!
For how much longer will 2 BILLION people living in absolute poverty and squalor put up with the fact that less than a quarter of the world’s population usurps and wastes more than three quarters of total global resources? You think religious fanaticism breeds terrorism? No, INJUSTICE, writ large, and our complacency, are the putrid seeds of terrorism.
“Sustainable sufficiency” should be our goal. Sharing the world’s resources equitably must be our method. If we do not embrace and enact this ideal, we are doomed.
Without sharing there will be no justice, without justice - no peace, without peace -no future.
“Trust in sharing to relieve the agony of the world.” - Maitreya
Aye, that’s a sane viewpoint, call and approach. Here’s another: http://www.freearticulator.com/news/2008/create-peace-end-war-fix-planet-march-20-iraq-war/
I would argue we need to become less human not more! It’s because we are human that the world is in such a mess.
We will never have justice while humans are in their current form. We need a complete makeover then we might have some chance of peace and justice. It’s as obvious as the nose on your face!
www.dangerouscreation.com
This article is so depressing, as so many of us are looking forward to our government STIMULANT check so we can run to the mall and enjoy spending it on frivolous things we really don`t need but will help bolster the economy.
President Bush wants us to spend as fast as possible and he knows what is best for the country as he has a degree in business administration. Just notice how the government has done so well lately, only a mere 10 trillion in the red, so let`s all live it up while we can.
Bush’s idea of justice: nobody else in the world counts. Just us.
AdeleTheCzech March 24th, 2008 1:57 pm:
“I keep asking the CD editors how to get the bold or italics in WordPad to work in the comments section, with no reply.”
It looks like simple HTML tags work.
This sentence has the bold tags before and after.
This sentence has the italic tags before and after
The bold tags are less-than-sign b greater-than-sign to the left, and less-than-sign forward-slash b greater-than-sign to the right of the sentence.
(If I typed it in, I think you could not see it, and I only get to Edit this comment once…)
The italic tag is the same, but replace ‘b’ with ‘i’.
Hope that helps.
Let me try to show the ‘bold tags’ here: < b > < / b >
but don’t use spaces in the tags.
Excellent. The article introduces a concept that may be universally applied to contest “free market” capitalism’s orgy of gluttony. That concept - a “golden rule of consumption”: “Consume at a level that, if applied throughout the world, would allow all people a decent life consistent with long-term sustainability.” is actually based on Kant’s Categorical Imperative, which is like a crucifix to the capitalist vampire. The author says it’s a chance to redefine “the good life” to be less consumptive and more coexistent. To recognize people and planet, basically as being worth more than wealth accumulation. The power is in the hands of the people. Adopt the sustainable lifestyle and that will cover most of what we need to do individually.
frank1569: “the purpose of war is peace.”
Those Repuks are so 1984. I bet they also beat their kids while saying they love them.
This has the whole cause and effect thing backwards. Wars are started at the top, not at the bottom. For example. The wealthiest people on the planet perpetrated the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks so that they had a pretext to wage a war of aggression on the poorest countries in the world.
I don’t deny that we need justice. The biggest obstacle to justice is the gatekeeper media. Real investigative reporters such as Mike Ruppert, Gary Webb, Daniel Hopsicker. Christopher Bollyn, Hunter S. Thompson, etc. are impoverished, threatened, beaten, and/or suicided buy the PTB. Amy Goodman, OTOH, watched WTC 7 implode and never said word one about it until she was exposed in a video clip. To my knowledge she has yet to give the topic more than a cursory glance.
This is the biggest crime in recent history, and the mother of the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. Nonetheless, the “progressives” stand back and take potshots at the people who are duped by the fraud while doing everything in their power to perpetuate the deception.
And speaking of injustices ignored by the media, is Germar Rudolf still in solitary confinement?
What Jensen proposes is not only humane and sensible, but most importantly then principles that are outlined just happen to be the most effective way to combat terror - -force of arms only serves to exacerbate more violence and terror.
When will our leadership learn that our warrior attitudes and tactics breed more terror?
What Jensen proposes is not only humane and sensible, but most importantly then principles that are outlined just happen to be the most effective way to combat terror - -force of arms only serves to exacerbate more violence and terror.
When will our leadership learn that our warrior attitudes and tactics breed more terror?