Dissent and Disobedience and Peace and Power
The philosopher John Ralston Saul wrote in “Voltaire's Bastards.” “Those who profess to favour freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are m...
The philosopher John Ralston Saul wrote in “Voltaire's Bastards.”
“Those who profess to favour freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground,” “They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Do you think peace can come without dissent and disobedience? Do you agree with John Ralson Saul?
I think there is another way to stand in the storm and to embrace the ocean without the necessity of struggle. I think freedom does not depend on agitation and I am not convinced that the only way to establish liberty for all is through insisting on combat, inwardly or outwardly.
cited by chris hedges
(for full article go to http://www.opednews.com/flyer/news_20090901_1.html)
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1 comments :
Yes & no. Earth is a violent planet, period. Try giving birth without the violent contractions of labor. Yet, this violence is the outward picturing of the game called earth, and as spiritual beings we have the capacity to detach from it and find the peace that is within, like an unshakable rod, and stand firm in it while the violence around rages on. Simple, yet not. A paradox...Thanks for the question.
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