The War

is over. The Ken Burns PBS documentary, The War, that is.

I've been watching it all along and don't know what to think. People say it was a necessary war. I put this notion to the folks at last week's forum and some responded saying that it was the Geneva conventions that created the conditions for WWII to happen in the first place, and thus could have been avoided with better foresight at the conclusion of WWI. A man in the film said that evil exists. I'm not so blind as to think that evil doesn't exist. Evil being defined as a capacity within people to commit horrendous atrocities on other people and the Earth. Indeed, we are all witnesses to evil in this day and age, as our (p)resident lays waste to a million innocent people in Iraq so that he and his buddies can steal their oil. Blood for oil? are you fucking kidding me? WTF? Of course, they can't admit the truth, they must disguise their intentions with high flying rhetoric about democracy and freedom, even as they desecrate the Constitution and piss on REAL democracy.

But I digress. I think Ken Burns' documentary is timely and valuable in that it so clearly illustrates how the present occupation of Iraq is anything but necessary, taking the points from the documentary at face value. It so clearly illustrates how overwhelmingly united and determined and willing to sacrifice the nation was during WWII, traits that are conspicuously absent today.

The documentary falls short though, by not refuting the notion that war is inevitable. In fact, I daresay it glorifies war. Evil exists but better solutions exist for preventing war, and terrorism, i might add. Just because people, 99.99% men, have waged wars for thousands of years and indeed, all of recorded history, doesn't mean that we can't envision a future free of war. In a world consistently full of dichotomies, I believe that now that we have fully realized our capacity for destruction and death, we have a responsibility to fully realize our hitherto latent capacity for creation and life. We can and we must.

We few who care frequently come back to the notion that the ignorant sleeping masses must be woken up. How to achieve this in a world of relative plenty and plenty of distractions? Bread and Circuses, as John Bogle (among others) said. Should we be ready for the inevitable collapse and hope to ride it out? or actually try to slow the train down, as I've suggested in the poll? Tonight I'm leaning toward gettin off while the gettin's good and hope to survive. I'm utterly stumped as to how to swim against this massive current and furthermore, get many others to do so as well.

Everything and everyone are connected. Life is a miracle to be cherished and relished. I suppose I should just be grateful for my conscience, and just take it day by day, doing what I can, when I can, trying to create alliances with others, trying to encourage more love and joy and less hate and fear.

Why are we so impatient? Why do we insist on creating change overnight? Who am I to think that I know better than those I call 'asleep'?