It is said that in a war everyone loses, but that is not true at all. There are those who make huge profits from the death and suffering of other human beings, of men, women and children like us.
By Victoria Barceló
We hear everywhere that war is a disaster, I think that no one has the right to send young people to kill and die, it is the most terrible expression of physical violence. As long as it happens in faraway countries, we don’t seem to be preoccupied, but now that we have been at war in Europe for more than a year, we realise that we are not safe either, that we are vulnerable.
Yet governments are investing more and more every day in arms, the war industry continues to increase its profits and its stock market value. It is sad to see how social services, public health and education are deteriorating and being privatised, the right to have a home is not respected, to cite one example, among many others.
The machinery of industrial military capital continues to grow and to sustain itself it plunders entire populations and countries, no one is free from danger, the real situation is that we live under the threat that tomorrow “it could happen to you” and a conflict could break out near your home.
Unfortunately, as long as weapons continue to be produced, the situation will not change; those weapons that will one day be used and make our world an increasingly dangerous place. And the ball continues to grow like a monster that sweeps everything away. It is said that in a war everyone loses, but that is not true at all, there are those who make huge profits from the death and suffering of other human beings, of men, women and children like us.
And we, the citizens, stunned, contemplate “how things are going” from our unstable comfort, and continue with the daily routine that keeps us so “distracted”, from screen to screen and I’ll shoot because it’s my turn.
We need to stop and think for a moment and ask ourselves what kind of world we want to live in and under what conditions in the next 5 or 10 years… the aspiration for a better world is already in the collective mind and… something has to be done!!!! But… What can you and I, who are invisible, do?
Today’s human beings are faced with two paths: growing violence or growing peace… What do you, who are reading this, choose?
It seems that the “tycoons” (handlers?) have already chosen for us… but here we are faced with the dilemma that everyone has to resolve with themselves, and that is that in this story we all count, we all have rights and can do something, starting with asking ourselves about our own lives… and making decisions.
If you take the yes to life path, you will see a totally different world, morality and behaviour, a place where dialogue replaces violence, where no human being is forced to kill another, where the environment is protected and cared for, a peaceful world where resources are allocated to health, education and quality of life for all, without discrimination.
I agree with Noam Chomski when he says that “Change can only come about through the mass protest of ordinary people”.
We, the invisible, those of us who have no voice, can unite and take a new path, deepening each one within its interior and evolving towards a world free of any kind of violence, physical, economic, racial, religious or sexual; I am talking to you about a personal and social attitude. The world will really change when we all change our lives.
It is not about turning the other cheek but about acting coherently, denouncing all forms of violence and, of course, rejecting any cause that in order to impose itself generates suffering.
Nonviolence is a committed, courageous and active stance, which works with the void, the denunciation of lies and injustice and organised civil disobedience. If all people subjected to the same oppression unite, they will create a great social force on the march as never seen before. This is the future.
There are many of us who aspire to a better world and who are not satisfied with poor mercantilist, consumerist values, and we are unveiling the lie of a system that is leading us to a dead end.
There are many of us who believe and are already living a change of values, we are “rebels with a cause” who are rebuilding a social fabric wounded by meaningless individualism and in which everything ends in a lonely and sick void.
It is about opening our eyes to a new world (to a new space of the mind), full of good people with whom we can agree and trust each other, relying on what unites us, what makes us brothers and sisters and gives us force, a feeling that connects hearts.
Today a pacifist and non-violent movement is already sweeping the planet and in the coming years it will give birth to a truly humane world, in which we and future generations can evolve, free at last from manipulation, from lies.
There are many of us who continue to have dreams, tracing images that give direction to our lives, following the light of those who have gone before us. As John Lennon said. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”.
Will you join in?
Mundo sin Guerras y sin Violencia
