Education and Dialogue vs Militarism
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 6 May 2024
Alberto Portugheis – TRANSCEND Media Service
1 May 2024 – ‘Education and dialogue’ has been taught since the late and great Johan Galtung invented ‘Peace Studies.’ In the 70’s we used to have ardent discussions, he insisting that “education and dialogue” will end in a world at peace and me telling him, until he could take it no longer, that e&d is what politicians practice, and this is why we have so many wars.
In the most civilized, educated, polite manner, politicians concoct, plan and negotiate all the wars the world endures. They can get away with all their proxy murders because the world accepts militarism.
Nothing will change until the peace lobby understands that politicians are not magicians. And they are not idiots either.
People accept the armed forces, thousands of men and women we train in the art of fighting, killing and destruction of families, societies, buildings, crops and nature. People accept we design and produce machine gums, grenades, bombs, cruise and guided missiles, rocket launchers and interceptors, bombing drones and helicopters, torpedoes, air-fighters and warships.
It is sheer human stupidity to believe that the war industry and armed forces are capable of creating a peaceful planet.
The days we achieve the Universal Abolition of Militarism, (the war industry and its only users, the armed forces), there will be peace in the world. Of course, societies will always have violent individuals, but for those we have the police, the court and prison.
Militarism is legal murder. We even reward the best murderers with medals and career promotion. And if they were unlucky enough to dies in battle, we call the ‘heroes’.
This madness must stop. For humanity to survive, militarism must die.
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Alberto Portugheis is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. By profession a concert pianist and pedagogue, he is an active peace campaigner, whose anti-military stance earned him a nomination for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. As a result, Portugheis wrote Dear Ahed…..The Game of War and a Path to Peace – a book that has received critical acclaim. Another successful book followed: $$$$$s In Their Hearts. In 2015 he founded the Movement HUFUD-Humanity United For Universal Demilitarisation, which has many followers worldwide. In 2018 HUFUD Latin America was born, based in Bogotá, Colombia and in 2020 HUFUD Africa was launched, based in Uganda. In Portugheis’ writings, speeches, thoughts, ideas and reflections transpire his desire “to make people think” and not take for granted what they read or hear, “no matter where.”
Tags: Anti-militarism, Johan Galtung, Peace Studies, Political Science, Politics
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 6 May 2024.
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