Now, Perhaps . . .
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 7 Mar 2022
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
5 Mar 2022 – In this personal response to the invasion of Ukraine, I composed a continuous commentary, unbroken by conventional grammatical punctuations and sentence structure, save a comma, in an effort to stifle and restrain the inequities of division, and instead, to sear minds with a plaintive, mournful, rhythmic statement, sanctioned by shared horror.
Now, Perhaps, in the immediacy of this moment, and I use the word “perhaps” with intention uncertainty, when human conscience and consciousness awakes from induced stupors of mind, shaped by lifetime indoctrinations of competing ideologies, separated good and bad things, where most prefer the privileged ideology of materialism, commodification, greed, and the endless pursuit of individualism, always at the cost, abuse, and suffering of “other,” excluding the masses of the World, Now, Perhaps, humanity will awake to the selfish Evils of Putin and his Oligarchs’ in their cataclysmic invasion of Ukraine, violating all legal laws by which Humanity seeks governance and all moral precepts by which Humanity must live, leaving Ukraine an enduring real and symbolic cauldron of human desperation and survival, revealing the traumatic face and consequences of a war, the hidden seductive impulses of patriotic nationalism heroics, the noble inherent parental desperation, seeking protection and survival for their children, and the children of others, so the memory of this tragic event of pitted forces, seared now amidst hellish cauldrons of metal, fire, smoke, twisted death will live forever, Now, Perhaps, in the minds and hearts of humanity across the world, there will emerge a sustained and permanent rejection of the obvious historic, economic, political, immoral lessons inscribed by war, amidst the many oligarchical and plutocratic favored cultures of war and militarism, built on shameful beliefs in exceptionalism, unwarranted hubris, towering competitive flags, steeled against change, by privileged leaders and voices, stuffed with wealth and power from corruption, hegemony, and protected nepotism lineage, too often yielding to divisive words, “You are either with us, or against,” followed by death and destruction of whole lands and nations, now surviving in refugees compelled to find new purpose and meaning in alien lands, Now, Perhaps, immunity to suffering, satisfaction with comfort, intolerance of change, will awaken a humanity compelled to accept the sins of concentrated wealth, power, and position, as fate, destiny, will of an angry god sanctions, Now, Perhaps, Humanity will act to never again permit yet another 1930’s Holodor, for the World, Now, Perhaps…
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Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Emeritus Professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 21 books and more than 300 articles, tech reports, and popular commentaries. His TMS articles may be accessed HERE and he can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.
Tags: Eastern Europe, Invasion, Russia, Ukraine
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 7 Mar 2022.
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I made a similar argument in Caring About Hunger. Sparsnäs, Sweden: Irene Publishing, 2016. https://www.academia.edu/attachments/69267823/download_file?s=portfolio
To implement the ideas, I suggest setting aside any assumption that the whole world could be transformed all at once. Instead, start by creating and transforming small communities in ways that amplify people’s care about one another’s well-being. Make these communities so attractive that others want to adapt their ways to fit into their own local circumstances.
Aloha, George