Disaffection and the Future

Mere disaffection with the status quo in the world, or one’s lot in it, is not enough to help chart a path beyond it. A guiding vision is needed, and in order to formulate the right vision, which needs be inclusive and fair, an open debate of the issues is a must. Otherwise, processes will be guided and outcomes determined by figures and parties armed with the narrowest of visions and the lowest of ethical standards, people like Putin and his obsession with the return of Greater Russia, and groups like Al-Qaeda and its determination to revive the obsolete Caliphate system. While neither Putin nor Al-Qaeda is in a position to directly threaten global peace and stability, the localized regional mayhem they create is more than sufficient to harm millions of people, making this world a more dangerous place than it needs to be and rendering hope in a better future irrelevant. Atavistic longings cannot pave the way to a better future.

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Of idealism and indifference! – A call for an open debate

Thousands of Syrian refugees crossing into Iraq on August 15, 2013. (photo credit: AP/HO)

We should be idealistic, yes, but not stupid, realistic, yes, but not indifferent.

Can we stop genocide without recourse to violence, or at least the threat of it? Do psychopaths who embark on mass methodical killings leave us much of a choice when it comes to the methods that we need to deploy to stop them? How do we deal with psychopaths whose very strategy is meant to defeat the nonviolence ethos by upping the levels of violence to the maximum allowed by the instruments of deaths under their disposal, by deploying it methodically, and by targeting the very figures and voices who are leading the nonviolent movement? How do we deal with psychopaths who are so committed to drawing blood from their nonviolent opponents they regularly plant well-armed agents of violence within their ranks?

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Will we ever be ready? Will the day ever come?

Mass burial for the victims of the Houla Massacre, Syria - May 29, 2012 — Mass burial for the victims of the Houla Massacre, Syria – May 29, 2012

When will we ever be ready to act right, not just speak it, and make that the norm?

All political considerations aside, I simply cannot believe that ten thousand years after the emergence of the first city states, five thousand years after the invention of the first alphabet and the introduction of the first legal code, more than sixty years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and close to 10 years since the formulation of the Responsibility to Protect, world leaders still lack the political will to stand up to mass murder, to say “no,” to prevent it from happening when the signs are there, and to quickly stop it when it occurs and bring the culprits to justice.

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Angelina Jolie on violence in Syria

Angelina Jolie on violence in Syria | MSNBC.

Angelina Jolie shows that she understands that the crisis in Syria was mishandled from the beginning, and complains against the continued lack of political will to do anything about it, noting that the situation there and throughout the region has now grown too complex. And she said all this without antagonizing the Obama Administration. Very smart on her part. I, on the other hand, cannot afford to be that smart. Somebody should call an ass an ass, otherwise not enough people might see it. To me, Obama has no clothes, and it’s not a pretty sight.