Peacemaker
POETRY FORMAT, 9 Feb 2015
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service
Most people thought by now that I’d at least
have stopped the fighting in the Middle East.
It’s true that I succeeded once before
back when I brought an end to the Cold War,
but I must offer my apology:
I’ve failed to stop the current tragedy.
I strove to do that, but I will confess
it seems I’ve only added to the mess.
I try and try, but cannot break the curse,
and as you see, it steadily gets worse.
We know, alas, that I’m no macho cop
who forcefully makes perpetrators stop.
Instead, I dazzle, wheedle and beguile,
and thus make scowling adversaries smile.
So rest assured, I’ll find some clever way
and you’ll discover on one happy day,
perhaps as early as this coming week,
that I’ve created that rare peace you seek.
____________________________
Tom Greening: “I engage in five professional activities:
Faculty Member at Saybrook University
Private Practice of Psychotherapy
Clinical Professor of Psychology, UCLA
International Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Writing (Poetry).”
www.tomgreening.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 9 Feb 2015.
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The poem above is a beautifully rhymed and beautifully expressed message (in which the author’s struggle for peace over the decades is also well-expressed) for peace. I like it very much.
In general, “war (or any other kinds of armed or violent conflict)” has been considered as an outcome as a violent clash between or among relevant States (or other relevant actors) to solve their dispute. In other words, war has been considered “as a means of solving the conflict”. Based on this premise, peace studies is to offer alternative/peaceful ways for solving the conflict.
However, many (if not necessarily all) armed conflicts in the contemporary world are not for solving the conflict of States or other actors. Today, many of the contemporary armed conflicts themselves are the purpose and/or solution, not necessarily the means of solving the problems of warring parties. (One more thing: War requires an enemy for the other warring party/game player. Therefore, some countries prepare or make their enemy by themselves. Mass media nowadays report about the “so-called artificially created enemies”. Some of these “so-called enemies” are not independent sovereign States in the traditional sense. It can be said that they are hired/created game players. As mentioned above, war requires at least two game players – and they become enemies each other. Then, they can begin war.)
Due to the economic structure in which the so-called military industrial complex is built-in, some countries need to make war. For them, making war itself is the solution for their economic and financial problems. From their view-point, their economy stagnates if war is not to be made; on the other hand, war stimulates economic consumptions and, therefore, productions as well. Both stimulated consumptions and productions lead to a bigger profit cycle. And this profit cycle must be bigger than that in the previous fiscal year; otherwise, a serious financial crisis might occur as far as this game is played in that economic structure.
In such economic structure in which we are living, how peacemakers work to bring about peace to the world? This is a serious question for many peacemakers today. And what solution, if any, do we expect from the contemporary peace studies? To change the rules of the game may be one thing. It is easy to say so, but how and who will do it? It is like that mice are wondering how to put the bell to the neck of a huge wild cat, and who will do it? But the solution is not just putting the bell to the cat’s neck. How to do with “this big cat”, — “this huge economic structure in which the necessity of war is inherent” —, is one of the very essential or core problems.
Now let’s reread the above poem. Who knows that this poem might provide us with some inspiration to solve the issues mentioned above? Or perhaps it depends on how the reader reads and learns from this poem.