{"id":80371,"date":"2016-10-03T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-10-03T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=80371"},"modified":"2016-09-27T13:40:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-27T12:40:07","slug":"how-do-we-package-peace-can-we-make-it-palatable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/how-do-we-package-peace-can-we-make-it-palatable\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do We \u2018Package\u2019 Peace? Can We Make It Palatable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A review of Peace Plays<\/em> by Johan Galtung, Vitahl Rajan, and S. P. Udayakumar; Kolofon Press, 2010.\u00a0 95 pages.\u00a0 Available in bookstores or at www.kolofon.com<\/a> and at www.transcend.org\/tup<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut where can wisdom be found?\u00a0 And where is the place of understanding?\u201d<\/em>
\n— The Book of Job<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 with the finding of the language the feelings begin to change again.\u201d<\/em>
\n— Phyllis Rose<\/p>\n

Part One\"peace-plays-tup\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

These are ideational works.\u00a0 They are clever and literate, but rather unusual, and even the judicious reader might like a little \u201cframing.\u201d\u00a0 The authors, and\/or publisher, seem aware of that need with this blurb on the book\u2019s back cover:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace studies are usually presented as essays, in social science, political or philosophical-ethical discourses.\u00a0 This book is an experiment with drama as peace discourse, by authors versed in the other three.\u00a0 Drama is multi-angle and dialogical; it can be argued that so is the road to peace.\u00a0 The authors know something about peace, whether they can write drama is another matter.\u00a0 But those who do usually know very little about peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

I suspect that little disclosure was written by Johan Galtung, about whom I know a little from my recent discovery of the TMS website (TMS (Transcend Media Service)<\/a>.\u00a0 That site, edited by Antonio C. S. Rosa, is a compilation of some of the finest work\u2014original postings and re-postings–appearing weekly on the worldwide Web, \u201cin social science, political or philosophical-ethical discourses.\u201d\u00a0 It also presents works of art\u2014poetry and art criticism.\u00a0 Works that are \u201cmulti-angle and dialogical.\u201d\u00a0 The challenge at the website and in Peace Plays<\/em> is to maintain focus.\u00a0 \u201cThose who do [know about writing drama] usually know very little about peace,\u201d we are informed.\u00a0 Is this an apologia?<\/em><\/p>\n

If it is, it is unnecessary.\u00a0 Each of these plays has merit, and Galtung\u2019s, while not the most producible, may find its place among the great dialogical pieces of world literature.<\/p>\n

Those \u201cdialogical pieces\u201d would include, of course, the Book of Job<\/em>, which has been called the world\u2019s first, great play.\u00a0 I used to think of it that way, too, but, after reading Galtung\u2019s \u201cThe Cardplayers,\u201d I now conclude that Job<\/em> is not so much a \u201cplay\u201d as\u00a0 a series of dialogues between Job and his \u201ctormentors,\u201d Job and his wife, Job and God. Archibald MacLeish thought he could employ his formidable poetic skills, update the text, transform Job into an American business magnate, called \u201cJ.B.\u201d\u00a0 And he made a clever go of dramatizing it, but I suspect his modern version is much more often read than performed. The thorny question–\u201cwhat, exactly, is drama?\u201d\u2014persists.<\/p>\n

Aristotle, who liked to think about everything, put the matter simply: Drama is the \u201cimitation\u201d of an action.\u00a0 We need not actually see Iphigenia sacrificed by her brutish father (eager to ensure smooth sailing towards war!); the \u201cimitation\u201d\u00a0 (or, intimation, suggestion, description) of the act should be sufficient to effect \u201ccatharsis\u201d\u2014a purging, and renewal; a revisioning.<\/p>\n

In those terms, it would be difficult to apprise Galtung\u2019s \u201cThe Cardplayers\u201d as successful drama.\u00a0 There simply is not enough \u201caction\u201d\u2014imitated or actual; not enough \u201cstage business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, we need not transgress as far as Seneca and the Romans, with their buckets of fake blood on stage, or their real gore in their \u201ccircus maximus,\u201d nor should we descend to the lowest common denominator of the contemporary American theater-scene, most American TV fare, etc.\u00a0 But, we do have to answer that challenging question on the back cover of this book–whether the authors can write drama.<\/p>\n

In the case of Galtung\u2019s \u201cThe Cardplayers,\u201d I am not so certain.\u00a0 On the other hand, I am certain that it is splendid writing that should be read and pondered, debated and discussed in university classrooms and elsewhere around the world!<\/p>\n

Generally, I am less generous with my praise!\u00a0 In Galtung\u2019s case, that and more, is well deserved.\u00a0 By 2010, this Norwegian-born octogenarian had published \u201cabout 150 books and 1500 articles on peace\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 One need only Google his name or check out Wikipedia to learn of his seminal contributions to \u201cPeace Studies\u201d at universities around the world.\u00a0 The book cover informs the reader: \u201cHe founded TRANSCEND: A Peace, Development and Environment Network, in 1993 and was founding rector of Transcend Peace University.\u201d\u00a0 There is no sign of his tiring or retiring any time soon\u2026.<\/p>\n

What we have in \u201cThe Cardplayers\u201d is not so much drama as a Platonic dialogue.\u00a0 We have a presentation of parallel lives: The President of the USA and the Secretary General of the Soviet Union.\u00a0 (This was undoubtedly first written some time back, but it remains painfully pertinent!)\u00a0 There is \u201cThe Ambassador,\u201d representing the U.S. President, and the Foreign Minister of the S.U..\u00a0 And there are \u201cshadowy mafia types\u201d in both countries.\u00a0 In an ironic, Jobian, but contemporary, twist, there is also \u201cGod, a middle-aged woman,\u201d and \u201cHistory, a middle-aged woman.\u201d\u00a0 And various subordinates.<\/p>\n

\"Johan<\/a>

Prof. Johan Galtung<\/p><\/div>\n

The \u201caction\u201d consists of these \u201cleaders\u201d\u2014i.e., political and military hacks–planning a \u201cpeace conference,\u201d which, in fact, will be no peace conference at all, merely a bit of cosmetic surgery to make their side look better to the part of the world that each side dominates: the world that invokes \u201cGod\u201d and religion and righteousness to justify its violence and barbarism, and the parallel world that invokes \u201cHistory,\u201d social dynamics, etc. to justify its comparable suzerainty.\u00a0 The dialogue is always clever, often elevated and profound.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a bit of tasty irony, the \u201cAmbassador,\u201d speaking to the \u201cForeign Minister of a US client country\u201d:<\/p>\n

AMBASSADOR<\/strong>: \u201cI love a frank debate, that is the nature of free societies, isn\u2019t it\u2014that our country could never contemplate an attack, we who have never done so in our entire history of more than 200 years\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, anyone with a prehensile grasp of US history would dispute that, but the client state\u2019s rep lets it go.\u00a0 (That\u2019s what client states do!)<\/p>\n

The wrangling over where, exactly, to position a new missile system, sounds ominously analogous to NATO\u2019s expansionism to Russia\u2019s borders in 2016:<\/p>\n

FM<\/strong>: \u201c\u2026 that is about as close to the Soviet Union that you can come and very remote from any population center you, I mean we, might like to protect\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

AMBASSADOR<\/strong>: \u201cBut you have unemployment in those districts, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 Be frank, I know something about the votes in those parts of your country.\u00a0 Your party is seriously threatened.\u00a0 A little unemployment assistance\u2026 might be handy\u2026. These are na\u00efve country folks, they know nothing of politics.\u00a0 And, of course, we choose places far away from the big cities, and\u2026far away from universities, with students who seem to have nothing better to do but demonstrating for one thing or the other the whole year long.\u201d<\/p>\n

(If this has echoes of the 2016 US presidential campaign, it is a sign, I think, of Galtung being \u201cplugged in\u201d to repetitive political, social, psychological, even psychic, currents!)<\/p>\n

The FM must next meet with various \u201crepresentatives\u201d from his own country in order to \u201csell\u201d the US position.\u00a0 He encounters some opposition, but out-maneuvers those dissenting voices.<\/p>\n

In Act 2, Scene 2, \u201cwe are in the Kremlin, Moscow, a huge Soviet flag instead of the huge US one; the same world map.\u00a0 The Secretary General is new; otherwise, the same people for the same positions, the same dark clothes, the same male society, the same shadowy types.\u00a0 As light comes on they are all listening to the tape-recording of the White House meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, on the tape they hear:<\/p>\n

PRESIDENT\u2019S VOICE<\/strong>: \u201c–in short, cosmic secret, not a word leaked, the usual game plan, I say!\u201d<\/p>\n

(Echoes to 2016 again?\u00a0 The Snowden\/Greenwald\/Assange\/Manning expose that \u201cnot a word [must be] leaked\u201d was an absurd idea back then, and much more so in our age of instant communications, hacking, etc.)<\/p>\n

Back in the good old days of the Cold War, of course, \u201cspying\u201d had much more to do with beautiful, Russian women!\u00a0 The S.U. Foreign Minister declares: \u201cWe trained her the usual way, as a dissident, peacenik type, down with nuclear arms in the West and East, that type of objectivist stuff\u2026 got her on prime time US television.\u00a0 She is a hero over there!…. [When] actually they catch her she has a couple of stories to tell about their sex life\u2026the gist\u2026is what lousy lovers Americans are, watching TV instead!\u201d<\/p>\n

What we see on both sides of \u201cThe Cardplayers\u201d is a level of ignorance and self-serving delusions about \u201cour side vs. their side\u201d as might make the gods weep and advanced humans take to the forest to become wandering sadhus!<\/em><\/p>\n

It is no wonder then that in Act 3, Scene 1, Galtung presents us with a 7-page, interwoven dialogue between God and History!<\/p>\n

GOD<\/strong>: \u201c\u2026 they never grow up!! They are\u2026children, always looking for somebody to punish them so they won\u2019t have to be\u2026responsible\u2026.I never chose any people above others, never took it seriously whether they believe in me or not\u2026.All I wanted was that they should be responsible, face the consequences of their action!\u201d<\/p>\n

And the reply is sad, and all-too fitting:<\/p>\n

HISTORY<\/strong>: \u201cYou gave them free will, I protected that gift.\u00a0 Sometimes I wonder whether they simply want to commit suicide!\u00a0 And this idea that I should have chosen one people above all the others for that ride on a single track through history!\u00a0 Morbid\u2026.They do not have the courage to take on real\u2026responsibility, to make choices!\u00a0 There can be no revolution without a revolution from the inside\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOD<\/strong>: \u201cWe both are in them, and in nature, not above\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no real ending.\u00a0 It\u2019s a dialogue that each of us must continue with those we encounter and with ourselves.\u00a0 \u201cThe Cardplayers\u201d is a dialogical work in the manner of Job<\/em>, or Plato\u2019s Socratic Dialogues<\/em>; in the manner of Augustine\u2019s Soliloquies<\/em>;<\/u> Peter Abelard\u2019s Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 It is Jefferson confronting himself in \u201cMy Head and My Heart.\u201d\u00a0 It is Descartes working towards a vision of a unified science in Discourse and Meditations<\/em>.\u00a0 And, it is singular.<\/p>\n

Part 2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"S.P.<\/a>

S.P. Udayakumar, Ph.D.<\/p><\/div>\n

The last play in this trio (I\u2019ll get to the second one shortly) is fun to deal with, and there\u2019s no qualms about assigning it to its genre.\u00a0 It\u2019s a one-act play of some 20 pages, lively, intelligent, easy to visualize and \u201chear\u201d in the imagination.\u00a0 It\u2019s called \u201cSh\u2026it Happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

S.P. Udayakumar\u2019s play is off-beat \u201ctheater of the absurd,\u201d but the message is as downright, level-headed serious as the fact that we are facing mass extinction on our planet and we are bringing it on ourselves with our wasteful ways!<\/p>\n

In fact, our waste is killing us!<\/p>\n

Yeah, that kind of waste, too!<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s a good, capitalist solution?<\/p>\n

Why, make it profitable!\u00a0 Collect it, and use it as fuel!<\/p>\n

Udayakumar sets the stage and tone in Scene 1:<\/p>\n

\u201c[ACME Corporation Head Office at Wall Street, New York City.\u00a0 The R&D Committee meeting is taking place on the 105th<\/sup> floor, far away from the Earth and the common people.\u00a0 The participants are all sitting around an oval table in formal business attire.]\u201d<\/p>\n

The R&D Manager, straightens his tie, \u201cwith both hands,\u201d and stresses the gravity of \u201cgetting down to business.\u201d\u00a0 He \u201cstiffens his neck\u201d and declares: \u201cThe globalized world throws tough challenges to remain in business today.\u00a0 We need to come up with a\u2026novel product\u2026to diversify\u2026and stay in business.\u201d<\/p>\n

First, an \u201cAcademic Consultant\u201d delivers wearisome academic gibberish: \u201cAs a Professor of Economics, I must put things in perspective.\u00a0 The Law of the Returns states very unambiguously that for the combination of economic goods of the highest order there exists an optimum\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, blah, blah, blah!<\/em><\/p>\n

Other consultants offer ideas like \u201cmaking a killing to neutralize outer space threats\u201d (like nukes and missiles and ICBMs).\u00a0 Such \u201creasonable\u201d peaceful \u201cdeterrents\u201d to war are \u201cshot down\u201d because they will \u201ctake a lot of resources\u201d and will have to have \u201cpolitical sanction,\u201d too.<\/p>\n

Then, the Academic Consultant muses again: \u201cWaste is a waste only when it is wasted.\u00a0 In other words, there is nothing called waste.\u00a0 When we do not waste waste, waste is no longer waste but a profit-making non-waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hearing which, \u201ctwo ACME staff\u2026 roll their eyes\u2026.One of them\u2026mutters\u2026\u2019Shit!\u201d<\/p>\n

And the R&D Manager has a revelation!\u00a0 Make the recycling of human waste profitable!\u00a0 \u201cWe will design a biodegradable plastic bag and distribute to all the households in a participating community.\u00a0 The \u2018fuel suppliers\u2019 use the bag as a single-use toilet, collect the \u2018fuel\u2019 in it and bring it to the collection point in a larger duffle bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, of course, \u201cthings fall apart,\u201d as Yeats wrote, and what looks good on paper, or sounds good in a committee meeting, doesn\u2019t work out so well in a single-use plastic-bag toilet!\u00a0 The fact that ACME is depending on poor countries like \u201cMansoniapur\u201d [one assumes, India] to supply the \u201cfuel\u201d rubs Hindus, Christians, Muslims and Communists into perfect disharmony and acrimony!<\/p>\n

In the last scene, a young woman climbs a banyan tree and tries to set the world straight: \u201cListen to me, you old men,\u201d she cries.\u00a0 \u201cYou are the reason for all this stinking mess.\u00a0 You did not know how to rule yourselves\u2026you\u2026sold your souls to these mercenaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a clear indictment of our capitalist-consumerist-profligate modern world.\u00a0 The play is just the right size to deliver a sharp bite and make us think.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Vithal Rajan<\/p><\/div>\n

Regrettably, I do not have such a sanguine feeling about the 2nd<\/sup> play, Vithal Rajan\u2019s 25-page 1-Act, \u201cThe Spartan Conspiracy<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The work begins with a 2-page preface about similarities between Homer\u2019s \u201cIliad\u201d and the Hindu \u201cRamayana\u201d epic.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m all for universal themes! \u00a0(One of my supreme memories is from my 29th<\/sup> year–watching a performance of the \u201cRamayana Ballet\u201d in an open-air theater, on a beach in Bali, mesmerized by the dancers and the sound of gamelons!)\u00a0 And, this also works for me: \u201cThe dismal economic reasons for war, to control the means of production and reproduction, to control land, slaves and women\u2026these days, when everyone recognizes the importance of economic concerns, war is never ever portrayed as a grab for the goodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

A stimulating preface, but the roll-out is not.\u00a0 \u201cThis play,\u201d the author tells us, \u201cwritten half in jest, attempts to highlight what might have been the real economic factors that led the Greeks into a long and protracted war.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bit too much \u201chedging\u201d here: \u201cwritten half in jest\u201d; \u201cattempts\u201d; \u201cwhat might have been.\u201d\u00a0 I admit to losing interest when Menelaus started calling Agamemnon \u201cAggy,\u201d and Odysseus called Menelaus \u201cLoosey\u201d and Achilles is transformed into \u201cAsch\u201d!\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a joke that\u2019s too long getting to the punch-line.<\/p>\n

All in all, taken as a whole, Peace Plays<\/em> is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction.\u00a0 It\u2019s a book to read, and re-read, and savor.\u00a0 It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/p>\n

Gary Corseri<\/em> has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of global venues, including,<\/em> TMS (Transcend Media Service)<\/a>, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine, The Japan Times, and<\/em> Counterpunch.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on<\/em> PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere.\u00a0 He edited the <\/em>Manifestations literary anthology; has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum; and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.\u00a0 Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review of Peace Plays by Johan Galtung, Vitahl Rajan, and S. P. Udayakumar; Kolofon Press, 2010. 95 pages. It is a splendid book: a lens with which to contemplate our modern world of foibles, follies, self-and-mass destruction. It\u2019s a book to read, and re-read, and savor. It is whimsical and sobering; grating in a positive way; uplifting and transformative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}