Weekly Self-inflictions #9: War (Transcript)

“It’s better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.” ~Chinese Proverb

War is two “rights” obliterating each other’s rights; peace is two “wrongs” admitting they could be wrong.

The warrior in the garden understands this more than anyone. The last thing any true warrior wants is war. Because only a true warrior understands that war means the obliteration of rights, of freedom, of love—win-or-lose.

A true warrior will always choose peace over war, despite their warrior training. They will always choose nonviolence over violence. War, weaponry, and violence are only ever a last-ditch solution, and even then, only as a solution to violence itself.

The modern-day war machine has hijacked (and falsely portrayed) Darwin’s “might makes right” concept. This has created a dangerously lopsided view of reality: a kind of conquer-control-destroy-repeat mindset has permeated our culture to such an extent that it falsely convinces people that war is necessary to keep the peace and that violence is the answer to the problems we face.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Might does not make right. War is not peace, as much as the warmongers and weapons manufacturers want you to believe it. Ignorance is not strength, as much as the uneducated egoists and xenophobic nationalists want you to believe it. Freedom is not slavery, as much as the brainwashed statists and fear-filled status-quo junkies want you to believe it.

As Buckminster Fuller said, “War is obsolete. It is a matter of converting technology from weaponry to livingry.”

The battle always begins within. War is made up of individuals who have chosen weaponry over livingry, violence over nonviolence, and self-righteousness over compassion. Had enough of those individuals chosen otherwise, despite any “wrongs” done to them, then war would never have been possible.

So, look into a mirror. You are probably not a warrior in a garden. You are probably a culturally conditioned, politically brainwashed, religiously indoctrinated, wannabe warrior despite the garden. But that ignorance doesn’t get you off the hook for being connected to the garden. Everything is connected to the garden.

It’s your responsibility alone to recondition your conditioning, to un-indoctrinate your indoctrination, to unlearn what you have learned, to walk out of Plato’s Cave, and to wash off the brainwash. Nobody else can do it for you.

But know this: The warriors in the garden will not let up. They will not let you off the hook. They will show you the garden was always there. They will be transforming weaponry into livingry despite you (but also for you). They will be choosing peace over war, despite your war machine. They will be transforming violence into nonviolence, despite your solution to all things being violence. They will show you the mirror you refuse to look into. And they will continue waking you up, despite the fact that you are pretending to be asleep.