Opinions

Beyond Delusion

     Putin demonstrated in his “interview” with Tucker Carlson the delusional version of Russian history that rationalizes his brutality. Hamas and Netanyahu continue to demonstrate Auden’s classic line: “Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.” It often seems as if vast swaths of the Middle East operate under the collective delusion that the various parties, state or non-state, can kill their way out of insecurity and injustice. […]

Opinions

NATO as Provocateur: Trump as Pawn

     NATO promised at that point–at least the US rep James Baker promised in 1990–that NATO wasn’t looking to expand, but presumably rather to sit quietly to see if peace is really possible without its oppositional military alliance, dominated by the Soviet Union. […]

Opinions

Navalny’s Value

     Aleksei Navalny, to all effects murdered by Putin, represented by contrast about as absolute a standard of what might constitute a morally honest life as humanly possible. He was not perfect; nobody is. In his early political life he dallied with racist forms of nationalism, which he outgrew. […]

Opinions

Remembering a Voice for Peace

     In 1969, dissatisfied with the popular idea of peace as a “negative,” the mere absence of war, Galtung redefined peace as the opposite of violence. He characterized the latter as “avoidable insults to life.” The art of peace became the skilled avoidance of such insults. In this way, he enriched our vocabulary of peace by embracing the notion of “positive peace,” also known as the presence of justice. […]

Opinions

The Sheep and the wolf

      So, the wolf dressed himself in sheep’s clothing and convinced the weak sheep who were afraid to lose their stature and position in the pasture to designate the slimy, degenerate wolf as the shepherd of the sheep. […]