OT: Cannot Stay out of this discussion: Nonviolence, pacifism, revange, foreign policy
I attended a symposium this weekend on Nonviolence. It was organized by the Jain Community at our University. Jainism is a religion started 2600 years ago in India. (There are two million Jains in India). Mahavira, the last teacher of jains was a contemporay of Buddha. The Jains believe in nonviolence as a way of life. One of the things a Jain scholar(from Berkley U) emphasized that nonviolence does not mean absence of violence. According to Jain scriptures, it means minimization of violence in our daily conduct, violence to self and violence to others. One must first explore all ways to find a solution. If one fails, then violence may be used for the greater benefit of the society.
In Hindu philosophy, in Bhagwad Gita, Krishna advises the great warrior Arjuna," that one must protect "Dharma" (translated loosly, the rightful conduct or rightousness) because if Dharma is not protected it will mean the end of society. Therefore, do your duty and fight to protect Dharma. But fight without any feeling of revange, self benefit, or personal gain".
Gandhi by no means was a pacifist. People tend to lable behaviors. Gandhi was one of the most activist person in Indian freedom struggle. He was planning strategies and provoking British to react. He was acting and the British were reacting. He, however did not condone violence.
In the current situation, I feel we should find a solution to the problem, that is protect 'Dharma' if necessary by force. We should review our past behavior and policies that have caused pain and suffering to other people. Be more aware of what goes on out side our borders and help eradicate situations that lead to people becoming terrorists and hate us.
But right now we must fight. We must fight to protect innocent people from tyranny of terrorism otherwise our world community will fall apart. We should go after terrorists, terrorist safe heavens and governments that train terrorist which causes a havoc around the world. We should use maximum force necessary but make sure that innocent people are not victims of our rage. We should to everything to protect innocent citizen of whatever country we are fighting.
Eliminate Taliban regime and the hatred they are spreading. We should be willing to take casualities if we must but take action.
Enough ramblings.
Kdavy |
