Peace: The old fashioned way!

Comments: 14

Steve B. Apr 25, 2012, 1:18am UTC

Actually, your symbol isn't a peace symbol at all. It's a symbol for perpetual war. The "hippie" peace symbol will still be recognized as the peace symbol, but I think a more potent and meaningful symbol of peace is Gandhi's spinning wheel. It marks non-violent non-cooperation in oppressive situations. At least, the symbol you present means something. I really don't know what the "hippie" peace symbol means.

James s F. Apr 25, 2012, 10:15pm UTC

The actual 'peace' symbol was stick figure shorthand semiphore for N D
(nuclear disarmament) designed at poet laureat Bertrand Russell's request for use by disarmament marches when the Brits realized they were in the path of fallout from any US v USSR nuclear war.

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Tessa D. Apr 25, 2012, 1:21am UTC

hmm

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norman chambers Apr 25, 2012, 2:43am UTC

In the Middle Ages,wearing the upside-down broken cross could get you burned at the stake as a devil-worshipper. I like your "old-fashioned" badge - "Peace through Strength",as the Gipper would say.

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Larry M. Apr 25, 2012, 8:10am UTC

Peace by bombing civilians? Peace by killing women and children? Peace by death?

Have you no sense of history? Have you no knowledge of how peace has been achieved over the last several thousand years? Remember the peace that we attained after the Civil War? Surely you recall reconstruction.

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Ann Marcaida Apr 25, 2012, 11:05am UTC

Does anyone really believe we can achieve peace and safety by killing all of our enemies? That just multiplies the problem.

"We will not feel safe until the other side feels safe." (Thich Nhat Hahn, antiwar activist and Nobel prize nominee).

Now featured at Examining Our Religion.

Robert A. Apr 25, 2012, 11:08am UTC

Exactly, Ann. And when will we, as humans, realize that force is always met with resistance and opposing force? This applies from simple one on one human interaction to nations at war.

Ann Marcaida Apr 25, 2012, 11:15am UTC

For some of us, never. We have instincts left over from 2 million years of tribal living. (I find it interesting that when a government topples, the country often reverts by default to a tribal system).

As for our race as a whole, when I consider history, I believe we are making slow progress towards understanding this.

James s F. Apr 25, 2012, 10:18pm UTC

Among the anastazi (ancient ones of the Pueblo indiginous people) the leader could not make a decision that would affect the tribe (such as going to war) until his or her hair was braided three times. First by a child, second by a mother with child, third by a grandmother. These were the ones who would suffer most for a bad decision.

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Robert A. Apr 25, 2012, 11:14am UTC

Oh yeah... lets dump more money into building fighter jets to control terrorism. That will work? We already spend billions (which we don't have, so we borrow) to build more and more fighter jets that are 2 mph faster than the present version that might do a little better in a dogfight than a MIG, but hey... terrorists don't have MIGs. They don't have a navy either, yet we go on spending billions on the latest submarines.

The "defense" idea is a sham to fund the industry. The US has about 6% of world population yet we spend more on so called defense, every year, than the 94% rest of the world combined.

And how exactly do you kill "terrorists" with fighter jets? You fire missiles from far away at targets that might kill one or two "terrorists" and the "peripheral damage" of killing innocents or destroying their homes creates more terrorists who want to avenge their dead relatives.

Peace is peace. It's not achieved with force.

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Nippy Katz (Not his real name) Demigod about Town Apr 25, 2012, 2:20pm UTC

The peace symbol comes from the '50s anti-nuclear movement. It's a schematic representation of the semaphore signals for N and D, meaning nuclear disarmament.

The idea of "peace with honor" is something from romantic fiction. International politics doesn't work that way.

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