Nobody is blocking peace

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1106222/13366779

LEARNER full text (2024)

PeaceWorld or death

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1106222/13381922 

APPRENTI texte integral (2024)

Le monde paisible ou la mort

Transcript

sdWORLD WAR COVID
Learner, begin

Nobody Is Blocking Peace  

I can hear them mutter:
“I'm as much for peace as the next guy.
"I work just as hard for it – or not.”
I hear those bad luck buzzards caw:

“Over my dead body, 
Your tyranny of good conscience,
Your dictatorship of compassion,
Your Big Brother PeaceWorld!”

Pack of cowards,                                       
Who and what are you afraid of,
Except your worst instincts,
Allergic to progress?

PeaceWorld, what does that mean? 
No more nations, no state, 
No patriotism except for the whole world. 
Never again “us against them,” except at sport.
All of us together, rather.

For every rank of patriarchy and power,
The same of grand mothers and their veto
No more electing the worst gang lord,
Only nobles of fabled renown.  

PeaceWorld is not a miracle,
Not a quick fix for this country, that war,
This injustice, that disgrace,
That minority crushed, that privileged elite.

It won’t approach by tiny steps,
A little something here, some way over there,
Just as soon as we are ready.
Ready?

It will approach like a thunderclap at night,
Like the thief in the night, like our Savior.

Sudden downpours that drown war,
Wash sweat from fevered brows,
Rinse tear-streaked faces,
Dab bloody heads, ruined mugs.

PeaceWorld nourishes plants, 
Cools furnace-hot streets,
Restores healing sleep,
It will restore them all 
And ask nothing in return but peace. 

This thunder clap rattles the Lie: 
Its prejudices, politic props and culture crutches
Clatter and shatter like a dropped tea tray.
Nothing is left except the Lie stripped bare,
Its vipers exposed.

Once we defy it,
We will be face to face with our conscience,
And champions of our results.   
Few exceptions and fewer excuses!

Think about that power,
What opulence and freedom!
Once we revere good conscience.
Less miserable and two-faced,
Stronger and more certain,
What could be good for us, hard for us,
Inviting the good and forbidding the worst?

Less brutality, fewer victims: 
No more sickened, starving, stupid babies
Justified in public and ignored in private.  
More healing than murder,
No honest folk need take refuge,
Nor the planet set alight.  

We cease holding court over the world, 
Farting resources and deploring,
In total futility, the next war on schedule.  
Stop making yourself feel better 
About too much stress and regret.  
We must walk our fine talk in real time.  
Good and scary, what?

Humanity one vast tribe with no military enemy: 
Colossal, with stacked councils of elders
Of legendary grace and wisdom. 
Its women's' circles estrofesting,
Its testosterone Olympics
Cool as the bull dancers of Minos.

Celebrate more and sacrifice less, 
Topics of passion thrashed out nonstop,
Leaders hand-picked as children 
For merit and noble generosity. 
Addressing everyone’s needs, 
With justice, compassion and equity. 
Seeking honor but no other advantage.  

With its bristly dog soldiers
Their high-tech killing on hair trigger  
Fine-honed to shut down combat, 
Strictly watched otherwise. 
Champions of PeaceWorld, 
Trained to crack states,
Sworn against harm to PeaceWorld.

Juries checkmate hate crime,
Life and death decision-makers, all-powerfully humble. 
Well-taught: “We protect ourselves best,
Protecting the Other as best they can.” 

Religion agreeably reliable, 
Every child well cared for, 
Front doors left unlocked.
Each household, a ship at sea,
Free to find its way
It makes flank speed to distress calls.
This law of the sea, the same on land,
Across the whole planet.  

This tribe is rich and wise, 
Powerful because well united.
Brothers and sisters under God,
Cultivate a second garden of Eden
And leap for the stars.  

No longer two hundred street gangs 
Blowing up the ruins of Planet
Mogadishu on a Bad Day.  
Nor America the Beautiful,
The strongest street gang, disgraced
By electing cunning gang lords.

Nor sweet France,
Comely motherland of my childhood 
Bewildered, its ideals cast aside,
She neglects her sacred duty, 
And dodges her rally call,
And flounders in failure. 

To continue WeaponWorld, 
As we have done so well, 
Just repeat the same weapon myths, 
Its banalities and lies
Instilled in us all of our lives.  
Just think “simple, inevitable.” 

No-one else is to blame
For our absolute responsibility 
No-one can think  reductively, 
As we’ve been taught so well. 
We cannot dismiss imagination and conscience, 
Ours and theirs,
As we’ve been taught so well.  

 WeaponWorld thrives – 
“Thrives?” –
From small thoughts devoid of hope. 
Such that no-one can be “brother, sister.” 
We would mean it on our honor
And act accordingly, without exception.

For PeaceWorld, 
Gotta think for yourself, 
With holism, heroism and optimism.  
Not fashionably, not commonly, 
Not oft-quoted, not brain-dead,
Not dogma repeated to hypnosis.  

 Adopt our own peace myths, 
Just as solid as weapon ones,
Except never heard so often,
Never repeated since childhood, 
The way we have heeded weapon myths.  
Gotta make peace myths in real time,
Repeat them, empower them and make them real.

It is not up to those in power to decide,
But up to you, me, to neighbors.
The powerful only serve our needs:
Smart or not, arbitrary or legitimate;
At war, under its threat or at peace; — 
They suffer at our hands if they fail.

They are just waiting for new orders
That will make them richer.
More secure in this newfound prosperity, 
Than the mournful mediocrity this day,
As likely to destroy their own people as ours.

It is not their fault, not their responsibility,
But ours.
No mitigation or excuse,
No exemption from this iron law:
“Either you are part of the solution,
Or part of the problem.”

Why worsen the problem?
What is your problem?
Isn’t the solution obvious? 

 Admit your fear and loathing, 
Your veto of this a leap of faith.
Take your childhood training against peace,
Yank its reigns, turn it around !  
Spur it on and make it take the jump!
Change your mind and change the world.  
Adopt PeaceWorld.

Nobody blocks PeaceWorld in your mind
But you. 
Nobody blocks peace in your world
Except for you. 

You alone can transform the world.
PeaceWorld will not happen until you want it to,
You and billions more like you, together 
It will not happen until you drop your fear. 
Gotta study it hard, this peace, to make it happen.

No-one is blocking PeaceWorld,
Except you.

…

COMMENT?  markmulligan@comcast.net