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Shadow River
An Essay on Freedom
In the eloquent book, “The Unconquerable World,” author Jonathan Schell
traces the grim and brutal history of warfare. A core notion of the
book is that war has become non-winnable in the settling of disputes.
Due to the evolution of nuclear weapons and the mutual annihilation
inherent in their use, the reliance of politics on violent means throughout
the centuries is called into question. While tracking the evolution
of violence, Schell reveals a simultaneous force, moving in counterpoint
to the martial system; a tradition of non-violence, born of the world’s
spiritual traditions.
Like a sort of “shadow” river, flowing beneath the turbulent surface
of the historical ocean, this force has been more persistent than we
might suppose. Indeed, our United States constitution was created from
tributaries that tapped the ancient river of peaceful means. Its principles
form a cauldron within which we are scorched in the flames of our mistakes,
yet blessed with the freedom to correct ourselves. Most of us sense
that violence, as a means to settle our differences, has run its course.
We sense, urgently, that in order to supersede global disasters, we
must learn to think and act differently.
Enlightened leaders claim that the age-old dream of a more peaceful
world begins with individuals. They implore us to look into the mirror–-into
our hearts–-and be honest about what we see. They invite us to live
in the moment. To stay awake to the notion that, in the deepest strata
of life’s mysteries, the others are us and we are them. To engage this
awareness in good faith is to empower the ancient river–-to dissolve
our mistakes in new choices--to construct new reality from old dreams
via hearts and minds.
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