The Uncarved Blog

Published: October 18, 2009

Letter to the Editor

A Fascinating Approach to Peace

Australia Needs a Defence System Beyond “Extended Deterrence”

Dear News Blaze editors:

Thank you for posting this intelligently written Op-Ed piece. Here are my comments for your consideration.

When asked about his new film, EVERY WAR HAS TWO LOSERS, a documentary based on the journals of American poet William Stafford, award-winning producer/director Haydn Reiss suggested it would be very satisfying to think that after viewing the film you would ask yourself, at a deep level, what you really believe about war. And the follow-up question of “How did I come to believe that?”

This Op-Ed, Australia Needs a Defence System Beyond “Extended Deterrence” is a fascinating approach to peace, one that should be seriously considered. I’ve just seen Mr. Reiss’s new film about war and peace, and this deeper solution is something that would resonate with both the poet and the filmmaker.

“I think we have been very successfully indoctrinated into accepting that war is a given, it’s what human beings do. The distinction is, and I think this is what Stafford is saying, is ‘Yes, we do and can make war. But what else can we do?’ The undiscovered possibilities in human behavior are what we should pursue. The die is not cast,” Reiss added; “imagination and creativity are not in short supply. That this is the real, pragmatic work of the world.”

Visit http://everywar.com to see the trailer, and think for yourself, about this question and this more rational scientific solution. At the same time, keep in mind what Einstein said about insanity—doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result; and what Schopenhauer said about the three stages that all truth passes through—”First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

In watching his own struggle with the British Empire, Gandhi echoed a similar sentiment when he observed, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” I’d like to think that this ancient scientific approach founded by the great Vedic Science revivalist, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, would turn out to be a win-win situation for every nation on the planet. We now have the technology in our hands to finally fulfill this ancient hope for humanity—the ability to create and maintain permanent world peace.

Ken Chawkin
Media Relations Director
Maharishi University of Management
The David Lynch Foundation
E:  kchawkin@mum.edu
W: http://www.mum.edu
B: http://theuncarvedblog.com
W: http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org

Also see Every War Has Two Losers, a Haydn Reiss film on poet and conscientious objector William Stafford and PEACEFUL POETS: Filmmaker Haydn Reiss on Rumi and Stafford and the Power of Words.