In his 1900 essay, The Slavery of Our Times, Lev N. Tolstoy argued that killing people is murder and therefore war is contrary to Christian teachings (and one can add, to any warring religion).He explained how: "Laws are rules, made by people who govern by means of organised violence,..." The army is an instrument of murder which kings, emperors, presidents and prime ministers have institutionalized.
He concluded that war is as useless, brutish, murder and harmful madness to society as slavery. The alternative is love, non-killing, and a fair economy for all.
It has been over a century since Tolstoy penned that profound essay (below), yet we daily hear the drums of war with the propaganda of 'neutralizing' the enemy, the development of robot planes (drones) to better kill, and for surveillance and control of human populations.
Our 'military industrial complex' (which the late President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 called as the greatest threat to our society) continues to devour the daily bread of ordinary citizens around the world, as it seeks to develop more and more weapons of mass destruction.
Surely guns kill whether they are rifles or atomic bombs! Let's stop murdering people for some spurious patriot cause or more precisely for some economic gain. Shame on us! War is certainly not healthy for children and other living things.
- Where is our concern for humanity?
- For the beautiful environment?
- For creating a better United Nations?
- For developing Departments of Peace in our respective countries?
Have we gone mad as a human race?
Brothers and Sisters around the world, let's outlaw war just as we have earlier done with human slavery. The time is now! This is a time for cooperation, a time for using science for human goodness and beauty, a time for common sense. Let's get on with it, my friends! Let's turn to a new path of sanity, justice and respect for all. Are we not members of one human family?
I invite you to read Tolstoy's The Slavery of Our Times
