Critical Mass

By Don Kirk 

I went to a campus ‘peace’ rally recently, and watched the futility of the 5,000 year old philosophy of passivity. Where 'peace' is passive, ‘freedom’ is pro-active. Rabbits adopt passivity to avoid being detected by the prowling predator, freezing motionless in order to avoid being seen. Slaves adopt the same behavior; passivity in order to avoid being noticed (see Hegel, who so fascinated Engles and Marx). Passivity is a feature of the fear in prey.

The Hindus have been praying ‘sharit’ for four thousand years, while Judaism has had ‘shalom’ as a prayer for more than three thousand years. Christianity has the ‘Prince of Peace,’ while Muslims have prayed ‘salaam’ for more than fourteen hundred years, making ‘peace’ the eternal ideal in all cultures.

At the campus ‘peace’ rally, I walked away, shaking my head. They just don’t ‘get it;’ they don't understand the difference between the passivity of peace and the pro-activity of freedom.