Fighting for peace

“They’ve asked me to go to a protest about logging.”

“So, are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why? Don’t you want to save the forest?”

“Yes I do. But I feel a bit uneasy.”

“Uneasy?”

“Well, I know some of the loggers, and surely they’re entitled to make a living. But I don’t want to see the forests disappear.”

“What do the loggers say?”

“They say they’re entitled to make a living. They say they want to preserve the forest even more than the greenies - it’s their living!”

“What do the greenies say?”

“They say the forest has been logged to death by loggers, and they don’t want any more.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Yeah - but the loggers say that was then, this is now. They say that everyone is responsible for the damage that’s been done in the past, that’s what everyone believed, and now everyone knows better, and they don’t want it to happen again either.”

“So everyone wants the same thing?”

“Well, not quite. I mean, there are radicals on both sides - some want us to leave it all alone for ever, and some want to clear fell it, even now.”

“But most of them...?”

“Well, they all say they want to save the forest.”

“Do you?”

“Yes!”

“So what’s the best way to do that?”

“Well, we’re going to protest.”

“Chain yourself to trees, that sort of thing?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s the best way to save the forest?”

“Well, I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.”

“You know, someone asked Mother Teresa once to sign a petition against nuclear warfare, and after she prayed, she said she couldn’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. I didn’t understand it either. I had to give it a lot of thought. I hate the thought of nuclear warfare, and I almost certainly would have signed the petition.”

“So, why didn’t she?”

“She said that in doing so she would be taking sides, and not loving everybody equally.”

“Well that’s a copout, isn’t it?”

“I thought so, but I don’t think so now.”

“Why?”

“Signing the petition is empowering the argument.”

“Empowering the argument?”

“Yes. I mean very few people in the world want nuclear war, you know. But if you just argue against it, you make them argue for it, if they’re scared, or whatever their reason is.”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, look at what’s going to happen if you chain yourself to a tree.”

“What?”

“Well, lots of people will love you for it.”

“Yes.”

“What about other people, people who might want the forest saved just as much as you?”

“I suppose a lot of them will think I’m some sort of radical, and not love me for it.”

“So there’ll be people who are positive, and people who are negative?”

“Yes.”

“And a positive plus a negative equals zero.”

“I suppose it does.”

“So chances are you’ll be playing a zero sum game.”

“So what else can I do?”

“What’s already been done.”

“What’s that?”

“Tie yourself to a tree.”

“Or?”

“There are areas where local people, who understand the issues of their area, sat down and negotiated an agreement, and guess what they found.”

“What?”

“They found that generally speaking, everyone wanted the same thing. Except some wanted it now, and some wanted to work towards it. They had some disagreement about when and how, but not about the desirability of doing it.”

“So they worked it out?”

“They worked it out.”

“I see.”

“Do you?”

“Well, I see that force creates force.”

 
“Yep. Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity.”