No War Monday

You KNOW what war is good for - absolutely nothing
Infographic from: source

We talk a lot about the glory and honour of war, and the respect we should bestow upon those who wage it. But you don't hear much from our leaders about ending war. Why is this? Why wouldn't we want to eliminate the most grievously unsustainable activity performed by man (and I do mean man).

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported that global military spending was  $1.7 Trillion dollars in 2011. The good news, if you can call it that, is that the figure represented the first time in 13 years that spending didn't increase. 

Before you rejoice thinking that perhaps world leaders are on the road to realizing the error of their ways, a SIPRI researcher credited the leveling out of spending on "the global economic crisis, especially deficit-reduction measures in the USA and Europe". He went on to say that the decade-long rise in spending seemed to be over... at least for now.

When I hear we don't have enough money for clean drinking water, or housing, health care and education for all humans, I call bullshit. When people say we can't afford a social safety net, I call bullshit. Not enough money to develop sustainable energy? Wrong.

Why haven't we eliminated poverty yet? Not enough money? No. Just like all the other persistent problems, there is plenty of money, but there is not enough will to tackle them. It was a lack of will that caused the War on Poverty to be the shortest declared war in US history. In that war, as Ronald Regan said, "poverty won".

I know where we can tap into the cash to solve all of our problems, with some to spare for a planetary party when our work is done and we have achieved a sustainable world in which all people have enough.

Dream a little - what would you do for the planet with almost $2 Trillion bucks in the bank? As we stop war, we will turn the dream into reality.

How To Stop War

1. Teach kids basic philosophy and logic
2. Meditate
3. Stop glorifying violence
4. Make it illegal to profit from the killing industry
5. Make the bad men stop and go away - replace them with women 
6. Create a culture of compassion, cooperation and community
7. Be kind
8. Practice forgiveness
9. Be patient
10. Find peace with ourselves, then spread it around

Amazing Feats Of Simplicity: Shōichi Yokoi

Yokoi's Cave - 28 years in the jungles of Guam

Shōichi Yokoi became famous in 1972 for his amazing feats of simplicity and survival. The Japanese soldier was discovered living in the jungles of Guam, and had been there for 28 years, since the end of WWII. When found by hunters he was in remarkably good health, and still in hiding.

Yokoi had been living a life as austere as it can get since Americans liberated the island he was on almost three decades earlier. He and two other soldiers survived in the jungles by living with nature in extreme simplicity.

Yokoi lived by building a cave-like underground dwelling. A tailor in his civilian days before the war, he fashioned clothing in the jungle out of tree bark. He hunted small mammals at night, and ate a variety of jungle vegetation.

One can only imagine the struggle, fear, and loneliness that the soldier must have experienced at times. But perhaps there was something about this stripped down life that appealed to Yokoi. It is said that he knew for 20 years that the war was over, but preferred to stay in the jungle.

When Yokoi was finally discovered and taken home, he was walloped by major culture shock. He was vaulted from his extreme simplicity into a fast-paced, commercialized, and affluent Japanese society. Things had changed a great deal since he left at the beginning of the war. He found adjusting difficult.

To Yokoi, the material excesses he saw were alarming. He devoted himself to spreading the word on the value of a more austere life, something he would have been an expert on. He launched into a series of lectures on the topic.

I am not sure how his message was received by the Japanese, but I am definitely inspired by Yokoi, and people like him, who manage amazing feats of simplicity. They remind me that there is a lot of superfluous fluff that can be jettisoned in our quest for a simpler, more satisfying life.

Simple Surroundings Focus Us On More Important Things

Monk's cell similar to one of my favourite rooms

One of the favourite places I have laid down to sleep for a few nights (indoors that is) was Gillett House, of Chichester Theological College, England. It was 1992, and I was taking a summer semester course that took me overseas to study the British elementary school system. The class had been booked to stay in the student residence of the college to take advantage of its frugal accommodations.

The student residence we stayed in was built in the early 1960s. The architectural language used to describe the style of the three storey building today is 'New Brutalism'. It was basic and stark, but I found it truthful in its blatant, functional approach. As we walked up to the building some of my fellow students were not feeling as sure about it.

The interior of the building was just as interesting, and reflected both the severe exterior, and its intended purpose - housing students on a budget, and studying a spiritual tradition. Lacking ornamentation or decoration, it was plain, and basic by design. My room, not recommended for the claustrophobic, reminded me of a monk's cell, but I was intrigued.

The tiny, all white bedroom had sturdy built-in furniture, and a small cold water sink in the corner. There was a single bed with rough white linens, and a set of drawers at the end. Finishing off the basic furnishings - a study desk in an alcove with a single shelf above it, and a narrow skylight above that. When sitting at the desk the light would stream in like warm inspiration from above (cue Gregorian chants, or a choir here).

View from one of the rooftop terraces of the student residence

The opening window of my room had a ledge large enough to sit on comfortably. It allowed a view of lush lawns dotted with hedgehogs and giant, twisted deciduous trees. I felt strangely comfortable and tranquil right away.

I enjoyed the plain simplicity and stark beauty of this basic room. Meanwhile some of my fellow students were threatening to mutiny and seek out more luxurious digs elsewhere. After all, one person's monk cell is another person's prison.

The other students eventually calmed down enough to feel comfortable in our austere surroundings, and decided to stay. I was happy they did because far from feeling imprisoned, I felt liberated by the four white walls of my room.

I was beginning to focus on more important things as my simple surroundings worked their magic on me. We all ended up learning a lot more than about the British school system - we learned about ourselves and about our inflated expectations.

The week I spent in my 'monks cell' provided me with a new perspective on what was enough. Stripped of all unnecessary trappings, it helped me realize what a 'luxurious' life I had been leading up until that time. But what was it all for, when this was clearly enough?

This Is How We Do Austerity

Click to see larger version

I enjoy living a life without luxuries, and don't even mind severe simplicity from time to time. I don't view the concept of austerity as harshly as some people - I am all about austere living, but not if it is done as illustrated above.

My austerity is not an extreme or harsh form of self-denial, not that the world couldn't handle a bit more of that. Rather, it is a way of cutting costs and distractions, so as "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life", as Thoreau said.

Ultimately, I want my austerity to help make the world a better place. If ostentatious, excessively indulgent, extravagant living got our planet into the mess it is in right now, then self-control and simplicity is how we will get out of it. But this is a project we all need to work on together.

Austerity should be to help provide equality among all humans, heal the environment, and improve the quality of life for everyone. It should not be so that the rich can take an even greater share of the wealth while pressing global problems continue to be ignored.