286 - Toyless in Toil-land (What would it Take to Get Peace on Earth)

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Episode #286 - Toyless in Toil-land (What would it Take to Get Peace on Earth)

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⌚ Sun 25 December 2005  ☻Paddy Joe Shannon, Piers Woodward, Robert Jensen, Stanley Aronowitz

Download Hour1 Download Hour2The holiday season is a time when peace on earth and good will toward others are spoken about and sung about, then are put aside with the torn wrappings in the garbage can, and the world moves on in its cycle of wars and the space between wars which is called peace but is a quiet that descends when the vanquished are too exhausted to continue struggling against the victor. Religions promise peace but have served as a pretext for wars for millennia. The leaders of nations extol peace as they make war, or else they extol war as a means to peace, which really just means victory. Most wars now in progress are not between nations but within them, and most of the armies are in place to fight people in their own nation state. Some say that war-making is an essential part of human nature - if this is so, then why do people so want peace? Goodwill is a prerequisite for peace, yet our societies are not structured to promote good will - very much the opposite. The good will that is in us is systematically assaulted, callousness and viciousness rewarded. Not officially of course, but in practice.

This week we start with the soundtrack of Paddy Joe Shannon's video, "Capitalism and Other Kids' Stuff". Following Holy war, a presentation by Piers Woodward, we hear "Hope is for the weak - The Challenge of a Broken World", a speech given by Robert Jensen on 2005-11-11 in Texas. He argues that the world is facing unprecedented, potentially catastrophic crises due to ecological damages and increasingly global problems. "It may not be crazy to talk of end times", he says, but we should face up to what is going on and try to understand why. We conclude with an interview with Professor Stanley Aronowitz speaking in New York last week about the idea of electoral reform in US.
Music: Pierce Woodward
Thanks, Michael
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