RESOURCES: War and Greed

Break The Cycle, Break The System!

This post is for all the resources that I come across and feel like sharing with others. It will be a constantly growing post based on research and feedback I receive along the way.

I’ve taken several classes on this over the last few years. Those classes I took had such a strong impact on me. We were faced with all the horrors that genocide, greed, and war created. We had to watch, read, and write about all this, but after those few classes, for some reason, I didn’t continue that research, until now. It didn’t occur to me at all that what I had read is currently happening around the world. Most commonly, I see it online in my news feeds. It starts with an opinionated article, which by itself is fine. As soon as someone starts assuming, it goes down hill. From this, I typically see three things occur:

1. People agree with the assumed comment. When I see this support of a hurtful idea, it hits hard. I see this pattern daily. So much so, yet, it STILL astounds me just how biased and destructive we can be.

2. People don’t say anything at all. I know plenty of people who would rather say NOTHING at all in response, but that attitude will never lead to change. Then I realized why most people don’t say anything (as explained below).

3. People protest the comment, only to be berated by the other side of the argument. When I do actually step in and say something, I’m greeted with the stereotypical, “Go back to the ’70s”, “Keep living in your imaginary world, stay out of ours”, “Don’t you dare disrespect our troops, they are sacrificing for your freedom” or whatever negativity they feel like throwing at me. These examples are just war related ones, but I’ve had many others as well for different topics. I try as hard as I can to state my opinion by providing facts or stating observations, not by giving assumptions or using negative responses. It’s so sad to see how poorly people respond to new ideas. Even if there is plenty of research out there, they choose to tell me off for letting them know that it exists.

So, here is my response to that. Here is a constantly growing collection of inspiration, of a restoration of faith in humanity, a hope that we may achieve that dream of peace. This list is information I find in my research. It’s not perfect, so if you have others to add, just let me know!

TED TALKS:

Fighting with NonViolence – Scilla Elworthy

Teaching with the World Peace Game – John Hunter

One Day of Peace – Jeremy Gilley

A Realistic Vision for World Peace – Jody Williams

9/11 Healing

A Saudi, an Indian and an Iranian walk into a Qatari bar… – Maz Jobrani (Love the comedy from this guy)

DOCUMENTARIES:

War On Our World (“Love is wise, hatred is foolish” -Bertrand Russel. This is a great documentary that talks about how war is based on greed and profit.)

ARTICLES:

The Great American Bubble Machine (This one isn’t related to a physical war, but it’s more of an example of just how greedy we have become. It discusses five examples of how far the banks go to produce money at the expense of every day people. This inequality has a chance to create a massive uprising between the people and the corporations that control us, if only more become aware of what is happening before it’s too late.)