Peace Researcher 38 – July 2009
by WJ
Foote, The Glen
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Will Foote’s title alludes to a
pacifist poem from World War 1. This war, one of the most miserable in the long
and futile history of miserable wars, inspired several anti-war poets. Foote,
who has a humane and wide view, sprinkles quotations throughout his breezy
monograph. A large part of “Passing Bells” is a brief history of
war, from a
As with his previous books, Foote is
concerned primarily with making the case for pacifism. Wars don’t solve problems
because they never seem to end up how the warriors would have hoped. Their one
sure outcome is death and destruction. A wise
propagandist, Foote knows that the debate about the morality of violence is a
long one and he’s not going to change minds about fundamental principles. So he
contents himself with a few general observations and guides the reader to where
she might find more detailed expositions.
Foote thinks that popular
justifications for war which locate lofty motives and happy outcomes are
misguided. Two common examples: the American Civil War was not waged to end
slavery, and World War 2 was not about saving Jews from the Holocaust. The
broad sweep of events has a certain inevitability about it, which violence can
affect only in the short term.Foote has a great sense of history, and his
judgements are shrewd. Some examples of his take on pivotal decisions:
On World War 2, he quotes Noam
Chomsky, a favourite source: “If the
In Gulf War 1, Bush the First left
Saddam in power because “the Americans decided that ‘the devil they knew’ was
better than rule by the ‘mad Mullahs’ or Communists that might succeed him.
That led Saddam to vent his wrath on those, such as the Kurds, who had not
supported him and had been promised protection by the Americans”. The mess in
It’s The Warriors Who Are Out Of Sync
Defenders of global violence like to
decry pacifism as being based on a false notion of human nature. Foote thinks
that this naive view fails to recognise that, on the contrary, “there’s no
original sin, there’s original goodness”. Modern science endorses Foote’s
optimism, and it’s the warriors who are out of sync. Even when there are no
actual wars they compromise our humanity and waste our resources. Every year
the world spends $1 trillion on its military. Productive investment with the
potential to provide clean water and clean energy and eradicate acid rain and
illiteracy would cost a faction of that. It would also ease the causes of
violence.
Non-violent protests work, Foote
suggests, and he takes us through some examples. His important insight is that
officials in the belligerent governments and the international financiers whose
policies have been so destructive are not evil. They don’t intend to crush the
world’s poor, but they do because they’re caught in a system and a mindset. In
a more rational world, society could readily organise itself to apply “common
morality to the common good”. Pacifist thinking traditionally has a
strong religious component, but Foote seems inspired more by a sturdy
secularism. Active in the
Copies of “Passing Bells” cost $20 (or $15 each if buying two or more)
and can be ordered from The Glen
Will Foote is a
veteran and much valued member of the Anti-Bases Campaign, and until he was
well into his 80s, a regular at Waihopai spybase protests from the outset. He
is a prolific writer, and several of his books have been reviewed in PR, most recently “Saving Trees, Stopping Wars”, reviewed by
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