(Warning: Recurring theme…)
Today is the feast of St Crispin. Of course better known than the saint is that battle in Agincourt in 1415 where the English met and defeated a superior French force.
I find my mind going to that rousing speech put into Henry V’s mouth by William Shakespeare…
Great speech.
Does get the testosterone flowing…
Of course this war was simply about which king gets to oppress the French people. Unless you think God gave thrones to people, the justification for this battle and this war is hard to follow…
Now, I’m not a pacifist. Shove comes to push I believe in the right of self-defense.
However, under the best of circumstances the rejoinder to self-defense is unintended consequences.
And what about lipstick on pigs, exhorting the populace with fine words, but to ignoble ends.
(Think Agincourt. And more recently to what degree are we knee deep in Iraq because George Bush wanted to show his father he knew how to end a fight? Yes, I know we wanted to secure access to oil, as well. And, yes, there was that neocon fantasy of a Pax Americana. Lots of lipstick when one thinks one should be king…)
So, I struggle with the consequences of not embracing pacifism, knowing with a bitter taste how leaders can justify their ambitions with noble words, and the blood that flows can become rivers…
I am inclined to believe if we can evolve to a world community we can put wars behind us. Itself a dangerous proposition, of course. Who would be in charge of that one world? But, I also suspect it is our only chance for survival as a species.
Short of that world community (hopefully guided by care for people and a commitment to justice and equity), I think the species is doomed.
It’s been nearly six hundred years since Agincourt. And we still fall too easily for pretty speeches.
And today in the heat of battle upon battle we could destroy this beautiful planet in our headlong rush to suicide…
Would be too bad…
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