Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Quotable: Materialism and Satan

Thus Satan offers Christ, unfurled,
the wealth of the material world.
The Devil is, then, by and large,
materialism's fierce mirage.

So, in the light Renaissance brings,
the Age of Reason spreads its wings.
The rational now holds full sway
and science ascends as God gives way.

Materialism's steady creep
which William Blake called
"Newton's sleep,"
brings worldy blessings,
fair and fine.
Yet blinds mankind to the divine.

Such tempting gifts
this devil brings:
Steam engines, printing, splendid things
that in their wake, an age decree
of spiritual drudgery.

Source: Characters of Mike and Mack a.k.a. the Caduceus in Promethea (Collected Edition Book 2) by Alan Moore et al. (La Jolla, CA : America's Best Comics, 2001).

Labels: Alan Moore, art and literature, Materialism, Promethea, quotations, religion and science

# posted by VFPDissident @ 2/07/2007 06:02:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Quotable: Failure of Imagination

... war, all war and conflict, is naught but the failure of imagination. The four horsemen don't cause the Apocalypse. After all, they've been riding for centuries, hanging over our heads. They merely symbolize what life on Earth is already like. They show us why we need an Apocalypse. Mankind must imagine a way to rise above the perilous situation that it has created.

--Character of Promethea in Promethea (Collected Edition Book 1) by Alan Moore et al. (La Jolla, CA : America's Best Comics, 2001)

Labels: Alan Moore, Apocalypse, art and literature, Promethea, War

# posted by VFPDissident @ 1/24/2007 08:01:00 PM 0 comments