Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site nmtvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!drutx!ihnp4!qantel!lll-crg!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtvax!wildstar From: wildstar@nmtvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: Delhi Declaration - A Response to the Nuclear Dilemma Message-ID: <885@nmtvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 25-Nov-85 01:01:48 EST Article-I.D.: nmtvax.885 Posted: Mon Nov 25 01:01:48 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 28-Nov-85 07:59:33 EST References: <> Reply-To: wildstar@nmtvax.UUCP (Andrew Fine) Distribution: net Organization: New Mexico Tech, Socorro Lines: 135 To whom it may concern, The following is strictly tongue-in-cheek (ie. not serious, of humorous content), but also has more than a grain of salt in it: This advance disclaimer is needed lest various and many people, including the posters of the Delhi Declaration, take offense. To any and all law enforcement groups, take notice that I do not intend to sponsor or instigate an overthrow of the United States, nor do I support seriously what I am about to say, I am only voicing an extrapolation for the purpose of comedy and satire. To everyone else, you can think about this however you like, and apply it as you see fit. Those that wish to organize may do so, but I will not be responsible for it (unless, of course, it gets massive in scale, in which case I will decide if I am responsible or not). Here goes: How can anyone claim that any of us have a right to live? NOBODY has an inherent right to live! We are all slaves, servants, and serfs of our respective governments. By virtue of the fact that we are standing on some precious leader's holy soil, us men are that leader's expendable forces, and the women that we hold as equal to us are required to bear children for the glorious republic ( or fatherland, or motherland, or proletariat ), to serve as the cannon fodder of the next generation. We cannot go elsewhere to flee such impressment, since all the nations on the Earth require this as a condition of existing on thier territory! Enough can be said about authoritarian and totalitarian governments, but even us people of the West, such as the United States and Europe, are not capable of holding our governments accountable to our actions. Even if billions of people demanded disarmament, our respective leaders would say " Look at all those poor, soft people who do not understand the Communist ( or Capitalist ) menace! They could not know what was best for themselves, therefore we know best and we shall decide for them! Better that the entire world go up in flames, that every human, animal, and plant shall die, rather than see all life forever enslaved by our enemies. Let them complain, and let them protest, but we have the tanks, the planes, the guns, and the missles. They can only talk. We are the ones with the power of life and death over them." A fifth of our labor, and in some places even two thirds, go toward supporting war, and we cannot do a bloody thing about it, since this wealth is taken from us even before we can touch it as witheld taxes. Most of the industry, most of the advances in science and technology, go toward supporting war. Even medical advances were a byproduct of war, or undergo evolution such that our drafted soldiers can kill more of thier enemy before being killed themselves. Our present students, the graduating classes of the past decades in engineering and sciences, will only be able to challenge thier mentalities and grow in thier skills by making computers and writing programs that are made for tanks, missles, and "Star Wars" defenses. There are very few civilian or peaceful uses of technology, and most of those are items without a purpose, to sooth the consuming masses of civilians to take thier attentions away from the real issues. They will not find solace with social workings or the other, more human fields, since they are forever stamped on the hand and the brow with the mark of the technocrat, they are rejected utterly. There is no way whatsoever to avert the destruction of our world through a nuclear war. The arrogance and overweening dominance and lust for power that the cabals of leadership have taken unto themselves will assure that one day, rhetoric and psychopathy shall overcome reason, if it has not already, and then we will all be doomed. Nobody will yield the weapons that they worship and are fascinated by, and they will kill or imprison or tax to keep that "privelege". Therefore we are a world without hope. In the meantime, there are things that us civilians can do: 1) We can, now and forever, renounce violence as a means of settling disputes. 2) We can refuse to invest in any banks, corporations, or other concerns that deal with the military, not only those that produce weapons systems, but also those that supply food, shelter, clothing, or other facilities, and even those who have executives that are even in the least sympathetic to the military or to war or to atomic weapons. 3) We can refuse to work for such entities as outlined in point 2) 4) We can refuse, on a massive scale, to pay taxes or perform obligatory services that in any way supply, aid, or comfort the military. if we can overflow the entire penal systems of all the countries with our passively refusing bodies, then the tax collection agencies of the West could not intimidate us individually by fear as a minority while the majority passively obeys out of fear. 5) We can refuse to handle money, and keep as few possessions as possible. Instead of trading for our services and our daily needs, we can make them as gifts for each other. By keeping nothing but the clothes on our backs, the knowledge in our heads, and the compassion in our hearts, there is little that a governent can do to take away that which we do not have, short of enslavement. 6) We can passively resist when our nation goes to war. We can refuse to handle rifles, or guns. We can refuse to lay a hand against another, even to defend ourselves, or our loved ones. We can refuse to wear a uniform, and we can refuse to obey military orders. No matter how long they imprison us, or how long they torture us, no matter how many of us they kill, it would take them a tremendous amount of overhead to force thier will if enough of us are stubborn enough. 7) We can raise our children with the above principles. We can refuse to send them to public schools, where they are indoctrinated with the obedience and allegiance to the nation. Instead, we can make our own schools, simply by sitting out in the countryside and forming a circle to teach the topic of the day. If the government tries to take our children away from us to "teach them properly", we can either hide our children, or simply reduce our future generations, so that they cannot take away what we do not have. If it is a matter of degrees and expertise in subject matter that are insufficent, then by all means we can get the credentials and pass the tests needed to do this. 8) We can form mutual support groups the properly employ the souls and intellects that we presently share among us, such that no one will starve or want for a purpose. 9) We can abstain from voting, in order to reduce the legitimacy of the present power blocks, known as "political parties". We can either vote for new ones, or we can perfect our conciences and order our actions such that we are inherently peaceful and do not need governance by any power external to the individual. This is not anarchy since a non-violent, non-criminal person who is mature in thought and deed will always agree with those closest, with the ensuing ripple effect. Since there is no hope for us, even if we adopt the above measures, we will surely be exterminated by the other side. However, there is no assurance that we will even live the next day. There will always be circumstances beyond our control. Why not then make them more enjoyable, more peaceful, and live with a better concience so that it will not be our fault when the world ends? Our motto should be "c'est la vie". A white paper by Andrew Jonathan Fine to all of Net-Land (which also helped to take some pressure and despair from myself, hope it also lightens your day).