[ba-unrev-talk] Fwd: [issues] [Fwd: GANDHI'S LAW (Loka Alert 9:5)]
>From: Steve Kurtz <kurtzs@freenet.carleton.ca>
>
>I think the below message is in accord with Tom Mandel's statements of the
>past few years. I question whether the mostly closed system (earth) and
>the more than doubling of our numbers since Ghandi's death (more than
>quadrupling since his birth) permit sufficient potential for such a 'law'.
>The ought and the is may conflict too greatly with each other. As Isaac
>Asimov said (paraphrase): democracy, decency, etc cannot survive
>overpopulation.
>
>Death becomes more and more commonplace, and humans are devalued like a
>currency in hyperinflation.
>
>I agree that those of us with some aesthetic distance, economic means, and
>full bellies must try to make an impact somehow. But I disagree that
>spreading love is the key. Self restraint in consumption and reproduction
>are high on my list.Overshoot is a very nasty phenomenon. Powerful
>aggression may be part of our inevitable self-cull.
>
>Steve Kurtz
>
> ISSS: <http://www.isss.org/>http://www.isss.org/
>
> Loka Institute <http://www.loka.org/>http://www.loka.org/
>
>-------- Original Message --------
>From: The Loka Institute <mailto:Loka@loka.org><Loka@loka.org>
>Subject: GANDHI'S LAW (Loka Alert 9:5)
>To: <mailto:loka-alert@yahoogroups.com>loka-alert@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Loka Alert 9:5 (September 10, 2002)
>
>GANDHI'S LAW
>
>PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY WHERE APPROPRIATE
>
>Dear Friends and Colleagues,
>
>At this time of national reflection, we share these words from
>Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi (1869-1948) has been an inspiration to the
>Loka Institute, as to so many others. He developed the basic
>techniques of non-violent social action and led some of its most
>effective applications ever, first in South Africa and then in India.
>He also was one of the first to promote critical thinking about
>Western technologies, and the concept of appropriate technology.
>
>Gandhi's commitment to non-violent social transformation –
>his "experiments with truth" as he called it –
>demonstrated new ways to resolve conflict creatively,
>while honoring the humanity of all:
>
>****************************************************************
>
>We must either let the Law of Love rule us through and through or not
>at all. Love among ourselves based on hatred of others b
>reaks down
>under the slightest pressure. The fact is such love is never real
>love. It is an armed peace. And so it will be in this great movement
>in the West against war. War will only be stopped when the conscience
>of mankind has become sufficiently elevated to recognize the
>undisputed supremacy of the Law of Love in all the walks of life.
>Some say this will never come to pass. I shall retain the faith till
>the end of my earthly existence that this shall come to pass . . .
>
>. . . Non-violence is a weapon of the strong. With the weak, it might
>easily be hypocrisy. Fear and love are contradictory terms. Love is
>reckless in giving away, oblivious as to what it gets in return. Love
>wrestles with the world as with itself and ultimately gains a mastery
>over all other feelings. My daily experience, as of those who are
>working with me, is that every problem would lend itself to solution
>if we are determined to make the law of truth and non-violence the
>law of life. Fo
>r truth and non-violence are, to me, faces of the same
>coin.
>
>Whether mankind will consciously follow the law of love I do not
>know. But that need not perturb us. The law will work, just as the
>law of gravitation will work whether we accept it or no. And just as
>a scientist will work wonders out of various applications of the laws
>of nature, even so a man who applies the law of love with scientific
>precision can work greater wonders. For the force of non-violence is
>infinitely more wonderful and subtle than the force of nature, like
>for instance electricity.
>
>The person who discovered for us the law of love was a far greater
>scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations
>have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to
>see all its workings. Such, at any rate, is the hallucination, if it
>is one, under which I am laboring. The more I work at this law, the
>more I feel the delight in life, the delight in the scheme of this
>unive
>rse. It gives me a peace and a meaning of the mysteries of
>nature that I have no power to describe.
> --Mahatma Gandhi--
>
>*******************************************************************
>
>(Reference: From _ The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi _ edited
>by Raghavan Iyer, 1996, published by Manzar Khan, Oxford University
>Press, New Delhi, pp. 242-243.)
>
>With warm regards to all, from the Board of Trustees of the Loka
>Institute. We welcome your comments and reflections -- you may reach
>us at <mailto:Loka@Loka.org>Loka@Loka.org.
>
>--
>http://magma.ca/~gpco/
><http://www.scientists4pr.org/>http://www.scientists4pr.org/
>Anyone who believes exponential g
>rowth can go on forever in a
>finite world is either a madman or an economist. Kenneth Boulding (01)
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