WAR AND PEACE

El Cabrero is musing this week about strategy and what people who want to make the world less violent and more just can learn from the history of strife and conflict. For an introduction, see yesterday's post.

Two of the more interesting books on this subject I ran across last year are Scott Ritter's Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement and Robert Helvey's On Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: Thinking about the Fundamentals.

Both books are written by genuinely progressive people concerned about making the world more just and less violent. Both were written by people with extensive military experience. And both discuss military theory and history at some length in the context of the nonviolent effort to end war, promote democracy, and struggle against injustice.

I imagine that some people find this to be rank heresy, but, as I argued yesterday, refusing to learn about things one labels as "bad" is probably not the most practical approach to dealing with the world's problems.

Helvey's book on nonviolent action features a discussion of the importance of developing a "strategic estimate" of a situation, which he borrowed from his military experience. There are also chapters on operational planning and psychological operations. There's a chapter on strategic thinking that discusses Gandhi--but also Machiavelli, and military theorists Clausewitz, and Liddell Hart

Ritter argues that

The antiwar movement needs to study the philosophies of those who have mastered the art of conflict, form Caesar to Napoleon, from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz. It needs to study the "enemy," learning to understand the pro-war movement as well as it understands itself. It needs to comprehend the art of campaigning, of waging battles only when necessary, and having the ability to wage a struggle on several fronts simultaneously, synchronizing each struggle so that a synergy is created that maximizes whatever energy is being expended.

Ritter notes that the British military theorists Basil Liddell Hart was said to have disapproved of the old saying "If you wish for peace, prepare for war." Rather, he suggested "If you want peace, understand war."

I think this isn't bad advice whether war is understood literally or metaphorically.

Next time: fun with Sun Tzu.

THE ECONOMIC FEAR FACTOR is the subject of this op-ed by Paul Krugman.

SNAKE OIL. Along the same lines, this post from the AFLCIO blog makes the point that more tax cuts for the rich aren't the best medicine for dealing with the recession.

ANYONE FOR JUNG? Robert Rupp, WV Wesleyan political science professor and frequent op-ed writer, offers a Jungian approach to analysing presidential candidates. Now that's something you don't see every day.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

THE POWER OF PIRATICAL THINKING

Photo credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

This is the final day of Pirate Week at Goat Rope. If this is your first visit, please click on earlier entries.

As you have probably noticed, there is always a party pooper or two around to spoil the fun in life. The Golden Age of Piracy (1715-1725) as described by Colin Woodard in The Republic of Pirates, was brought to an end largely through the actions of one man, Woodes Rogers.

Rogers was a slave trader, sometime privateer, and eventual agent of the British crown who applied a combination of carrots and sticks in and around the Bahamas and made the world save for slave traders, plantation owners, oppressive merchants, despotic monarchs and other respectable people.

However, El Cabrero is convinced we can learn a thing or two from the pirates that can help us out today as we battle the powers that be. I call it "the power of piratical thinking" or Vitamin P for short.

Here's an example. I have a friend who has been fighting the good fight for decades. Lately he seems grim, discouraged, and worn down about the state of the world and the state of the war.

He needs a little Vitamin P...

A good pirate does not become overly distraught at the state of the world. He or she knows the world is pretty much totally jacked anyway. That's why we became pirates to start with, right?

Rather, a good pirate, when not engaged in the honorable pursuits of debauchery and Dionysian revelry, continually scans the horizon for suitable prey...I mean opportunities for positive action.

And when you see a ship you can take, take it!

Don't waste time worrying about the ones you can't. We'll get em later. In other words, focus on the things you can actually affect. The key to mental health is to think less like a purist and more like a pirate.

Aaarrrggghh!

SCOTT RITTER, former UN arms inspector, spoke about war and peace at WV State last night.

HISSY FITS have become a conservative art form. Read more here.

ARE YOU A TERRORIST? If you have concerns about unrestricted mountaintop removal mining, you just might be according to the WV Coal Association.

THE LATEST on the Megan Williams case is here.

EUROPE'S economic system was once the target of scorn in the US. This column from The Cincinnati Post suggests we take a second look.

HEALTH CARE. One hard-headed reason to push for universal health care is the high cost of providing emergency room service to the uninsured.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WHO'S CALLING WHO A PIRATE, ANYWAY?

Photo credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Welcome to Pirate Week at Goat Rope. If this is your first visit, please click on yesterday's post.

Many people have been entertained in recent years by the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, although for El Cabrero's money Errol Flynn's Captain Blood is still the pick of the litter.

For a good look at what real pirates were like in "the Golden Age of piracy," check out Colin Woodard's book, The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man who Brought Them Down.

The Golden Age lasted for around 10 years between 1715 and 1725 and was based in the Bahamas. Many pirates got their start in "legitimate" ways, as sailors or privateers in the European dynastic wars in the early 1700s.

Although the ruling classes did their best to stoke up anti-pirate hysteria in those years, they were actually folk heroes to many ordinary sailors and subjects. And for at least some good reason--compared with the rapacity of the ruling classes of the period, the pirates were pretty mild and pretty appealing. Here's Woodward:

They ran their ships democratically, electing and deposing their captains by popular vote, sharing plunder equally, and making important decisions in open council--all in sharp contrast to the dictatorial regimes in place aboard other ships. At a time when ordinary sailors received no social protections of any kind, the Bahamian pirates provided disability benefits for their crews.

Back in the day, they were a multinational and multiracial band and there were even some prominent women pirates.

Aaarrgghh indeed!

SPEAKING OF PIRATES... this op-ed by Holly Sklar is worth a look. Here's the lead:

When it comes to producing billionaires, America is doing great.

And here's the punchline:

Inequality has roared back to 1920s levels. It was bad for our nation then. It's bad for our nation now.

The middle is worth checking out too.

BAD MOON RISING. Former Marine and UN arms inspector Scott Ritter will be visiting El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia this week. Here's his latest piece preventing war with Iran.

YOUNGER EVANGELICALS have some different priorities, according to this item from the Dallas Morning News:

For many conservative evangelical Christians younger than 30, family values mean more than the issues of gay marriage, abortion and prayer in school. Poverty, health care and the environment are also matters of faith.

CENSORING CONROY. It's deja vu all over again in the case of the efforts to ban the use of Pat Conroy's novels in AP English classes.

FIREFIGHTERS are cool. Alas, El Cabrero never got to revive a cat during his short and inglorious career as a volunteer firefighter.

SLEEP ON IT. As this science item from the NY Times suggests, it'll probably help.

PERCHANCE TO DREAM. This accompanying piece suggests that a possible function for bad dreams is to help the brain process fear.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED