<underfire> compassion and peace

[Allan Siegel]

Since its first appearance in this discussion, the conflating of  
peace and compassion has been problematic. I agree with Michael when  
he says that, “Peace and compassion are two entirely different  
things. They can come together, but often they don't.” Earlier Iain  
stated that, “in a world of savage injustice, peace is only  
armistice.” This seems to get closer to the crux of the issue. To  
talk of peace and compassion within the context of a nation, a state  
or even a community – an entity with an articulated and shared set of  
values – is one thing. But to raise this in the context of situations  
in which the power relations are unequal is quite something else.  
Neither peace nor compassion are neutral terms; both are inherently  
political and ideological. Does peace come about because the more  
powerful force has achieved its goals and then feels ‘compassionate’  
in ceasing the violence it has initiated against those less powerful?  
Does peace come about because NATO feels obliged to address an  
injustice? How different is the moralistic compassion of neo- 
colonialism from the paternalist compassion of colonialism?

It seems that invoking compassion for the other is very often a means  
of perpetuating an injustice. Its affect maintains an imbalance of  
power in favour of those who are able to exercise compassion and  
against those upon whom it is bestowed. In present situations – most  
notably in the Middle East – the entrance of the term compassion into  
the mainstream discourse is a neutralizing shibboleth that distracts  
us from the more comprehensible (and reprehensible) political  
objectives of the more powerful and screens us from the glaring  
injustices enacted upon lands and peoples that seem to be in a  
continuous state of pacification. Part of the project of conquest is  
the dehumanization and dehistoricizing of those to be contained. What  
role does compassion play in this project?

I concur with Alain (if I understood the nuances correctly) that  
reality is now akin to the paradigm wherein, “The concept of war on  
terror through "critical infrastructure  protection" mentioned by  
Julian Reid is precisely the type of system creating conformity  
between neoliberal economy, vanishing politics and half private  
repressive hierarchical new systems.” There are pockets of these  
types of systems everywhere throughout the Western world. Some are  
more refined than others. In this context, ‘compassion’ and slogans  
like the ‘peace process’ or ‘the road map for peace’ or ‘building  
democracy’ only provide ideological cover for the most blatant, crude  
and violent military incursions whose scenarios lie somewhere between  
The Godfather 2 and Dr. Strangelove.

A.S.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://underfire.eyebeam.org/pipermail/underfire/attachments/20061113/749f6737/attachment.html