All posts by Peace Couple

TWL: Things We Love

I know it's not Valentine yet but I'm full of ... Happy Valentine’s Day!

The idea of this site is to help bring a little more love into the world. We have been working to create a community space to share the way to a more peaceful life. Our definition of a peaceful life encompasses all areas of our lives.

Since the early days of this site we have been focusing on what it means to be a pacifist, and we will continue to do so.  We have also touched on what a shareable economy means; peaceful music and books; how a CSA works; and why vintage jewelry is better than new.

TWL will focus us on exploring what more of what peace means in the  rest of our lives, such as what it means to freecycle; to be a vegetarian; a locavore; a community member; to use nonviolent communication; and to clean with vinegar.  And more.   But first,

We want to hear from you!

What brings peace into your life?

What can you share from your journey?

Please use the comments section to share.

Continue reading TWL: Things We Love

Wise: War is Naive

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe Tim Wise 2001 essay Who’s Being Naive? War-Time Realism Through the Looking Glass is the penultimate chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This essay continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975- ) section of the book.  Wise is an anti-racism educator and author.

His essay complements the previous Arundhati Roy essay War is Peace.  While Roy upholds the polite –but firm– criticism of a foreigner, Wise bluntly takes his fellow Americans to task for the Afghan War.  As someone who forces Whites to face up to their own privilege in US society,  Wise is at ease in ripping apart pro-war arguments in kitchen table language.

The criticism put forth by Roy and Wise reinforce each other by coming to the same conclusions from both external and internal vantage points.  Both 2001 essays were written when the Afghan invasion was fresh, and they have proved to be prescient as the Afghan War has dragged on for a dozen years.  Reminds me of the just departed Pete Seeger masterpiece,  Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Continue reading Wise: War is Naive

Roy: Afghan War based on DoubleSpeak

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe Arundhati Roy excerpt War is Peace is from her .from ‘s 2002 book Power Politics.  It form the twenty-second chapter in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This essay continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975-  ) section of the book.  Roy is an activist and Man Booker Prize winning author. Though, the preceding essays in this book all deal with timeless themes in supporting pacifism, this essay, which centers on the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, is the first essay in the book to feel that it is based on contemporary world politics.

Roy starts the essay with the gamification {the process of turning war into a video game] of the October 7, 2001 US-led attack on Afghanistan. The attack was done without seeking UN approval or even under color of international law.  Inverting the expected criticism against her comments, Roy makes clear that she does not take the side of any entity that chooses violence:  Continue reading Roy: Afghan War based on DoubleSpeak

Vintage Jewelry = Eco-Friendly + Fashion-Forward

Please visit our Etsy shop at:

Wilderside Vintage and Antique Jewelry

Vintage Silver available at Wilderside's Etsy shop.
Vintage Silver available at Wilderside’s Etsy shop.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, or for sparkling up your own winter wardrobe, PeaceCouple announces our new vintage jewelry shop. Continue reading Vintage Jewelry = Eco-Friendly + Fashion-Forward

Pauling & Ikeda’s False Dilemma of Absolute Pacifism

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe second excerpt in The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace.from Linus Pauling & Daisaku Ikeda‘s 1992 book A Lifelong Quest for Peace forms the books twenty-first chapter. This dialogue continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975-  ) section of the book.  In previous essay titled Immorality of War: Pauling & Ikeda, I discuss their credentials including Pauling’s Nobel Prizes both in Chemistry and Peace, along with Ikeda’s 1983  United Nations Peace Award.

This 3 1/2 page conversation does not make a cogent argument against absolute pacifism.  Both speakers make the obligatory reference to Hitler; discuss the difficulties of being a pacifist in a non-pacifist world; and determine that unsurprisingly that Einstein was not an absolute pacifist.  Paradoxically in an essay that argues against pacifism, they conclude with a discussion of how Japan has advanced quicker in economic and individual health due its not diverting national resources into a military economy.

The Hitler argument is that pacifism would be useless against the Nazis.  It is usually raised by those who are fearful of the concept of pacifism. I would not expect this argument from these authors or to be promoted by the editors of this collection.  Continue reading Pauling & Ikeda’s False Dilemma of Absolute Pacifism

Immorality of War: Pauling & Ikeda

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe excerpt from Linus Pauling & Daisaku Ikeda‘s 1992 book A Lifelong Quest for Peace is the twentieth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace. This dialogue continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975-  ) section of the book.  Linus Pauling — who died 2 years after co-authoring his book — was a  chemist, biochemist, pacifist, author, and teacher. Ikeda is the founder and current president of Sōka Gakkai International (SGI), an international lay Buddhist association which focuses on peace, cultural and educational activities.  He is the recipient of  the 1983  United Nations Peace Award and has written over 80 books.

In his amazing career, Pauling won the  1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize. When he was awarded the Peace Prize the Nobel peace Prize committee issued the following statement:  Continue reading Immorality of War: Pauling & Ikeda

Schell: Complete Disarmament is the Only Sane Path

The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of PeaceThe excerpt from Jonathan Schell‘s  1982 book The Fate of the Earth is the nineteenth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace .  This dialogue continues the Post-Vietnam to the Present (1975-  ) section of the book.  The essay centers on Schell’s lifelong quest to abolish nuclear weapons.  The Fate of the Earth is based on a series of essays that Schell wrote for The New Yorker in the early 1980s.  It won the Los Angeles Times Book prize.

Sadly, despite the fall of the Soviet Union, Schell’s arguments for the only path to a safe world still hold.  He sees nuclear weapons as the greatest “predicament” that mankind has faced. With the benefit of current knowledge, I would argue that global climate change has overtaken nuclear weapons as humankind’s worst self-imposed threat.  Yet even at number two, the abolition of nuclear weapons must be accomplished for our survival.  I would also argue that the two are intertwined under former US President Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex.”  Continue reading Schell: Complete Disarmament is the Only Sane Path