The twelfth chapter of The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace  contains A.J. Muste‘s 1959 essay  Getting Rid of War.  The essay leads off the third section of the book:  The Cold War and Vietnam. Muste’s life was a journey toward pacifism and through politics and religion.  He was a labor organizer, anti-war leader and civil rights mentor.

Muste seeks a path to “abolish war and the benumbing threat of nuclear destruction.”  He defines the problem as having two “characteristics”: 1) the cancerous growth of weapons of mass destruction, and 2) the political intransigence between the Western and Eastern blocs.  The first problem has not been resolved.  The second has only changed players, but the fight over resources has not.  Continue reading Nonviolence: Muste’s Getting Rid of War →