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3. LOVE
I wondered if the love Hedges suggests as an alternate path to life than war-making was a new idea for him or is part of his religious legacy flowering again? ... I do hope he will be able to share more of his thinking on what he sees as the path that turns away from war, why he called it love.
ayohn3 5/23/03 9:21am

Chris Hedges: Love is the only antidote to war, not love in the abstract but love in the particular. This does not mean that we can, through love, eradicate war. But love protects us from the contagion and euphoria of war, for in the love of the other we find a wholeness and a completeness that gives us meaning and more importantly happiness. We do not, if we have love, need to seek this outside of our relationships. Love protects us from the cruelty of war. It protects us from the racism and intolerance and drive to dehumanize the other that comes with blind patriotism. When we can see love in others, even our enemy, that is like our own, we can forgive. And in forgiveness we can create a new narrative, one that saves us from the cycle of violence. I do not see love, however, as an alternative to war. I am not a pacifist. I see it as a protection from the contagion of war and from hate and from the lust of war, all those forces that can stunt and destroy a civilized society in wartime.

What is your definition of love?
bdhpoet 5/20/03 7:49pm

Chris Hedges: God