A Strange Idea
Let me tell you a true story for my first Aradhana Airwaves post of 2025.
A long time ago and far far away….
When I was a student in Vienna (1968) several of us rented a van to check out what was happening in Prague just five weeks after the Soviets rolled tanks into the city because the Czechoslovakian people were trying to break free of the Soviet Union and acquire more autonomy. While there we met up with a Czech photo-journalist who showed us places of interest. I still have some burned paper and Christmas decorations that I picked up while walking through the rubble of some family’s apartment with him after the building was shelled. Nearby the people had placed flowers and candles at the feet of the statue of good King Wenceslas in quiet protest of Soviet domination.
We got the idea to go out to the barracks where the Russian soldiers were stationed. Within a few minutes about a dozen of them came outside for “first contact” with a dozen of us USA kids. We were soon trading items back and forth and taking photos of us standing together with arms behind each others backs. We found out through our translator that these kids were looking forward to going back home to Moscow or St. Petersburg (Leningrad) to see their girlfriends and family.
Guess what I discovered? These beings were PEOPLE just like us! At that moment, now frozen in time in my memory, the whole idea of “the enemy” dissolved and I began to search for the answer to the question “what creates enemies and wars?” It was a long search but I found clear answers. To be continued.
Thank you to the several new subscribers to Aradhana Airwaves.
The assumption that different countries do not have the same kinds of people as our own is so obviously wrong that it does not really need an old story to explain it. What is being shown here is that due to our youthful false assumptions, the doctrines of the leaders of these countries (including our own), can have a disastrous effect on what may be called world-opinion. So if hatred is to play a role here, it must be limited and directed to apply against those who are wrongly teaching and leading many of us to believe in something that is only true for a very small number of their false opinion-setters.
I believe that rather than hate them we should feel pity for them and better realise that they must have been brought up in so bad a manner, that this capacity to make war and kill many thousands or the opposing sides and hate others was caused by past suffering. It is not a true situation in the more human way of living and behavior. It implies that one side began this killing and hatred, but that in order to achieve safety the opposing sides are only able to manage their attitude of what to do, after it becomes very similar.
As the poet JOHN MILTON wrote in "Paradise Lost";
".......Oh shame to Man,
Devil with devil damned, Firm concord holds, men only disagree
On creatures rational, that live in hope, Of heavenly grace, and God proclaiming peace.
Yet live in hatred, enmity and strife Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy. As if, (which might induce us to accord),
Man hath not hellish foes enou' besides Who day and night for his destruction wait."
Alanna, In the SAME theme, here is the movie from my dear friend film maker Regis Tremblay, now in Crimea for 5 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owjNUdc7vZc "Who are these Russians and why do we hate them?" Jon
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Preview YouTube video Who are These Russians and Why Do We Hate Them? with Regis Tremblay