Reflections
Day, Samuel H. Jr.
Peace, Politics, and Placebos The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Inc., has sent me a letter warning me about "the most urgent issue of our time. ..." From Ground Zero...
...Take, for example, the physicians who have done so much to alert the public to the medical consequences of nuclear war, thus piercing the public apathy that shields the nuclear arms race...
...It is headed by Roger Molander, who once helped plan nuclear war-fighting policies for the National Security Council...
...Milton Mapes's examples of what "conflict resolution" can accomplish point in a different direction: 11 "At Wounded Knee, expert intervention prevented the already violent FBI-Indian confrontation from escalating into another Indian war...
...Some of it is strong stuff...
...If the answers are no, you are being offered a placebo...
...is a contributing editor of The Progressive...
...Fanning out from their home base in Palo Alto, California, "Creative Initiative" organizers have been promoting a project called "Beyond War, A New Way of Thinking...
...Peaceful protest...
...No doubt your mailbox, too, is filled these days with such appeals...
...A new formula for dismantling the military-industrial complex...
...H "In 1965, the intervention of one mediator achieved a near-miracle of peacemaking in the Dominican Republic after President Johnson's action there...
...Not exactly...
...Does it call for far-reaching and perhaps painful structural change in those institutions...
...But what worries me is whether the stuff is strong enough...
...What Ground Zero does advocate is a vague, bland, painless "Second American Revolution" to bring "the energy, common sense, and 'can do' attitude of the American people to bear on the problem of nuclear war...
...This nation simply cannot afford to have any of its citizens dismiss the threat of nuclear war because they think the issue is being exploited by partisan or ideological interests...
...As the Oglala Sioux and the people of the Dominican Republic can attest, such "peace-making" efforts serve not to resolve conflict but to entrench the rule of the dominant power...
...A similar aversion to controversy is evident in the approach of Ground Zero, an organization which takes its name from the point of impact of a nuclear weapon...
...While International Physicians would invoke nonpolitical preventive medicine and Ground Zero would summon the magic of early American "can do," the Peace Academy's formula for preventing nuclear war is to apply the elixir of "conflict resolution," to be taught by the Peace Academy...
...Instead, the group asserts in its current fund-raising letter that "we are united in our determination to act as healers and not to endorse partisan political positions...
...Equally determined not to rock the boat is the National Peace Academy Campaign...
...Attention is directed, instead, to a much easier target: the malfeasance of those who operate the system...
...Executive Director Milton C. Mapes Jr...
...Before putting your money down on any program to save the world from nuclear extinction, ask yourself these questions: Does the program affix responsibility for the nuclear arms race and other forms of militarism to institutions here at home, some of them uncomfortably close to home...
...But it is at least as likely that they will serve as substitutes—as the thermonuclear equivalent of the mouthwashes, pills, and deodorants used to lull the innumerable lesser anxieties of everyday life...
...International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War says it is eager to avoid becoming "bogged down in debating political differences...
...And after the talking and meeting and voting are over, does it do anything...
...I ran into one, "Creative Initiative," on a recent trip to Iowa...
...In proposing solutions to the problem of nuclear Armageddon, some who have helped spread the alarm now seem reluctant to incur any opposition...
...Members are urged to avoid day-to-day politics and concentrate on "creative solutions that will benefit everyone...
...These, too, are proliferating with the rise in concern over nuclear war...
...As fear of the danger of nuclear war grows greater, so does the torrent of entreaties channeling our anxiety in one direction or another...
...assures us that establishment of such an institution "would commit the world's most powerful nation to a long-term search for the means and methods of peace, without in any degree weakening our military capabilities...
...And the National Peace Academy Campaign would like to know if I want my name on "the list of those that future generations thank for the gift of life...
...Group encounters culminate in the signing of "decision cards," the issuance of lapel pins, and the enlistment of additional "Creative Initiative" instructors...
...Its roots are deeply imbedded in American politics—in the myriad political institutions and practices that foster and, in turn, benefit from militarism...
...But the nuclear arms race is, above all, a political problem...
...For some individuals, such overtures— in a living room or though the mail—may be the threshold to action...
...Ground Zero's educational programs have been deliberately designed to be nonSamuel H. Day Jr...
...partisan and non-advocacy," Molander wrote in a recent appeal for funds...
...From Ground Zero in Washington, D.C., I have an invitation to "join the Second American Revolution...
...Civil disobedience...
...We are urged to save the world—but not at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, of being controversial, of offending the neighbors, of upsetting the status quo...
...In effect, Molander tries to make a virtue out of what Ground Zero perceives as necessity—avoiding tough stands that might alienate the nonpartisan and ideologically neutral, to say nothing of potential financial contributors...
...Does it deal with injustice in the same manner that it confronts the threat to peace...
...Peace nostrums that come through the mail with increasing frequency have their counterpart in various encounter schemes...
...In the literature of Ground Zero there is no hint of concern about the deep, systemic problems that need to be addressed before the "revolution" can be won...
...There's no way to cure such widespread dependence without getting "bogged down" in politics...
Vol. 48 • March 1984 • No. 3
