Our ‘seasonal message’ has struck a chord with quite a few of you. A selection of the reactions follow…


Thank you for your hortative message regarding the manipulative bellicosity of the governments of the US and the UK. I want you to know that this American and many, many others do not support our current administration's premises or policies regarding not only war, but also our stewardship of the earth, and the civil rights of our fellow citizens both here and abroad.

JOHN DE FOREST

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THANK YOU to the person who celebrated the Season by writing the article against the powers that are planning the next war.

It is encouraging that you believed the subject of war is so important that you took the time to step outside the crop circle mystery and write in a positive way about what each of us can do to prevent the US and UK from killing more people so that they can gain more power.

I am sorry to sound negative, but I believe it is worth pointing out that in contrast to the horrid fascism than engulfed Europe during the first half of the last century, today there is no Guardian Angel in the form of British determination and American power to save the world. The Guardian Angel has become the Satan, and there is nowhere to turn.

DEAN DEHARPPORTE

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A wonderful message. Amen to all of it.

CAROLINE TAYLOR

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Well put, I really admire the way you give voice to a lot of people's thoughts. I think the world needs crusaders like you who get off their arse and actually do something. On the whole, the general public are much too passive and apathetic about such important issues (my tendency too, unfortunately). They just seem so content to give away their power, thinking they as individuals can't possibly make a difference. But, like you say, they can, and they just need to be reminded of that. Thanks for reminding me too.

HELEN SEWELL

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I just wanted to send a quick note to thank you for the anti-war editorial and to say that I, for one, agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment expressed in that article. Though recent events have shown that our near-crazed leaders on this side of the pond have been influenced in some ways by public demonstrations, the polls on support for them have been favourable enough that it seems doubtful they could be dissuaded from launching the attack now being planned. My own feeling is that these leaders are really only manifesting, acting upon and "whipping up" a sentiment that is and has been manifest in the hearts and minds of the public at large for a long time - a "good vs. evil" and "black and white" way of analysing the world and how it operates. This attitude, I submit, is our real enemy.

See:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec02/kohut_12-05.html

for what I feel is an interesting story about a recent poll that shows how America and Americans are being seen in other parts of the world, and what such things might indicate about the likely long-term outcome of an American/British venture into warfare in the Middle East region.)

Unfortunately, popular interpretations of the message of religious prophets, like that of Jesus, are particularly useful in supporting such dualistic views and in this regard seem to me especially pernicious. (A couple of your countrymen have written what for me is a very intriguing book which questions whether Jesus actually existed, or if he did, how much of what we think we know about his life is likely to be accurate.) More details can
be found at:

http://www.jesusmysteries.demon.co.uk/

It seems to me that many people, in an effort to confront their fears and insecurities, are wont to construct simplistic sorts of understandings of "good" and "evil" and how such things are made manifest in the world, and that they end up supporting activities that bring about so much needless suffering and destruction in their naive efforts to "do good." (In the current case, there is much evidence to support the contention that Saddam Hussein never would have gained the level of destructive power he has come to possess were it not for the support of the US during the period when he was visiting poison gas attacks on the Kurdish population of Iraq and engaging in senseless warfare with Iran. There was a good article published in ‘Newsweek’ magazine a couple of months back.)

In your well-written editorial, you mentioned that there is good reason to believe that mind can and does influence matter, and, more specifically, that the output random number generators can be affected by thought. A few days ago, while viewing some television programming distributed by FSTV out of New York ("Free Speech TV"), I heard someone making this contention, that random number generators were producing numbers that were statistically less random for about three days following 11 September 2001. I think it would be nice if you could provide some links to your readers to information you find particularly useful in learning more about this theory. I found one such source at:

http://psychicinvestigator.com/demo/ESP3.htm

GARY S TRUJILLO


SWIRLED NEWS REPLIES:
Fair point – so here are two more websites about important Random Number Generator experiments:

http://www.boundaryinstitute.org/randomness.htm

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/terror.html

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At the season of peace and goodwill, you can help prevent war as indicated in the following message. I realise - to my shame - that I just filed it and failed to act upon it when I received it some time ago. It is, however, not too late for the impact of many individual voices to have
a creative effect:

“I hope you'll join me in speaking out against President Bush's plan for another war on Iraq. A huge number of Americans are passionately opposed to war, but if Bush can secure other countries' support, he will attack anyway. It's time to make our voices heard.

"More than 200,000 Americans have already signed an online petition calling for no war. Now it's our turn. Please join us at:

http://www.moveon.org/nowarworld/

"Nelson Mandela has called President Bush's attitude 'a threat to world peace', and has warned Bush that America risks destroying the United Nations if it attacks Iraq without international support. In Mandela's words, the push for war 'is motivated by George W. Bush’s desire to please the arms and oil industries in the United States'.

“We can help prevent a war by joining hundreds of thousands of people speaking out through this online petition. The group sponsoring it, MoveOn.org, will take our messages to national and world leaders. "Speak up with me at:

http://www.moveon.org/nowarworld/

"Our voices will make a difference”

BARBARA WADDELL