Healing

We live in disturbing times. The USA is waging war on the world which kills thousands of civilians, it is openly debating an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, and it is preparing to resume nuclear testing and to militarize space. Under the guise of the "war on terrorism," much-needed social programs and the looming environmental catastrophe are neglected, and civil liberties are restricted.

I can observe these development only with horror, yet it is a fact that I am part of the machinery which does all this. Under these circumstances, it is impossible for me to carry on as usual. How can I change my behavior so that I personally do not feed into this madness? What can I do to have as much impact as possible to stop these crimes?

This web site collects materials and links that are relevant to this question. If you are asking yourself similar questions, please email me your thoughts. I will try to integrate them into this web site. Since this madness is fundamentally connected with the capitalist world system, an economics web site is the appropriate place to discuss these issues.

Hans G. Ehrbar.

Resources

This web site is not trying to tell you what to do, but it is trying to provide resources that help you to make your own rational decisions, and it is trying to warn you from certain pitfalls.

• One important prerequisite for rational action is access to the necessary information. It is impossible to make rational decisions without information. A lot of information is available in the USA, but one cannot rely on it that the relevant information will be delivered to one's home by TV or the newspapers. Instead it takes some effort to find it. The www is a good place to start your search for information, but it is huge and unorganized. I am working on two pages with hints and links how to find relevant news and analysis.
• One piece of information that is out there but which you will rarely find in your local newspaper is the following: the USA is consuming an inordinate amount of the world's resources in energy and raw materials. It uses much more than an equitable distribution of these resources among the world's population would allow. If the whole world were to use as much material resources per capital as the USA, then material consumption would increase fivefold. With a little more than 5 percent of the world's population it uses 30 percent of the world's resources. No wonder American troops are stationed in so many countries: we need their resources and therefore must control them. One minimal we as individuals can do about this is to seek ways to change our life styles in such a way that use fewer resources. One might argue this is a moral necessity, if we do not want to be complicit in the war machinery. It is also necessary for simple physical reasons in order to prevent environmental disaster. Here are the beginnings of an environmental link page.
• Reordering our priorities, changing yourself is one necessary step to initiate the changes which are needed. But this is not sufficient to change only ourselves. If we only turn inward we give those in power free rein. We must take action to resist those who want to maintain the present destructive course. In the present stage of the struggles, mass actions are on the agenda. They give the opportunity to forge more permanent organizational links. The next mass action necessitated by the developments in world politics is a mobilization to resist or protest the USA's war against Iraq. Here are some protest links.
• But atomistic action alone cannot change society. Only if we act in concert, if we organize, can we make a difference.
• Are there alternatives to capitalism?

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