Category Archives: Peace

New Things from Last Year

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Books, Change, Happiness, Peace, Personal, Publishing, Translation

Three “big” good things from my last year to be thankful for are:

Of course, my new house, of which I’ve posted more than enough pictures, but as rooms get remodeled, I will continue to post more. Here’s the guest bedroom’s new look.

picp1010019.jpg

And of course this little light of mine came out in 2007.

picp1010011.jpg

And also another book with my name attached to it came out in Japan this past November. “Kant: For Eternal Peace” is a bilingual book that presents the peace theories of philosopher Immanuel Kant to young adults. I did English translations of excerpts of Kant’s philosophy for the book. I’m particularly proud to have been part of making a book that promotes an understanding of the concept of peace in these war-storied recent years.

picp1010022.jpg

There were so many good things in the past year for me, but I won’t list them all. I hope 2008 is as good to me, and I hope it is to everyone else as well. Life doesn’t work that way, of course, but I hope for it even so.

Happy New Year.

Who’s a zombie? I am, I am

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Crazy People, Peace, Politics

I am sick with allergies that started a head cold that eventually turned into full-blown achy, moaning, zombiefied foot-dragging slouching through the apartment for the past two days. 

 This made me sicker:

“What’s most troubling about Senator Reid’s comments yesterday is his defeatism,” Mr. Cheney said. “It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage. Leaders should make decisions based on the security interests of our country, not on the interests of their political party.”

Cheney has always tried to make Democrats seem unpatriotic and “negative” about the war, mired in defeatism, from the beginning.  It’s an old tactic that some people let fool them for the first few years of the war, but not many do now, Dick.  Get a new line of argument, one that actually speaks to the issues, instead of trying once again to make your opponents seem un-American when in fact they’re only doing the job the people hired them for when they turned control of congress over to them again.  Cheney should remember he’s in the service of the people, too, and the majority of us want this finished.

Now, back to dragging my foot behind me and moaning.

Is this the singularity?

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Change, Economy, Education, Identity, Peace, Politics

I love interesting statistics like the one in this video from Youtube, which as been making the rounds among blogs and sites concerned with economic development lately.  I feel like I should be watching Braveheart or something when I watch it, but you’ll get the point.  We’re, uh…a little behind, I think.  The world’s moving faster than we are maybe.

Did you know?

Kant on peace

Posted by Christopher Barzak in Japan, Language, Peace, Politics, Translation

Lately I’ve doing some translation work for a Japanese publisher that is making a bilingual book on peace for teens, using Immanuel Kant’s philosophy and theory of how peace is established and maintained.  So I’ve been reading Kant in English and Japanese to do this. I’d read a little of Kant previously but not enough, so it’s been an enlightening experience for me, as it seems everything connected to Japan has been for me. 

I wish there were more recent books on peace published (if you know of any, please let me know what their titles are), especially ones that try to explain what it is and how it functions and what societies must do in order to maintain it, and why it’s important.  This all seems like common sense, but apparently these days it has left the realm of common sense and has been placed in the category of “merely speculative” by our current administration.  Reading through Kant, I see we’ve already failed at many of the tenets he observed are necessary in order to keep peace in the world.  Such as the need for no debt to be accrued in relation to a nation’s international or foreign disputes.  I think the U.S. must have passed by that stop sign a long time ago, according to what our congressmen and women have been saying for some time now.  I still can’t believe how out of control this administration is and how it simply gives everyone the finger when the majority of the citizens of the country, which *is* the nation, has told it to stop.  It’s no wonder why people feel so powerless and small these days.