J. Krishnamurti wrote:When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why its violent ? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind.
Disagree. Personal identification with one's origins, one place of birth, ancestry, custom and tradition is vital. Only by preserving the identification with the past, with your family, with the land, does the connection to that land and place become a personal, local, interest. This is how one is integrated into the larger world - by integration within the community where you live.
It may not be how he meant it, but Krishnamurti's words reflect the philosophy of the corporation: we belong nowhere and everywhere. His words reflect the philosophy of the nihilist, and the iconoclast: discard your past, abandon your traditions.
Don't get me wrong - you should sell everything you have and give the money to the poor. You should. But if you confront the world without community or place, you will be wandering.
When you separate yourself by belief, nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system ; He is concerned with the total understanding of mankiind;
Tradition does not cause violence. Tradition places a person within the skein of life and gives him purpose and community. It makes that community a family. Those persons we view as most in touch with their place in the world are - not coincidentally - those whose traditions have been most dearly kept.
We must become indigenous people, all of us. Tie yourself to your community and your family and your place and then cultivate a happy wonderment that others do as well in an amazing miscellany of ways.
Don't be so eager to consign your identity to the scrapheap. This is exactly what the lizards want, what the Illuminati want, what the NWO promises, what the corporations are bringing you - a bland and gigantic mall of placeless logos instead of the rich traditions of individuality that spring from a love of the specificity of your neighborhood, your tribe. A world of products, not places.
I'd love to buy the world a Coke.
I'll tell you what causes violence: money. Greed. It's entirely possible to live in peace and appreciate the vast variety of differences in men and their ways. I'd say such appreciation might just be a mandatory requirement for doing so. But Krishnamurti's statement doesn't really reflect that, probably because of his background. It's easy to be a citizen of the world when those around you have told you since your youth that you are a god.
I believe that a single world government is probably a viable answer to many of the problems we face today. But should such an organization come to power without honor and gratitude and maybe even awe for the many differences that make up humankind, it will surely be a sterile thing. For better or worse, there will be no saving the world without tradition. One of the great traditions which has been abandoned was the sacredness of this place. Reverence for the world must become a tradition again. And that reverence begins at home. Locally.
