Anti War

It seems like only yesterday that we fought world war one and two, and now it seems like we are at the brink of world war 3… But are we really?

We have to look at what fuels war. It’s money. Military spending from the USA has always been a huge incentive to have wars going on to fund a very consumer hungry society.

My name is Eddie Botha, and I am indeed an anti war activist, which also means an activist for peace and cultural and religious harmony. We do indeed have a huge degree of harmony on our planet, but we don’t always know what to compare it to, because let’s face it, we just live for a relatively short period. Things that happened 300 years ago does not exist in our frame of reference. There has been a lot of genocides that took place, and sadly there are still some ongoing like in West Papau natives by Indonesia  and South African whites killed by black people. These are however not as bad as it has been in the past. So why are we hearing so much bad news and believing that we are on the brink of a war? A few reasons; Negative news sells. Our brains are naturally geared to take note of the negative as it has a potential to harm us. Positivity and good news comes natural and we take it for granted. The Media knows this all too well  and therefore next time pay attention to how many articles in a news bulletin is negative and how many are positive. In reality, only the closing ‘feel good’ article is usually positive to trigger the brain to ensure a return to the next news bulletin. Again, 19 articles will be absolutely negative and one in the end positive. Politicians now knows this too, and they will focus on mostly negative aspects of what others have done, or the potential negative consequences if we do not follow their suggestions or laws.

As a former South African I saw what the media could do to a nation by making us believe that Apartheid was right, when it quite obviously wasn’t. If you tell someone something over and over, no matter how absurd it is, they will eventually believe you. The same goes with marketing of goods. We believe that we need things that we really don’t. Celebrities that are often not good people are looked up to, and admired because the media tells us to. It’s really not very smart and steering our whole world in a direction where all our problems originate from.

I since made it part of my goal in life to expose and counter the media and marketing companies’ fraudulent behaviour. Even stock markets are bogus. We all kind of know that but do we really take it seriously. We know the financial crisis of 2011 was orchestrated. Bankers walked away with Billions whilst people’s lives got destroyed. It is in our human nature to forget negativity as well, and move on as an emotional defence mechanism. We want to be positive and have to act positive in life otherwise we wont have any friends. So even though these things are occurring again today, they are not affecting us directly yet, or at least in a negligible way, so we will ignore them. This is all human phycology that is being used against the good hard working people of this world, including the most honourable of these, artists.

We have a responsibility to act against what is wrong and push back this negativity. We have to stand firm as we are in a position to influence many. I’m not saying necessarily protesting and getting ourselves locked up, but diligently incorporating elements into our work that will make the public think and talk about this. It needs to be addressed. I don’t think there are many professions who could oppose this and create a positive change as Artists, including Journalists, poets, musicians and all creative fields can do. We need to be aware of the fact that the media is playing with our minds and hearts, daily. I for one don’t watch TV anymore, I don’t read the newspapers and don’t listen to the news on radio. I want to keep my life free from what I believe is a poison that is crippling harmony and peace in society.

A few tips that I picked up along the way on how to speak up in my art;

Use humour. Humour breaks that ice and points at a serious issue in an absurd or over exaggerated way. By doing this you get to bring up the issue, make the viewer smile and get them to think about it without being turned off. Incorporate slogans of things that goes against the status quo of violence and fear. Embarrass behaviour that you oppose, be it sexist or racist stances. There are many ways to embarrass depending on who or what it is. For example let a strong muscular man pushing a woman away wear a pink panty and say something like, ‘I’m a coward’ or better even, draw him with the legs of a cow. You have to be creative to figure it out but once you get into a rhythm of it, then it becomes addictive and people like to quirkiness of it too.

To conclude; Our world is not at war, we are at peace. Yes there are some bad things and small groups of a few thousands that are doing bad things. The media is fueling this, and military spending is funding it. These are not rumours, but facts.  Be alert to what you have going into your brain and heart. Violence in movies and games should never become acceptable. Nobody should watch someone die and be ok with it, be it real or fake. Lets be honourable and be stewards of peace and cultural and religious harmony. Thanks a lot