ENDORSEMENTS FOR “LIFE AT THE CROSSROADS” MANIFESTO

- Thank you for sending me the Dictator Watch Manifesto which I fully endorse, but I am not sure if I can commit myself to taking a full active part in it as I am now fully occupied with working for the cause of the Shans. This is difficult enough and I do not have any spare time.

Sao Noan Oo/Nel Adams (author, and activist for the Shan people)

DW Response: Of course I understand about the depth and demands of your involvement with the Shan. … Our situation is duplicated again and again with activists all around the world. We are so involved in local situations that we can never unify more broadly against the system from which all such problems ultimately derive. I believe that we have to work towards formulating a common agenda, which we can then devote some effort to, if only a little, and behind which we can all unite.


- I totally agree with your statement. I do not want to see a war without end coming from this illegal administration here in the US.

Mr. Richard Roth


- Hallo! I have just encountered your Manifesto, which I have read carefully, and find extremely instructive.

I have put a link to “Dictator Watch” in the “Over My Dead Body” website (www.overmydeadbody.org). The Over My Dead Body project is a world wide, online, virtual demonstration, politicising the major themes of globalisation and the economy, the environment, etc. The federating platform is the promotion of “the politics of generosity” to unblock the stranglehold of corporate and nationalist self-interest upon the world’s destiny.

People are invited to participate, and are represented symbolically in the demonstration by their name, place of residence, and if they so wish, photo, and virtual placard. Thus people from the four corners of the globe may fraternise and march together.

Joe Rabie.


- I found this letter very insightful, especially the paragraph about the clash between two “dictatorships” (Islamic theocracy and US economic, George Bush, etc); slightly different perspective than what I am used to hearing, even from alternative sources.

Anna Kivlan


- People of the world,
Stand up straight against injustice and corruption, or we will all be finished. We must stand up with both strength and compassion.

Takkaw


- I could not agree more. I am working on the Thai translation for you.

Sunthorn Skulpone


- I pretty much agree with everything in the Manifesto with the exception of the appeal to reason as the answer to selfishness. Not that I am opposed to reason and rationality, but I think that a lot of what has gotten us into this predicament has been based on “reasoned” approaches. The question arises, “Whose reason(s) should prevail?” I am sympathetic to the post-structuralist critique of Reason as well as the approach of the more interesting members of the Frankfurt School. Reason itself must be subject to criticism and questioning. That said, please list me as an endorser.

R. Miles Mendenhall
Political Activist, Writer, Teacher

DW Response: I agree that the results of any line of reasoning must be completely open to criticism and debate. Also, in my longer writings (my book) I discuss the risks of relying solely on reason as our guide. One example of my ideas in this area is given in the Ethics chapter from the book, which is on the DW site.


- This is an endorsement for GENERAL agreement. Logically speaking in daily life, due to unavoidable (NOT given as a reason) multifactor causations make human beings to be as a dictator. (I am NOT supporting to dictator as a system, but in reality at CELLULAR LEVEL/MICROSCOPIC LEVEL human beings are practicing at least although you do not want - you have to.

Think about within your family, within your close community.

Although human beings are trying to manipulate the nature, we cannot avoid with nature. At least we are thinking various things “Right or wrong” are generally speaking in majority it is “perception”. It is NOT the “truth”. Think about very basic phenomenon. If you are working, the next step is going to touch the floor. If you think very carefully, it is perception. That perception will “Right” 99.9999999……. But in terms of truth, it is NOT 100% (Of course, we have to act on this perception, we have no choice)

Even we are thinking with our brain (even it might be perception) this brain is NOT ours, NOT yours, NOT mine. It is directly based on nature. Next minute, we will think different ways. Then we accuse to this person “He is mad”. In fact, in very serious thinking, madness is very subjective.

Anyway, as a system, generally speaking, I agree with you.

Thein Win

DW Response: You raise an interesting point: can one avoid dictatorship completely, including within our bodies and minds (if only as a consequence of reflex)? I'm not sure. For a discussion of the mind, may I suggest that you read the Education chapter of my book, particularly the second half of the chapter, which presents an alternative theory of the brain and consciousness. It is on the DW site.

Thanks again.

For a Free Burma!!!


- Without researching the individual facts for myself, but only going on the overall premise of what you had to say, I have to endorse your letter as a thoughtful Homo-sapiens. Keep your fire strong, and keep me posted.

Joshua Reeves

Note: IF THIS IS A GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY TO MAKE US IDENTIFY OURSELVES, I HOPE YOU PUT MY NAME DOWN TWICE!!!


- I wanted to let you know that I endorse this open letter to the world. There isn't much time left. I'm with you.
Nancy Davis


- You have your basic Islam wrong. I think that the majority of Muslims disagree with the idea that jihad against infidels comes straight from God. I believe that that idea was simply a sign of the times. Like when Jesus said to “turn the other cheek.” Back when Jesus was alive, if someone were to slap you, they would have done it back-handed (that was the kind of slap they would have used on a slave or lower-class person) so he was telling you, after they had slapped you, to turn your other cheek to the person, so if they wanted to slap you again, it would have to be the opposite of the first time, they'd use the palm of their hand, and that would mean you'd be an equal to the slapper, not a lower-class person. That difference between slappings was a part of the culture, a sign of the times, similar, I think, to the jihad against the unbelievers.

Just thought I'd straighten that out.

Other than that, I loved reading that long whatchamacallit. Very good. I entirely agree.

Nate Beuttenmueller

DW Response: RE Islam, I am not a scholar although I have read the pertinent passages and Surahs from the Koran. I agree that they are open to interpretation, and also that there is much in the Koran that forbids violence against peaceful non-believers. Still, within scholarly circles there is substantial debate about how these passages should be interpreted, if the Koran does call for Jihad, particularly in light of Mohammed’s actions in the last few years before he died. In any case, the Koran contains the revelations from God to Mohammed, his Prophet, so the key question is not does it come from God, but what interpretation should be used.

In other writings I have said that it is up to the Muslims of the world to define their faith, to choose which interpretation to accept. Is Jihad simply “the struggle to be a better Muslim,” or is it a call for Holy War? This was actually the sentence in the manifesto that I considered most. I would have left it out, were it not for the fact that in many mosques and Islamic schools around the world, mullahs are preaching the Jihad of war. They are preaching it as if God, through Mohammed, called for it, and to me actions count for more than words.


- I read your manifesto and I liked it very much.

Andreas Toupadakis

(Dr. Andreas Toupadakis has spoken about peace and the urgent need for nuclear disarmament at the United Nations as well as numerous colleges, universities, and other venues in the US, Japan, and Greece. He was a featured speaker at the 2000 World Conference on Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The City of Berkeley adopted a resolution honoring him for the courage and personal sacrifice he displayed in leaving his job at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories.)


- Spotted your “Dictator Watch Manifesto” on the “Activist” email list.

I wholeheartedly endorse the Manifesto, and have great admiration for the way in which you've managed to express our situation so clearly. The views you express resonate so deeply with my own thoughts on this that its really quite uncanny. I have been casting around for some time now for a way in which such views could be expressed and presented, and indeed for a method whereby their implementation can be effectively achieved, and my immediate reaction is that you've sort of solved the problem for me.

Mike, Co-ordinator, Britons vs Bush, http://members.fortunecity.com/britonsvbush


- I agree with the letter you sent out, and offer endorsements from the following groups - based on the fact that these groups are already trying to live by the principles you list:

Mountain Forum for Peace
September 11 Community Forum

Arden Buck