***** How the f*** is it that it takes a lifetime to become an effective surgeon, years to become an effective nurse, years or a lifetime to become an effective artist, years to become an effective Soldier or police person, years to become an effective gymnast or skier or a surfer... But two hours, or just a momentary self-declaration, to become an activist? 'Act' the change.......

***** How the f*** is it that it takes a lifetime to become an effective surgeon, years to become an effective nurse, years or a lifetime to become an effective artist, years to become an effective Soldier or police person, years to become an effective gymnast or skier or a surfer... But two hours, or just a momentary self-declaration, to become an activist?

'Act' the change you want to see?
'Pretend' the change you want to see?
'Occasionally use' the change you want to see?
'Mimic' the change you wish to see?
'Put on' the change you wish to see?...

(BECOME, and) BE the change you wish to see in the world... Truth-force... Soul Force... Anti-violence... Loving.

Gandhi devoted a lifetime to trying to be, trying to become, the change he wished to see in the world, the embodiment of Truth Force, the embodiment of (TOUGH) Loving, the embodiment of Soul Force. In the end he said he had just barely scratched the surface. Was he a fool? Did he have no idea of what was involved? Was he lying? One would think so if one looks at nearly all of the so-called activists since King's assassination who think it is something that they learn in two hour training, or a decision that they make, a self-declaration, or that it is as simple as not using physical violence, and then they're all set... they're activists, just like King, just like Gandhi, and the thousands alongside them that would pay any price even death rather than violate that spirit. Magic!!! So, it turns out there is a free lunch! Would it not be so nice if Muhammad Ali had not had to devote his life to becoming the greatest at both boxing and anti-violence? Would it not be nice if the Freedom Riders, if dr. King and those fighting alongside of him, had not had to go through rigorous rigorous rigorous, in King's case, lifelong training, to become that change, to become the embodiment of non-violence, to become the embodiment of loving, anti-violence?

How the f*** is it that it takes a lifetime to become an effective surgeon, years to become an effective nurse, years to become an effective gymnast or skier or a surfer... But two hours, or just a momentary self-declaration, to become an activist?

Ah, the magic of self-delusion. Sadly, Now such self-delusion is planetary suicide. Does anyone love the future enough to wake up in time? If not you, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?

The only Power, the only Power, the only Power... we have to make the world truly better is moral power, the power of our example, what Gandhi called Soul Force. Everything else is an illusion, and kills what little time we may have left. Hugs

The only Power, the only Power, the only Power... we have to make the world truly better is moral power, the power of our example, what Gandhi called Soul Force. Everything else is an illusion, and kills what little time we may have left. Hugs

***** I am alone, isolated, fighting alone, ( and every breath filled with joy and peace ) because 15 years ago I did what terrifies Americans, what terrifies westerners, what terrifies we over-privileged, what terrifies liberals, what terrifies activist-inos... more than anything else in the world. I gave up. I surrendered. I refused to......

***** I am alone, isolated, fighting alone, ( and every breath filled with joy and peace ) because 15 years ago I did what terrifies Americans, what terrifies westerners, what terrifies we over-privileged, what terrifies liberals, what terrifies activist-inos... more than anything else in the world. I gave up. I surrendered. I refused to fight anymore... I refused any longer to fight my heart. I refused any longer to fight my conscience. They had been nagging at me my entire disgustingly over privileged life. I at long last caved, I gave in. I found within me a vow that I have adhered to ever since. I didn't make a vow,  as I find doing such things terribly counterproductive. I found the vow in my heart and I surrender to it for the greedy Joy of it. That vow that I found there and surrender to was that I would give my life to my human and nonhuman family on Earth as best I could with every breath. That I would never again prostitute myself to the values, machines, organizations, systems of Our Sick culture for one second, not for 1 cent, regardless of the personal consequences, that I would give my life and not divert one second to earning a life for myself. If my sisters and brothers were happy to let me expire, that wasn't my business, that wasn't my concern, and I would not  divert a second to that. And with never a second thought because of the overwhelming peace and joy of that path, and because of the singular hope that that path gives, I have never looked back, only forward to the absolute joy and peace and hope of that decision, that direction, of that path. That is,  I finally said yes to what we westerners have been taught to avoid with our last breath, I said yes to heart in charge ( not to be confused with self-indulgent sentimentality ) and thereby I allowed the material world that I had been taught to Crave as a Westerner to totally disintegrate, to totally turn against me because of the path that I walk. Again, never for one breath have I looked back because of the overwhelming joy and peace, every breath, and extreme pain of the suffering world that is my fuel, of that path. I gave into truth Force. I gave in to soulforce. I surrendered to my heart. I have worked assiduously to keep my heart in charge ever since and with very very very few moments of error, I have succeeded. It is heaven, the heaven that has always been written of, and the heaven not one in a million find. But it is the heaven that every true activist lives in by whatever words, or no words at all. The one in a Million. Obviously I use every neuron in my head, infinitely more than most. Obviously I find physical strength despite my stage 4 cancer and age that many people can't imagine. That's what the heart in charge does. I use my head. I use my flesh. More particularly my heart, that I deliberately and scrupulously keep in charge, uses  both my head and my flesh to the fullest. But I never make the mistake of letting them,  my head or flesh, be in charge, only my heart, with no credit to me. Finally, after 45 years of having my head and flesh in charge, I surrendered, I gave up, to my heart, my soul, my conscience. My heart has been my loving, immensely harsh, unimaginably wise master ever since. And so I am physically alone, and certainly will remain physically alone, and relatively materially impoverished, as a consequence, a price that I pay every day without a shred of regret, for the greedy, infinite,  joy and peace of Heart of it.

***** It's a curious thing with activists in the last 40 years. Somehow they gleefully embrace the notion that, whatever I feel like doing is better than nothing. I like the idea so it will work. The opposite of SNCC. The opposite of Martin Lu.....

***** It's a curious thing with activists in the last 40 years. Somehow they gleefully embrace the notion that, whatever I feel like doing is better than nothing. I like the idea so it will work. The opposite of SNCC. The opposite of Martin Luther King jr. and those that worked with him. The opposite of Saul Alinsky. The opposite of Gandhi. Very much the stuff of the neocons. Very much the stuff of the conservatives. Very much the stuff of Wall Street, the hedge fund managers. Very much the stuff of the religious fundamentalists. Very much the stuff of Mission Control that sent up the space shuttle Challenger. Very much the stuff of the Pentagon. Hey, it seems right to us, let's do it, it's better than nothing. No discipline, no academic or theoretical rigor, no historical grounding, no humility, no self-restraint, no solemnity, no Soul, no dignity, no paying-the-price.... Hey, I'm an old guy. It really doesn't matter a lot to me personally. I just hate to see you younger ones pissing away what little chance you had.

On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list........

On being vegan vs. Consuming animal products, part of an ongoing dialogue with a friend: This article just came up on my listening list and I went through it pretty thoroughly. Seems like something that you would have, might have, recommended so I share with you my comments. They are not my comments to you. They are my thoughts about the article. I share those thoughts with you.. http://primaleye.uk/ethical-meat-eaters-response-to-cowspiracy/. I've always appreciated, but just in the last year deeply appreciated how absolutely correct I think that Albert Schweitzer was in his assertion that the ultimate human value is, reverence for life. Various people I see on Facebook occasionally refer to the soul of a creature. I don't remember who has made these references, and they have done it in passing it appears to me. But it was useful to me that they did because it captures much how I feel. I relate to what seems to me to be the soul in a dog, a horse, the bat, the dolphin, a jellyfish, worm, and Ant.... I really revere such Souls, Spirits, life... yes, Revere. Hence, I like to see those Souls persist as opposed to being extinguished. I like them to be joyful as opposed to suffering. As I've said, if a mosquito is biting me, if a bed bug is going to bite me I may well kill it. I'm comfortable with boundaries. Not that I should be, but I am. If it turns out that for me to be highly functional I need to eat some level of animal products causing the pain and or death of those animals, I will do it so that I can serve what I think is a larger good. I think that my attitude is similar not only to Scweitzer, but Einstein, Gandhi, and many, most, people that I Revere throughout history. People that I respect prefer that other Souls don't need to suffer. My point in all this is that in my attempt to make every second count I am very conscious of whether a potential Source or an actual source that I am considering has a bias or is simply trying to get at absolute truth. This is especially important in an area that is complex because I look for sources that effectively can save me a whole lot of homework but to do that they need to be very intentionally objective and unbiased. I suspect that there is much useful information in the article above. I also suspect that there is much bias, an author who prefers eating creatures, for the flavor I suspect, secondarily maybe for some health value, and is pretty interested in defending his position. That is his right but it makes him less helpful to me than otherwise. So basically I am unpersuaded by the article. It is my understanding that for an animal to create protein from plants requires a relatively huge amount of resource, land, water, intake of plant material, and that if a human being intelligently consumes plant material they can create their own protein at a relatively small fraction of those resources. On that basis I find the article overall extremely unconvincing. Yes, I absolutely have a biase. I have a bias against making other creatures suffer or die. Except to the degree necessary for basic survival. So I leave the article pretty much where I started, I sense that little or no animal protein is necessary to the healthy human functioning except in rare instances. I am not sure that that is correct. I remain interested to learn otherwise should I be wrong.

***** My fellow progressives, Sanders supporters, opponents of ecocide: regardless of what else they say or do, none of us that consumes more than our fair share of global resources is an opponent of ecocide, but rather a fierce agent thereof. No one; but rather the most disgusting and leathal of hypocrites. The law of morality and.......

***** My fellow progressives, Sanders supporters, opponents of ecocide: regardless of what else they say or do,  none of us that consumes more than our fair share of global resources is an opponent of  ecocide, but rather a fierce agent thereof. No one; but rather the most disgusting and leathal of hypocrites. The law of morality and the law of ecology finally now reject the delusion that they are two different things. Oh, we are able to continue in our delusion, our hypocrisy, but not without causing the final cataclysm to run its course. Gandhi understood the Golden Rule to be, '...to steadfastly refuse to have what billions cannot have.' True Revolution, now, is all that will save us. The revolution is not , more Justice for we, all of us, grotesquely overprivileged Americans, which by every global standard we are. The revolution is Justice for the least of these our Global sisters and brothers. You, I, have a simple test. Are we truly, actually, really, in truth, living at or near the Golden Rule as stated by Gandhi, which is the measure of our Brotherhood, our solidarity, or sanity, our decency, our worthiness, our loving, or not? Are we consuming more than our absolute need, as measured by our neediest sisters and brothers on Earth? Are we consuming more than our share, as measured by our neediest sisters and brothers on Earth? Those of us that continue to live our grotesque hypocrisy richly deserve the cataclysm that will befall our children. Our children, and our Global neediest sisters and brothers, however, do not. Only living full solidarity with the global media is the revolution. That is the only Revolution that has ever been possible, and the only one yet to be tried.

***** This is horrible. This is wrong. I'd likely do the same in year 68 of being terrorized, tortured, terminated, exterminated. And Israel, America, would have damn sure done infinitely worse infinitely sooner. 'Palestinian bus bombing targets civilians....' For Gandhi the unforgivable sin was to not protect one's loved ones by whatever means necessary.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/25/israel/palestine-hamas-bus-bombing-targets-civilians

***** The True human rights activist is the ultimate 'starving artist.' Creating Human Right is Life itself for them... the ultimate Art, Life, form. Jesus, Gandhi, MLK Jr, Alice Paul .......

***** The True human rights activist is the ultimate 'starving artist.'  Creating Human Right is Life itself for them... the ultimate Art, Life, form.  Jesus, Gandhi,  MLK Jr, Alice Paul .......

***** pic. Your help is welcome. Suggestions, recommendations? The final version of this will be my new every waking second uniform on shirt, jacket, etc. Please share with me any strong comments you have. Thank you. I am NOT meaning for this.......

**

**** Your help is welcome. Suggestions, recommendations? The final version of this will be my new every waking second uniform on shirt, jacket, etc. Please share with me any strong comments you have. Thank you. I am NOT meaning for this to be cute, pretty, catchy.... I am meaning for it to be the best expression of the essential truths of human sanity, humanity, Joy and Salvation from this deadly 2016 world as lived and taught by Jesus and the other great laborers of love throughout history, that I have yet learned to see and express, & I think it's getting pretty close. This has come to me in pieces, in the middle of the night, over the last few days. I am deeply moved and grateful.

To a law officer I have been blessed to know for years; concerning the possibility of police brutality and violence in America today: Our conversation......

To a law officer I have been blessed to know for years; concerning the possibility of police brutality and violence in America today:

Our conversation yesterday got me thinking. And it helped me understand something about myself, maybe for the first time.

I have known about myself that I am a fiercely loyal individual. I'll pay a personal price that most people can't imagine to fulfill my duties within a group with which I am affiliated, and/or responsible to.

But I have never been able to stop there. My ultimate loyalty is never to the group, or even individual, with which I am affiliated or to whom I am responsible. My ultimate loyalty has always been, will always be, to the whole, all of humanity, all of creation. This is not something I sought out. I think I got it from my father. Wherever I got it it has always been part of me.

It has always made me an outsider. And has always made me distrusted, and alien to others.

It is a quality about myself that I deeply value. I think it is what others might call ultimate loyalty to God.  I see it as a central quality in those throughout history I revere, Jesus, Martin Luther King jr., Gandhi....

I find this lacking in almost all of my sisters and brothers.

I refused to become a licensed psychologist because I came to see that psychologists are ultimately loyal to themselves, to the group, and not to their clients.

I think this is a central failing in what calls itself the church.

I don't see an institution today, maybe with the exception of Nursing, that isn't plagued by this.

But few places is it as dangerous as in and among men and women in uniform who carry weapons of death. And with few exceptions I see their ultimate loyalty to their group, not to those who they have a duty to serve.

***** It is the example of others lives that has moved my life back in the direction of.....

It is the example of others lives that has moved my life back in the direction of sanity, humanity, compassion, empathy, decency... the self into which we are all born. The lives of those like Eleanor Roosevelt, Malala, Teresa of Calcutta, Alice Paul, Dorothy Day, Gandhi, Martin Luther King jr.... It is only then that their words have helped me understand how to accomplish that move.  "Example is not the major thing in influencing people.  It is the only thing." Albert Schweitzer

The only real failure is to not try what needs to be tried, to fail to attempt what needs to be attempted.

The only real failure is to try what needs to be tried, to fail to attempt what needs to be attempted.

Pic. The golden rule is to live absolutely lightly with Creation, by every objective measure, and to live every breath for the neediest brothers and sisters on earth. Gandhi said it this way......

The golden rule is to live absolutely lightly with  Creation, by every objective measure, and to live every breath for the neediest brothers and sisters on earth. Gandhi said it this way, 'The golden rule is to steadfastly refuse to have what millions cannot;' and Jesus, 'Do unto others ALL that you would have them do unto you.'  (Lol. I'm at the eye doc.... Eyes dilated. )

Pic. Exactly like cancer, all future is being destroyed by all who consume resources for themselves, rather than in service of our neediest brothers and sisters on present and future earth.

Exactly like cancer, all future is being destroyed by all who consume resources for themselves, rather than in service of our neediest brothers and sisters on present and future earth.

***** SPDF: WOW WOW WOW. SO THAT'S IT ABOUT CREATURES LIKE ME! HUH.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2015/05/04/shades-of-sensitivity/

SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.As I have experienced and......

SPDF Day 52 minus 10: Hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake is attempted.

As I have experienced and said for almost a decade now, the long hunger strike is most dangerous once food intake begins. This is always the case, and in my personal experience, by far the most clear, in this 52 day fast.

Part of the reason that returning to the world of food is so particularly dangerous for me at this time is that it comes after 3 years of surgeries and chemo fighting cancer. But, never the less even on my hunger strikes before the cancer, that the time of reentry is the most dangerous time, was true.

Since the beginning of this Stop Palestines Death Fast I have gone from 175 pounds down to now 145 pounds. Four of those pounds lost since I began attempting to consume food 1 week ago Thursday afternoon, 10 days ago now. 

Remember this when you gain the courage and sanity, the humanity, to realize that you value the well being of others more than you value your own life... to be yearning to use this Death Fast weapon yourself, for the future of every one that you care about. The body, when switching from consuming itself for food to consuming external calories, is the most dangerous, the most tiring, and in some ways the most difficult part of the hunger strike.

This Sunday morning is my second day here at Georgetown University Hospital. They are keeping me here with this NG tube sucking what little body fluids enter my stomach for several reasons: 1, watching to see if emergency surgery is required, 2, hoping that by taking several days using this tube to fully decompress' my intestines that what was a full bowel obstruction may completely resolve without the need for surgery. 3, they prefer to not do surgery on weekends.

Friday evening is when they inserted the tube; within one hundred and twenty seconds almost 2 liters of fluid gushed out, and for the first time in, well, the first of now four obstruction episodes, that lasted for 2 hours beginning the prior Saturday morning, my stomach began to stop aching, and to be without the large distention, and to feel fairly normal.

My stomach continues to feel normal and to be without the distention. Unfortunately, now the pain is in my throat because of this NG tube. The pain meds that occasionally I accept from them barely touch the pain of swallowing which otherwise is an 8 or a 9.

Of the four extreme pain episodes that began last Saturday morning at 1:30 a.m., it is unclear to me and to the surgical team here whether they were four distinct obstruction episodes, or whether they were one episode of partial blockage that never fully resolved and finally became a 13 hour complete blockage. The reason that matters is because if we knew, it would inform whether surgery early next week is the best option. 

In my view, & I think that they concur, if it was four distinct episodes that each began within 18 hours of me attempting to take food, each time, then that would suggest that surgery now to remove the causal scar tissue is in order. If, however, it was one long episode that never fully resolved, then this 2 or 3 day reset, taking all pressure off of the intestines through the use of this NG tube, then that would suggest to forego surgery at this moment and see if I can return to a normal eating pattern without surgery. I suspect that that decision will be made by us today or tomorrow.

There may be hospitals in the country or the world that are as good as Georgetown (GUH), but I seriously question whether there are any that are superior. This Is an extremely competent kind, professional staff from the people in housekeeping, the technicians that continually take my vital signs and blood, the people that wheel me around the hospital for tests, of course the nurses, and the doctors, although at least one of the surgeons has the bedside manner of a stone. GUH is a testament to how entirely possible it is for a large group of people to live and maintain extreme humanity and caring. It is a miraculous blessing to my attempts to live the life we are all created to live, 1 completely committed to serving the neediest of humanity, as pitiful, and totally impotent, as my attempts obviously are. With whatever time I have left I expect to continue to miserably fail in my attempts, and to never ever fail to make the attempt. Full effort is full success, the only full success, there is none other, as Gandhi rightly said.

Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to grab my 7 inch tablet and a charger as I hobbled to the health care clinic after the first seven hours of this fourth episode on Friday, where they kindly called an ambulance for me and sent me off to the hospital. as a consequence, when I am NOT sleeping, or too distracted by pain, I can at least be fighting for my tormented, terrorized, tortured family in Palestine, online.

***** Finkelstein, Gandhi: Violence Against Disproportionate Aggression Is Not Violence

http://www.countercurrents.org/barsocchini300415B.htm

***** must read. Must read. Must read. In Baltimore violent protests are correct.

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/28/baltimores_violent_protesters_are_right_smashing_police_cars_is_a_legitimate_political_strategy/

***** SPDF Day 33 vlog: Why play chicken with death , or worse?

Gandhi was adamant and explicit that he was just scratching the surface of the practice, perfection, expression of nonviolent action.
So I'll not apologize for my own self recognized inadequacy in expressing, let alone fully grasping, my own attempts at radically powerful, utterly transformative, world direction changing....  If only in the attempt, efforts.

And let me be explicit on this last point.  No part of me is interested in being a band aid, a slight dragon on, the extermination of the Palestinians, the elimination of the final shreds of democracy in the United States, or the end of all livable life on earth.  I'm not interested in 'doing something about' these issues.  I'm interested in stopping these atrocities, or failing spectacularly in the attempt as is of course profoundly likely.

I have no respect for the efforts of me or anyone to confront these issues.  I disrespect that.  I profoundly disrespect that.  I see it as profound cowardice.  If your child is dying and only an impossible miracle can save your child, I have nothing but the profoundest disrespect for the efforts of the parent that 'tries to do something' rather than devotes their very being to trying to be the miracle.  And so I feel about my efforts, and those everyone else above the age of 12, in the face of these three unfolding Armageddon's that I frequently mention.

As I've spoken before, and as I will continue to speak, each time trying to better understand, and better articulate, what has me in its grasp...  Why this playing chicken with death that I am now in the midst of being past 30 days of no food, and thereby passing the time threshhold when physical death, permanent mental impairment, blindness and such things become a physical potentiality?

Why playing chicken with death as I am?  Well, I am not 'playing' anything.

I am waging every breath, every be of my heart, to beat all three of these impending Armageddon's. And that's impossible, and that has never been done, and no one has tried, and no one is trying, so I'm on my own to plan, strategize, analyze, attempt, invent, articulate....

Early in this death fast I wrote a centrally important post, must read, on the law of social change, which is the law of suffering, which is the law of paying a high enough price.  If I had $1,000,000,000,000 it would not be enough to stop all three, or even one, of these impending Armageddons.

I do not have $1,000,000,000,000.  I do not have $1000.  I have no care about either because they are irrelevant to what is needed.

What I do have is that which is of ultimate value among the few human beings that are alive, the ultimate value, a human life, my own human life.  This is what Gandhi recognized in himself and others as the ultimate value to be wielded for goal.  This is what Martin Luther King Jr. recognized as the ultimate value that if wielded intelligently, boldly, aggressively, with consummate generosity, with total courage... could buy a substantial if not huge change in world, or at least national, direction.

What I'm doing is nothing more or less than what these greatest among us have attempted before.  I have studied, and I study, with every fiber of my being, their examples, their lessons, their spirits, their essence, to attempt to incorporate in myself and in my efforts every drop of wisdom, of value, that is to be derived from their prior efforts, and dozens of those like them throughout history.

I am profoundly accountable for the constructive use of the life I have been given for the service of humanity.  It would be practically impossible for me to take that responsibility more seriously than I do.  I experience my life as a sacred trust I have been given to be used purely in the service of humanity.  And I feel the profoundest joy and realizing that's the only reason I have that life.

I could not take that responsibility more seriously.  I totally understand that that means that in the face of three of the greatest calamities ever faced by the human species, that means that if I am being conservative, if I'm being cautious, if I'm being careful, if I'm being timid, if I'm being self protective...  I have already desecrated that sacred life that I have been given, and all of humanity that I was placed here to serve, just as you were placed here to serve all of humanity.

If I were interested in cars as I was as a sick individual in this culture through my forties; if I saw an automobile that set me afire with lust; lusting to possess that car, and I had access to the tens and tens of thousands of dollars that it would require to purchase that car, and maybe it was the only car of its type that would be available for many many months, I might figuratively yearn with all of my being that  I could get immediate access those funds of mine, fast enough, and deliver them quickly enough, and favorably enough, then I could secure that car. On smaller or larger scales this would be deemed profoundly normal and appropriate and even admirable behavior in our sickest of all cultures.

Well, that is the desperation that I feel in my attempts to parlay my life, in whatever most intelligent form of delivery I can conceive from instant to instant, based on changing circumstances that I monitor instant by instant every waking breath.  That is the same desperation I feel in delivering my life in the way that will best confront and thwart the three looming Armageddon's.

What I am attempting to do should be so easy to understand.  It is so easy to understand for me that it is hard for me to imagine any other way.  But I wasn't always of this mind.  I was raised to survive and thrive in the Matrix, not outside of it, as I've been these last 10 years or so; well, really, for all of my life, but explicitly these last 10-15 years.

It is obvious based on my total isolation and solitude in my activist work, and never as much as in this final campaign, that no one understands what I'm doing.  Yes, no one understands what I'm doing, because were there wiser than I, who understood what I was doing, and perceived that it was a suboptimal way of pursuing the goals I am pursuing, they would have the kindness and compassion and humanity to speak to me from that obvious depth of understanding that they had and to attempt to show me the error of my ways.

 And it no time in the last 10 years of my devoted activism has anyone, ever, at anytime, even approached doing that.

SPDF vlog Day 31: Paragons of mental health, who are they? Martin Luther Kin Jr., Malala, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Malcom X, Oscar Romero.....

Paragons of mental health, who are they?  Martin Luther Kin Jr., Malala, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Malcom X, Oscar Romero, the young people in Tahrir Square several years ago, some of the soldiers who have stood against war such as the Vietnam War war or the war on Iraq and Afghanistan and surely the soldiers in Israel that are standing against israel's barbarity on the Palestinians. 

The greatest of all of the formal psychologists Alford Adler said that health, the healthy choice, tends to lie in the direction of courage.  For him the hallmark of health was a social interest.

The greatest psychologist of all in that the truth of his insights have had a greater impact on humanity than the insights of anyone else, I'm referring to Jesus, his core notion was universal family, one Father making us all brothers, and his life and words commanded us to go and live our lives accordingly.  Lay down your life for your brother.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the flock.  As you do unto the least of these you do unto me.  Whoever would hold onto his life shall lose it, whoever would lose his life shall gain it.  Love as I have loved, and of course he ran into the arms of death.  King ran into the arms of death, as did Malala as did Gandhi, as did Malcom X. 

Only the most twisted would perceive that they had a death wish, that they wanted to die, that they wanted to be Martyrs, whatever that means.  And today it means some sort of twisted slender.  They wanted to ransom and redeem their suffering brothers and sisters.

For all intents and purposes there is only one way for the human being to get what they want and that is to pay the price for it.  The ultimate price that anyone can pay, and therefore the ultimate power that any individual has to affect what they want to affect.  Is their life, paying their life is the ultimate price they can pay for the ultimate value that they want. 

As Dr. King said so often and so many different ways, the person who does not know what they would die for is not equipped to live.

Whoever thinks that their own life is their ultimate value is already dead.  All of the individuals I mentioned lived, live, accordingly by whatever belief they might have.  They live accordingly because this is the law of our DNA, it is what is written in our DNA because it was ultimately addaptive for having our species produce generation after generation of human beings. 

This healthy nature is rarely seen in our sick culture, our western culture which is more and more the world's culture which has embraced a lower side of human nature, the capacity for morbid and suicidal self centeredness.  But this is not what we see in aboriginal cultures, human beings in an environment like that which we were designed for. This is not seen in other species, this morbid and suicidal self-centeredness.  It is not seen in any species except for cells that become cancerous which no longer devote themselves to the well being of the group but only to their own selfish interests.