Dan Koenig wrote:

> Martin, your numerous contributions leave me the impression of a principled
> and well intentioned person who wants the right thing to happen.  However,
> I think that you give up too easily on pacifism.  Think of the progress
> that resulted from Ghandi, Mandela, and masses of people involved in
> anti-slavery movements, labour movements, women's movements, environmental
> movements, peace movements, and so many more.

Yes Dan....I agree! Things can change. I don't think we are all in the
same position to influence in the same degree the course of events but
each of us can do what we can do: teaching, writting, social work,
art, whatever.....

I once saw a study done, I think by the Univ. of Oxford, where they
discovered that it wasn't necessary to change the entire population
to produce significant changes in the community as a whole. It was
only necessary to produce changes in a "critical" number of individuals.
This critical number was not that large but once the changes had taken
place in those individuals the whole population took on an entirely
different course....so it's possible!...and the biggest contribution we can
make is by changing ourselves so that we become one of those few
who belong to the "critical mass".
Silvia