All the religion-based paintings in churches, or not?

Dear Irina,

A Farewell to Arms (1929), a novel by American novelist and author, Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I, being an account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant ("Tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army, and it is described by literary critics as the premier American anti-war novel!

And, as another example, Ibn Khaldūn’s masterpiece/book, The Muqaddimah (i.e. Introduction), (known as Prolegomena in Greek) is essentially a sociological work, sketching over its six books a general sociology; a sociology of politics; a sociology of urban life; a sociology of economics; and a sociology of knowledge and human civilization and societal peace. 

I'm going to organize this multicultural action on the basis of universal classics. My senior students are of all religions, that's why it will be more relevant to use integration of arts, based on eternal moral values. At first they are going to interpret some outstanding masterpieces,make reports with presentations on the scientific conference, then to write a scenario on some creative works and act it out before the public.We organized such sort of decade in my University and used Brecht's drama many years ago.My present students are very talented and multi-sided- they are good at Maths and Physics, love English and other languages and can play some instruments.It was their initiative. My aim is to help them in choosing materials on anti-war thematics.     

Prominent Iranian cartoonists Masoud Shojaei’s works have been showcased at the exhibition of the Salon of Antiwar Cartoons festival in Serbia. The exhibition annually displays the selected works of the top winner of previous edition of the festival.

While Shojaei had scooped the top award of last year’s festival, the year’s show exhibited his 40 selected works. Shojaei-Tabatabai’s cartoon depicts that war is really devastating and leads everything towards darkness, the director of the exhibition, Miodrag Stojilovic, had said during the award ceremony of the 2013 festival.

For more details on the subject, ypu may look at the following link:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/29/380406/serbia-exhibits-irans-antiwar-arts/

Dear All,

The most important oevre of Belles Lettres not only against war but against all kinds of aggression is The New Testament.

Dear All,

I suggest you to read these famous novels written against the war:

Leonhard FranK: The disciples of Jesus (German: Die Jünger Jesu).

Erich Maria Remarque : All quiet on the Western front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues).

Picasso´s "Massacre in Korea" picks up the biblical theme of the massacre of the innocents and makes an antiwar statement directed against the U.S. war machine, here presented as metal robots.

Picasso´s "Guernica" (1937), directed against fascist violence and mass war, is so well-known that it hardly merits commentary.

"The Damages of War" by Francisco Goya y Lucientes is one of a series of 80 etchings forming the series "Los desastres de la Guerra" [The Disasters of War]. This famous series satirizes the cruelty of the French in the Napoleonic War in early 19th. c, Spain. The etching here reproduced, with its contorted figures, is said to be a precedent for the better-known "Guernica" by Picasso, pictured above.

Here is "Mars Resting" by Diego Velázquez, a satirical commentary on war. Note that the fearful wargod is here pictured as a tired-looking Don Quixote figure.

As Nelson said Picasso's Guernica is the most famous. "Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War."

http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp

Dear Irina, I like these anti war art pics.  The meaning is entirely explicit; because ours is a very busy generation :)  On making peace, it's not easy; because we need to persuade two parties to forget their differences, and bury their pride.  It's not 'money or life'; it's 'pride or life'.

see this link:

http://ww1.canada.com/home-front/first-world-war-inspired-innovative-art

Art, Nationalism and War: Political Futurism in Italy (1909-1944)

http://www.academia.edu/3062991/Art_Nationalism_and_War_Political_Futurism_in_Italy_1909-1944_

Samrat Ashoka:   Victor of the Great War turned into Bouddha

see the link

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=samrat+ashok+turned+bouddha&client=firefox-a&hs=9wX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=nts&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pw06VOWEKMG3uQT_hoDAAg&ved=0CCAQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=647

Mahabharat:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hza0CrM9rno/US9gF_FDMPI/AAAAAAAADzI/fVANM7d4tzA/s1600/Krishna_Arjun.png

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Goya

Dear Irina, 

Thank you for interesting thread, which is as endless as the river.

Let me think first of current times and everyday socio-cultural events which are associated with peace. These are no artistic expressions but could be perceived as broadly meant performance. Here below is visual reportage from Moscow, St. Petersbourgh, Yekaterinbourg, Krasnojarsk and Kamchatka about protests made by By Russian citizens against W. Putin aggressive poltics in Ukraine and agaist war in Ukraine. I think this is signum of tempori of our times and extraordinary bravery, manifested by Russian citizens against totalitarian politics of their government.

Data from : 21 September 2014 - "After hours. 15 Polish time in Moscow began "Peace March" against the war in Ukraine, which, according to various calculations, collected from 10 thousand. to as much as 200 thousand. people. Earlier, about 5 thousand. Russians came out to protest against the Kremlin's policy in Ukraine in Petersburg, Yekaterinburg (Urals), Krasnoyarsk (Siberia), and even in Kamchatka"

source: http://niezalezna.pl/59630-antyputinowskie-demostracje-w-rosji-protestowano-od-moskwy-po-kamczatke-zdjecia 

Growing despondency among many of those who call themselves the anti-war movement after years of illegal war in and illegitimate occupation, and the pro-war movement moving inexorably towards yet another disastrous conflict. Participating in demonstrations, organizing a vigil, conducting town-hall meetings, or writing letters to their elected officials and the media, the participants in the anti-war movement have exhibited an energy and integrity that would make anyone proud.

"No War" shared the stage with the environment, ecology, animal rights, pro-choice, and numerous other causes which not only diluted the anti-war message which was supposed to be sent, but also guaranteed that the demonstration itself would be seen as something hijacked by the progressive ideologues exclusive of the vast majority of moderates who might have wanted to share the stage with their fellows when it comes to opposing war, but do not want to be associated with any other theme

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-ritter010406.htm

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d1m64TWDW-Y/UPYEGuhANvI/AAAAAAAACh8/JI1bQ8ZV3as/s1600/Einstein+anti-war+quote.png

In this days we're living with the fear of ISIS, and some other particular terrorist group.

So I propose the meeting of San Francesco with the Sultan. In 1219, he went to Egypt in an attempt to meet the Sultan to put an end to the conflict of the Crusades. This wonderful picture was made by Giotto about in 1295-1299, and is in Assisi (Italy).

Hope this is an auspicious for the modern world.

Nadia Baiesi, Gianluca Gabrielli, Elda Guerra, Rossella Ropa

Textures of Peace. Symbols, cards, actions utopia possible. 1945-2003

This exhibition is about the history of men and women who believed that peace wasn't just a utopian ideal but it's the only possibility for the salvation of humanity. The period taken into consideration goes from 1945 to 2003, when people in Europe hunged the rainbow flag on all their balconies, against the second war in Iraq. At the centre of the exhibition it's possible to recognize the symbols invented each time, re-employed and re-signified in different contexts. They were and still are used by pacifist, antimilitaristic and nonviolent mouvements. Beside the original flags and posters of different periods, it's possible to see works of art coming from Marco Anastasi, historical documents, pamphlets and pictures.

date of publication: 06/11/2014

keywords: Movements for peace, Symbolism, History, Novecento, Show

DOI: 10.12977 / ereview63

ISSN: 2282-4979

Email the author: [email protected]

Affiliation: Institute for the History and memories of the 'Parri 900 ER - Education Department

Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.

Posters done by Dr. Kamel Nicola Kabar, who works at the Applied Science University... Graphic Design Department, is a very interesting to express the difference between peace and war.

We have a great deal of repetition on this thread: "Guernica" has appeared four or five times, "The Third of May" at least twice.  Normally, repetition would be vexatious, but I think that on an antiwar thread such repetition is necessary and therapeutic,

Art, Nationalism and War: Political Futurism in Italy (1909-1944)

http://www.academia.edu/3062991/Art_Nationalism_and_War_Political_Futurism_in_Italy_1909-1944_

The Anti-War Art Movement:

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/dada/arthistory_dada.html

see this link:

http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/guernica/gmain.html

see this link:

http://www.museumsforpeace.org

see this link:

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~lcush/PeaceSymbolArticle.htm

see this link:

http://johnmolyneux.blogspot.com/2006/08/art-versuswar.html

Read this:

Young, Nigel (2000) “From Numbing to Universalism: The art of Kathe Kollwitz, Otto Dix, and Iris and Toshi Maruki” in newsletter of the Colgate University Peace Studies Program, Summer 2000. (Hamilton, New York: Colgate University).

Read this:

Von Simson, Otto. (1963) ‘The Third of May’ Man through his Art: War and Peace.

London: Educational Products Ltd.

Read this:

Von Blum, Paul (1993) ‘The Critical Vision.’ Creating Peace Culture: Peace Review International Quarterly of World Peace , Vol. 5, No. 2. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner.

Read this:

Rigby, Andrew (1997) ‘Symbols of Peace: the Commonweal Collection’, in Carol Rank, ed., City of Peace: Bradford’s Story. Bradford, UK: Bradford Libraries.

Personally, I prefer art without guns/weapons.

Cheers to every one 

Read this:

Harries, Meiron and Susie. (1983)

The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century.

London: Michael Joseph Ltd.

Read this and the cross references:

Glover, Margaret. (2002)

Images of Peace in Britain from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Second World War. PhD dissertation (unpublished), Dept. of Art History, University of Reading, U.K.

read this:

Decter, Jacqueline. (1989) Nicholas Roerich: The Life and Art of a Russian Master

. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press.

Read this:

Cork, Richard. (1994). A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Read this:

Bickhart, Rick and Benn, Ruth (2004) Dissenting Views: Art in the Age of Terror.

2004 Peace Calendar of the War Resisters League. (New York: War Resisters League).

see this link:

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Anti-war+arts+%28painting,+sculpture,+literature,+music,+photo%29&biw=1280&bih=616&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=PeU5VLf7CsKNuAT_j4CYDw&ved=0CBsQsAQ

See the link:

http://escolapau.uab.cat/img/programas/musica/peace_through_arts.pdf

Sorry, but I would not exploit past misery in this framework.  How many of these artists have not been directly involved in misery? Where was Guernica painted? How victims or family of victims perceive such images?

This is masterpiece dear @Irina! "Plava Grobnica, (English: Ode to a Blue Sea Tomb) is an ode written by Serbian poet Milutin Bojić during World War I. It is dedicated to the soldiers that were buried in the sea near Vido island, Greece. In his unforgettable poem, Bojić expressed the tragic fate of Serbia, whose army had passed through Montenegro and Albania to the Greek islands of Corfu and Vido, where over 5000 Serbian soldiers were buried at sea."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plava_Grobnica

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vido

http://corfublues.blogspot.com/2010/01/plava-grobnica-blue-graveyard-milutin.html

http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/blue-tomb

Dear All, 

I greatly appreciate your examples of masterpieces. Thank you, once more! You understand, that my problem is connected with the publications in English. It's no easy matter to find them in our libraries or shops.I'm grateful for your links. Surely, we are planning to make this event in English.I want to do it multicultural, because this theme is extremely actual for all people of all the countries.Guernica is breathtaking.

Dear Irina

I observed children's drawing bypencils only reflecting their emotions as an anti war with such details..I can't believe how fast they express their sorrow and grief towards those children, women, and old civilian killed by destructive weapon. If we can develop such skills by adding to their natural art an articulated colored, we will have advance anty war freshman without the religion interference.  

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your support. The exhibition of drawings will be highly emotional.Using photos and cartoons is a greatest idea.Status Quo "You are in the army now" has the anti-war theme, too.And what about classical music?Some of them play the piano, accordion,guitar. One is playing the violin. 

Dear Marcel,

The importance, efficiency and value of an artwork depend not on the illustration of weapons but on the aesthetical and inspirational impact.

From the movie the book thief  you can find touching photos

Dear All,

The best masterpieces against war can be those illustrating the peace: here you are some pictures of Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Playing children, The hunters in the snow.

Dear Marcel,

László Mednyámszky the painter spent several years in the front during the IWW as a reporter and drew and painted many thousands pictures. Here you are one of his pictures: In Serbia. The old man with the beard in the photo is Mednyánszky with Hungarian officers during I WW. He was well known by the Serbian soldiers and they did not shoot at him when he drew at the front line.

A very strong musical statement against war may be found on Roger Waters' concept album Amused to Death, released in 1992.

You can hear the entire album by clicking on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS-wuHg2hc4

For more information, see the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amused_to_Death

The horrors of nuclear war are revealed in the book Unforgettable fire: Drawings by atomic bomb survivors. These drawings were made by people who are not professional artists, but the intensity of the experience they relate makes these images unusually powerful, enabling us to share the nightmare that these people were subjected to at the end of World War II.

The book can be downloaded here:

https://archive.org/details/UnforgettableFireDrawingsByAtomicBombSurvivors1967

You are right, war has a lot of ugly faces.The drawings by atomic bomb survivors are terrible!

The Monologue of Marilyn Monroe

Andrey Voznesensky, translated by Yani Sit - Yanina Sitnyakovskaya

I am Marilyn, Marilyn!

I am a hero

of suicide and heroin!

For whom are sparking

my dahlias?

With whom are telephones speaking?

Who is in fancy-dressing rooms

creaking elkishly?!

 -Intolerable! Unbearable!

Unbearable is - don't fall in love!

 Unbearable is - 

to live without groves autumn.

Unbearable is -

Suicide!

But to live is -

 the most unbearable!

The sale of the selling faces!

The patron's laughter

- foolishly standard.

I remember Marilyn, I remember Marilyn...

She was watched by automobiles

On hundreds of cinema pictures,

In the Bibled blue sky, between stars,

- between stars,

Abundant and peaceful!

She was watched above the steppe,

Full of tiny advertisements!

She was breathing

- and she was strong,

She was vividly alive - Marilyn...

The cars are exhausted, the cars want you -

Intolerable!

 Unbearable! -

There are faces into seats,

permeated by dog's smell, -

Intolerable!

 Unbearable -

when by force, but voluntarily -

 Is more unbearable!

Intolerable - to live without thinking,

 but more unbearable - 

to get lost in thinking!

Where is our belief?

It look like we were blown away;

An existence - is suicide;

 SUICIDE - is to FIGHT with TRASH,

 SUICIDE - is to MAKE PEACE with it, -

Intolerable!

UNBEARABLE,- when UNTALENTED,

 but when TALENTED -

MORE UNBEARABLE;

We kill ourselves by the career,

by the money, by tanned girls,

because for us, actors, -

to live doesn't mean -

to have offsprings;

and producers - are all the dregs of society;

We sqweeze our darlings in our arms,

and pillows are printed on their young faces,

like tracks from tyres! It is intolerable,

 Unbearable!

Oh, mothers-mothers, why did you bring us

To such world?

You knew, mother, -

I'll be over whelmed...

Oh, cinema's freezing ice!

We can't have seclusion;

In metro, in trolley bus, in stores -

"Hello! Here we are!" -

the rubber is staring at us, -

Intolerable!

 Unbearable!

Unbearable, when undressed 

in every poster, in every newspaper;

we wrap our hearts in the herring-fish;

we are forgotten, that our hearts are -

in a middle;

The face is crushed,

the eyes are teared to pieces...

(How awful to remember at the "France-Observer"

the photo of the ugly, with self-assurance face

on the turnover of dead Marilyn!)

Producer is yelling,

wile he is overeating a pie:

"You are just goose,

Your forehead is made of pearls!"

But do you know, how pearls smell?!

Like suicide!!!

Motor-cyclists are suicidel,

they are self-murderers, hurried on push -

to get intoxicated;

ministers are paled from flashing lights, -

Self-murderers!

Self-murderers!

 THE WORLD OF XIRASIMA IS WALKING;

 INTOLERABLE, UNBEARABLE..!

Unbearable - to wait to burst out, 

to break out - forever;

But the main force - is

 Intolerable! Unbearable!

Just only hands smell like gasoline!

Unbearable -

Your sparking oranges are burning on the blue..,

and they say *good-bye* to me..!

I am a weak woman...

I can't take it anymore...

It's better - right now...

Yes Irina, the drawings from Japan are horrible. I am sorry for any discomfort it may have caused you and other followers of this question. I think that this book should be required reading (and viewing) for aspiring politicians and military commanders.

On a lighter note (but just as serious, in its own darkly humorous way), Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece of cinema, Dr. Strangelove (1964), is another major example of anti-war art, created during the height (or depth, more appropriately) of the Cold War. It is loosely based on historical reality.*

Click below to watch one of the key scenes of this film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSofqNSuVy8

* See http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/movies/10kapl.html?pagewanted=print&position=&_r=0.

"How to Start World War III without even Trying" is a parody of Carnegie's name of the book.It's genius to scoff at "mutual assured destruction".Anthropophobia ("apraxia" -"alien hand syndrome") results in wars of all kinds.

I am - Goya!

(Andrey Voznesensky, translated by Yani Sit)

My Eye-sockets of shell-holes

were pecked out by the enemy,

flown down to the bare field.

I am - Sorrow!

I am - the Voice

Of the War, of the cities' smuts,

On the snow of the forty-first year.

I am - Hunger!

I am - the throat

Of the Hunged peasant-woman,

Who's body, like the bell,

struck above the nude square...

I am - Goya!

Oh, Punishment's clusters!

I raised, by fire volleys,

To the West -

the ashes of an unbidden guest!

And to Memorial sky

I hummered in the Passionate,

Powerful Stars, -

I nailed them up forever!

I am - Goya!

One can kill a personality without daggers or other weapons. There are a lot of -inner and  outer mean psychological methods- isolation, destabilization, recession, suppressing the creative persons, fighting the dissidents, and a physical hatred- repression...The terrible thing is that we- intellectuals can't stop the wars and violence.We even can't defend the children of the planet from the madness of the powerful "chosen".

.It's a very short- few minutes film.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnbcMK9z16o

Irina,

Just only to add an anti-war-theme music "piece": 

Benjamin Britten's "War requiem", words(poems) by Wilfred Owen.

(cf. perhaps if you have time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNgfF19CTY )

which once I was allowed to rehearse and perform ONCE within the choir part.

As I remember the text of the arias as well as of the choir are really touching (dedicated to the victims of 1st world war) .

But since my participation in the performance is long ago I should have a look into internet sources or the score I have preserved anywhere in my paperstacks for the text... which I found e.g. at: https://www.its.caltech.edu/~tan/Britten/reqtext.html

Best, Wolfgang

Dear All,

I repeat: The best masterpieces against war can be those illustrating peace and happiness. In addition, where there is freedom the likelihood of war is much smaller. Thus, I suggest you to listen to Ode to joy (originally freedom) Ode “An die Freude” (Freiheit): Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, text: Friedrich Schiller.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kcOpyM9cBg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_%28Beethoven%29#Text_of_the_fourth_movement

The Face of War (The Visage of War; in Spanish La Cara de la Guerra) (1940) is a painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. It was painted during a brief period when the artist lived in California.

The trauma and the view of war had often served as inspiration for Dalí’s work. He sometimes believed his artistic vision to be premonitions of war. This work was painted between the end of the Spanish Civil War and beginning of the Second World War.

Irena, the short film you shared with us, One Hundredth of a Second, is devastating. It points out the ethical problems faced by noncombatants in a war zone. These are the same problems faced by all of humanity when wars break out: our silence can contribute to the tragedy.

Halfdan Rasmussen's poem Ikke bødlen was published in 1979, by the Danish chapter of Amnesty International, in a book of poems with the theme of human rights:

Ikke bødlen gør mig bange.

ikke hadet og torturen,

ikke dødens riffelgange eller skyggerne på muren.

Ikke nætterne,

når smertens sidste stjerne styrter ned,

men den nådesløse verdens blinde ligegyldighed.

Not the torturer will scare me

Nor the hate and the torture

Nor the barrels of death's rifles nor the shadows on the wall

Nor the nights

When the last star of pain is falling to the ground

But the blind indifference of the merciless world

Source: http://www.mostlypink.net/who_rogerlyrics.htm

Protests against the Iraq War

http://en.wikipedia.org.advanc.io/wiki/Protests_against_the_2003_Iraq_war

It is not something new. It is old. For me paintings of Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso.

Three movies among the many that combine the poetics of hope to the description of the tragedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvjoWOwnn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CmUMo8e0ok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jvmvJ0TkKo

Roger Waters used the poem Ikke bødlen in his song Each small candle, released in the year 2000. Initially there was an issue about the lack of accreditation of the source, but I find the music very moving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X2rPMAEEOQ

Dear All,

Please, listen to the best Kyrie eleison (God have mercy).

Only to see the difference!

Mozart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8vJ_lMxQI

Dear All,

How the politicians see the peace on the picture of Pawel Kuczynski:

(Dear Marcel, I am sorry!)

Dear All,

The future we designed for ourselves according to Pawel Kuczynski:

Dear All,

Here you are the fifth Guernica. According to Soviet sources having taken part in the Spanish civil war, the Guernica was the oevre of a Catalan painter! However, the attached photo proves that Picasso was the author.

The main thing is that "normal people" have never perceived the premises of the wars. As a rule, they are zombified by the mass media, and are anxious about their survival, being in their own shells. The victims of the wars are the countries with shaky economy. Authoritative warmongers, who are remarkable for their greed, corruptibility, treachery, know the true reasons of war. It may be any provocation, pretext, conflict to carve up the world. They buy mass media, soldiers of fortune or enforce normal people to kill "enemies". Francesca's photos and movies, David's films, poems, songs, Maurizio's films, Wolfgang's,Cecilia's and Andras' classical music, Lala's, Ljubomir's, Shanker's, Miranda"s, Ierardi's,Marwan's,Palani's, Krishnan's, Elizabeth's, Beata's, Zoi's and other brightest persons' posts, Andras', Cecilia's, Concha's, Nelson's, Boris', Jeanan's, Mahtuz', Costas', Mariano's, Nageswara's, Roland's  pictures  are striking demonstration of war as a senseless mincer."But the blind indifference of the merciless world"Or "The Armed Man:A Mass for Peace" , or Britten's masterpiece are breathtaking, expressive, telltale. "My theme is war and sorrow. My poetry is mournful. All, that a poet can do- is warning."  Owen. Requiem is dedicated to the memory of the lost friends. Poet Owen was awarded by the Military Cross on the first of October, and was killed on the 4-th of November. "Be fully slandered, profaned, killed...But do not kill!"Owen. Requiem is devoted to the integration of the folks against war. It's monumental, sublime, moving. "And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith "My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It's death. My ancient scars shalls not be glorified not my titanic tears, the sea be dried"

." I am the enemy you killed, my friend.

I knew you in this dark; for so you frowned

Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.

I parried; but my hands were loath and cold"Owen.

 In "Paths of Glory" there is the genius episode - the scenario of every war - everybody is obliged to dance after the pipe of those who pays the piper calls the tune.And another way to enforce people to be slaves and to keep the discipline is to shoot some subordinates or their nearest.

John Lennon's peace anthem, from his 1969 "bed-in" --an anti-war protest held in a hotel room in Montreal, Canada--, should have its place on this important and timely thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yU0JuE1jTk

There are many films and books with a peace-maker message. I remember the novel of Erich Maria Remarque, " Im Westen nichts Neues" (All quiet in the Western Front" (1929), what was filmed in 1930 and won the Academy Adwars. Another novel and film was"A Farwell to Arms" (1929) by Hemingway. The filmed version was directed by Frank Borzage. Both were placed in the context of the IWW. The most terrific in the 30's was the French flm J'acusse" (1938) by Abel Gance, an desperate allegation for peace in the IIWW's eve.

Freedom's Horror

James Clark, is a Trooper of the Household Cavalry. He sends this note. “I wrote this a month after the death of my friend Cpl Johnathan "Woody" Woodgate, when I encountered some protesters shouting abuse outside an Army recruitment office. One of the protesters couldn't speak English and I was moved by both anger and sorrow to write this, and I wish every one of those protestors would read it.”

Fate again bows its ugly young head,

as two more pine coffins carry two more brave dead,

two union jacks and the streets neatly lined,

two more proud mothers, their grief intertwined.

One was from England the other a Scot,

they both died for each other whether you knew it or not.

Well why did they go there, for the glory? The tan?

Or to protect the defenceless and to come back a man.

The uniform they wore, like a statement of our time.

It says they were different, perhaps two of a kind?

Nah just young lads in the Army, there are plenty around,

but these two now heroes, for they rest in the ground.

The same ground which you walk on when you shout and you scream,

about murder and invasion in the pay of the Queen.

Well let me just ask you, as you stand and you shout,

what freedom of speech, is really about?

When a woman is hanged, for humming a song,

when an infant is beaten for crying so long.

Does it make us lads evil for ending these crimes?

For leaving our own children to give those people our time?

When an Islamist shouts about the Infidel,

he knows he’s no true Muslim and Allah knows this as well.

To beat on your women, to rape young boys after tea,

are no things that any almighty can wish to be.

For a middle class student, from here or a foreign state,

to call a working class soldier scum, makes me more than irate.

Your own rights of freedom are paid by us scum,

who stand up against evil, in front of hells guns.

We’ve seen many things that would bring you to tears

whilst some of us have only been alive eighteen years.

So next time you start, with your rights to rant,

try and study our eyes, and I’ll bet that you can’t.

Behind them lie horrors that you’ll never see,

and the reason you won’t is the soldier like me.

James T Clark

2010

I went through all single answers to this question and learned a lot. I would like to add a most meaningful symphony, namely M. Theodorakis "The Earth's Song", based on Neruda's poem (Il Canto de la Terra) composed between 1954 and 1982.

The Great War (1914– 1918) changed our world irrevocably, redrawing national borders, dissolving centuries-old empires, destabilizing class systems, and ushering in not only modern industrial warfare, but arguably the “modern” world itself.

WORLD WAR I IN FILM

As part of our year-long commemoration of the 100th anniversary of World War I, we will screen nine of the most accomplished movies on the war, three per quarter, in chronological order.

During Winter and Spring quarters, look for Paths of Glory, Lawrence of Arabia, Gallipoli, Behind the Lines, A Very Long Engagement, and a ninth film yet to be decided.

http://arts.stanford.edu/event/world-war-i-in-film-all-quiet-on-the-western-front/

This clip is from the 2007 film Across the universe, directed by Julie Taymor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keMebW460cE

Read this excerpt:

Writing not earlier than five years after the event, Emperor

Aśoka portrays in this Edict the dramatic change of heart he

experienced on account of the havoc of death and deportation,

famine and pestilence that was caused by his war of conquest

against Kalinga. The text, as found at Erragudi, Girnar, Kalsi,

Maneshra, Shahbazgarhi and Kandahar, runs as follows:

38 The country of the Kalingas was conquered by King Priyadarśī,

Beloved of the Gods, eight years after his coronation. In this war in Kalinga, men and animals numbering one hundred and fifty thou-sand were carried away captive from that country; as many as one hundred thousand were killed there in action and many times that number perished. After that, now that the country of the Kalingas has been conquered, the Beloved of the Gods is devoted to an intense practice of the duties relating to Dharma, 3 to a longing

for Dharma and to the inculcation of Dharma among the people. This is due to the repentance of the Beloved of the Gods on having conquered the country of the Kalingas.

Verily the slaughter, death and deportation of men which take place in the course of the conquest of an unconquered country are now considered extremely painful and deplorable by the Beloved of the Gods. But what is considered even more deplorable by the Beloved of the Gods is the fact that injury to or slaughter or deportation of the beloved ones falls to the lot of the Br

āhmanas, the śramaṇas, the adherents of other sects and the householders, who live in that country and among whom are established such virtues as obedience to superior personages, obedience to mother and father, obedience to elders and proper courtesy and are full of affection towards the former; even though they are themselves well provided for, the said misfortune as well becomes an injury to their own selves. In war, this fate is shared by all classes of men and is considered deplorable by the Beloved of the Gods.

Read more in:

http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/king_asoka.pdf

The Kalinga war is one of the major battles in the History of India. Kalinga put up a stiff resistance, but they were no match for Ashoka's brutal strength. The bloodshed of this war is said to have prompted Ashoka to adopt Buddhism.He wanted to get rid of violence for ever.

The battle begins (also from the film Across the universe):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLiID6qFIsI

The aftermath (from the same film):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXWMt4vkQ80&list=RDoXWMt4vkQ80

http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/ten-kilos-first-world-war-grief-melbourne-museum

Gournika by Pablo Picasso!

Art can show the negative effects of war,such as, pain and miseries and sufferings and reduce tendency of war.

Benjamin Britten - War Requiem. fabulously evocative piece of music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6aFh1y9Jow 

Great thread with lots of interest!

I have spoken of a child 5 years old who expressed himself by drawing using only pencil. Attached are samples of his work. Some of these are anti war.

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