War vs Lionism

Commentary
Where war rages, people lose. They lose property. They lose friends. They lose family members. They lose health. They lose lives. Wars are waged on behalf of influential wealth transfer recipients through the use of government resources at the expense of everyone else.
War enables government officials to reduce Liberty. War is unintelligent. War threatens the safety of our nations.
Many better thinkers and writers than I have explained how war leads to less liberty. I can only point out the loss of liberty in the United States that occurred during the 1861-65 war, the World Wars, the Viet Nam experience, the Wars on Drugs and on Terrorism (actually, wars against people), Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Other readers can connect the lack of liberty in their own countries to efforts by their governments to wage war.

Compare Lions Club Vision with War Vision:
Lions: To be the global leader in community and humanitarian service.
War: To lead to the destruction of humanity and of communities.

Compare Lions Club Mission with War Mission:
Lions: To empower volunteers to serve their communities, meet humanitarian needs, encourage peace and promote international understanding through Lions clubs.
War: To enslave subjects to serve the State, meet the needs of the ruling class, encourage strife and promote international suspicions through factions.


Compare Lions Club Ethics with War Ethics:
Lions: To Show my faith in the worthiness of my vocation by industrious application to the end that I may merit a reputation for quality of service.
War: one of the places where proponents of support for the State can pervert Lionism to make their argument. I will discuss this on another post.
Lions: To Seek success and to demand all fair remuneration or profit as my just due, but to accept no profit or success at the price of my own self-respect lost because of unfair advantage taken or because of questionable acts on my part.
War: To Seek success and to demand all remuneration or profit as my due, and to accept any profit or success at the price of my own self-respect lost because of advantage taken or because of acts on my part.
Lions: To Remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down anothers; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself.
War: to Remember that in building up my cause it is necessary to tear down another’s; to demand loyalty from my followers as I am true to my masters.
Lions: Whenever a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action towards others, to resolve such doubt against myself.
War: Never a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action toward others. Others are wrong, of course.
Lions: To Hold friendship as an end and not a means. To hold that true friendship exists not on account of the service performed by one another, but that true friendship demands nothing but accepts service in the spirit in which it is given.
War: To Hold friendship as a means to an end. To hold that friendship exists on account of the service performed by one in favor of another, demanding everything
Lions: Always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state, and my community, as to give them my unswerving loyalty in word, act, and deed. To give them freely of my time, labor and means.
War: Another perversion of Lionism. I will discuss this in another post.
Lions: To Aid others by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.
War: To Oppress others into distress, to beat upon the weak, and to seize the substance of the needy.
Lions: To Be Careful with my criticism and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.
War: To Be Liberal with my criticism; to tear down and destroy.

Compare Lions Club Objects with War Objects
Lions: To Create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world.
War: To Create and foster a spirit of suspicion among the peoples of the world
Lions: To Promote the principles of good government and good citizenship.
War: To Promote the principles of obedience and submission to the will of the State.
Lions: To Take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social, and moral welfare of the community.
War: To Destroy the civic, cultural, social, and moral infrastructure of communities.
Lions: To Unite the clubs in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship, and mutual understanding.
War: to Divide people by enmity, angry conflict, and mutual suspicion.
Lions: To Provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided however, that partisan politics and sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members.
War: To Provide for open hostility in resolving matters of interest, propelled by adherence to partisan politics and/or sectarian religion.
Lions: To Encourage service-minded people to serve their community without personal financial reward, and to encourage efficiency and promote high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works, and private endeavors.
War: To Coerce people to serve the State regardless of personal financial expenditure, and to facilitate inefficiency and distort ethical standards through destruction in commerce, industry, professions, and public works. Private endeavors are permitted in support of State actons.

So far as I can tell, Lionism does not provide support for violent hostile acts against people.
Lionism is about helping people. War is about hurting people.

By Lion Doc Ellis 124

Commentary

Commentary

Nobel Peace Prize recipient former U S President Lion Jimmy Carter nominated the International Association of Lions Clubs for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for the efforts of so many Lions to bring about a more peaceful world. The annual Lions International Peace Poster Contest that involves kids in designing posters to promote awareness that peaceful interactions trump hostile encounters has been a staple of Lions for many years.

Lions have resources to help people throughout the world at all levels. We can help folks prevent blindness. We can provide vision improvement. We can help provide educational and health services to people. We can provide food to hungry folks. We can clothe those who have no clothing. We can be there for those who need us.

We can do a lot more if we have the resources that we expend helping victims of war. Waging war diverts resources that could be used to advance the well-being of people instead of advancing their distress.

I am currently concerned about the incursions into Pakistan by US troops. There are Lions in Pakistan. There are Lions in the U S Armed Services. Given that hostile exchanges often result in collateral damage, I can see that a Lion could die as a result of another Lion's actions, with neither Lion knowing about the other. That's not right.