Nobody would be crazy enough to press the nuclear button, right? We would like to think that we’re living in modern times and factions in conflict are rational and reasonable people incapable of unleashing a nuclear war, but the scenario at hand isn’t quite like that. An insightful UK Channel 4 commentator mentioned that in the Syria conflict the US and Russia are thinking politics whilst the jihadists are thinking eternity. And it’s much wider than this.

‘The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, or dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek mythology. Many Western philosophical and literary figures have invoked this dichotomy in critical and creative works.
In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both sons of Zeus. Apollo is the god of the Sun, of dreams and of reason, while Dionysus is the god of wine, ecstasy and intoxication. The Greeks didn’t consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were interlacing by nature.

The Apollonian is based on individuality, and the human form which is used to represent the individual and make one being distinct from all the others. It celebrates human creativity through reason and logical thinking. By contrast, the Dionysian is based on chaos and appeals to the emotions and instincts. Rather than being individual, the barriers on individuality are broken down and beings submerge themselves in one whole.’ Although the use of the concepts of the Apollonian and Dionysian is famously linked to Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, the terms were used before him in German culture.’ Wikipedia

Front page news about Syria is Apollonian. Politics is rational, it’s all about oil, resources, economics, arms sales, territory, attempts by some of the factions to impose a lifestyle based on consumerism they call democracy, resisted by other factions that prefer autocracy and consumerism restricted to the most affluent (actually the same goes for the former).

But if we follow the blogs and alternative media we soon come to realise that something much more Dionysian is present in the form of almost invisible undercurrents: the Bible and the Koran are talking to some of the participants in the conflict, via prophesies that anticipate either the total destruction of Damascus or the nuking of Israel.

Eg, ‘Isaiah 17:1-14 contains an oracle against Damascus. “See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.”

Mohammed, however, anticipated that the End of Days begins with Armageddon, which is in Israel.

Are we still sure a nuclear war cannot happen as we are in the hands of reasonable people?

Opening the theme of Syria giving up chemical weapons has created a very interesting possibility. So, why not Nuclear Weapons, more destructive by a factor of thousands than their chemical counterparts? We can see clearly a number of irrational fingers inching towards the nuclear triggers, and they’re everywhere, in all countries, in all continents, in all conflicts. Fundamentalism doesn’t belong exclusively to any religion or way of thinking, it’s the result of a closed future, when people take refuge in past certainties to compensate for future uncertainties.

There can never be any guarantee that nuclear weapons or material won’t fall into ‘the wrong hands’, the only guarantee is not having any, nuclear, chemical, biological and, why not, let’s start talking about progressive and proportional disarmament of conventional weapons too. The over 100,000 people already killed in Syria, women and children included, have been killed by conventional weapons, and only an embargo to both sides can stop the slaughter.

It has been discovered that the London Arms Fair taking place at present had instruments of torture on sale, and collateral damage is a fact of war. Nothing to do with weapons, of any kind, is ethical, controllable or rational.

The horrors of Syria stand on the same page, one next to another, with the highly irrational yearly orgasmic ritual release of the latest Apple/Samsung technological marvel that can make us stop thinking about that nasty business going on in the Middle East. This isn’t about guilt, when there is nothing we can do. But is it really like that? Perhaps we don’t have the power to stop Syria’s slaughter any minute now, but we must understand that what slowed down the gung-ho seemingly unstoppable warmongering forces was the awareness that public opinion, first in the UK, then in the USA, and in the world is tired of war, intervention to protect human rights that always ends up making it all much, much worse.

This is the time to express public opinion loud and clear, no Nuclear Weapons, no more wars, no more violence. Millions of people went to the streets 10 years ago to stop war, the leaders are only just beginning to hear them. The risks created by such different forces at play cannot be described, but a New Humanism, a new sensibility does not take sides between rational and irrational, between intellect and emotion. Intellect without emotion is hypocrisy, emotion without intellect is stupidity, and in both cases action is contradictory. These are false choices, only inner unity of thoughts feelings and actions can open the future. Starting from ourselves we can reach the whole world, this is the heart of nonviolence and the only hope for peace.