Linguine Zine Iss. 04 Vol. 01 Mar. '24

weuse. THE WORDS

Linguistics is important because language represents culture, and our way of speaking; it is a part of who we are. It helps us understand the human mind.

And maybe, just maybe, if we can better understand how language is created and evolves, if we can understand that the way we speak has a direct correlation to the systems we live in. And if we can take language away as fodder for bigots, then maybe, just maybe, we can lessen the impact of bigotry.

Oratleastmakethemwork harderforit.

WAR IS NOT INEVITABLE.

Ourhistory classes,news outlets,and leadershavelead ustothesame conclusion:that warisinherently human.

Normalizing this myth justifies an incredible amount of violence in the name of power and profit.

If we truly believed that war was unavoidable, there would be little reason to strive for peace. We might argue that if war is indeed inescapable, our efforts should focus on minimizing its devastation.

Many could advocate for preparing to triumph in the inevitable conflicts on various fronts. It's a path governments often tread, but their assumption is flawed. War isn't a predetermined fate.

War isn't omnipresent. The current manifestations of war bear little resemblance to conflicts from centuries or even decades ago.

Throughout much of human history and prehistory, war, in its current form, was largely absent.

“THERE’S ALWAYS BEEN WAR

SOMEWHERE”

Some societies, and even modern nations, have enjoyed decades or even centuries of peace.

Anthropologists even question whether war, as we understand it, existed in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies, where humanity spent most of its evolutionary history.

WAR IS A BUISINESS.

War isn't a spontaneous outburst; it's a meticulously crafted enterprise, fueled by years of preparation, indoctrination, and the machinery of profit-driven production and training.

It's not a necessity; it's a business a relentless drumbeat in the empire's war machine. We're fed a steady diet of messages, from our leaders, textbooks, and media, all echoing the refrain: "War is inevitable, and we must defend our freedoms."

But when those freedoms come at the cost of untold suffering, who truly benefits?

For decades, we've been spoon-fed the narrative of inevitability, silently complicit as we contribute to the gears of war.

NO WAR FOR “PEACE”

Across history, societies have defied the "inevitable," abolishing once-accepted practices deemed “natural”. War, while complex to address, leans on similar structures that have crumbled before.

Most of the world's governments invest way less in war and churn out fewer weapons than the U.S. If war were truly part of human nature, it wouldn't balloon to the scale we see in the U.S.

Scaling back on military spending worldwide could spark a domino effect, making the case for war abolition all the more persuasive.

War, as anthropologist like Douglas Fry argues, likely popped up relatively late in our species' story.

It's not ingrained in our DNA; cooperation and kindness are.

Over the past 10,000 years, war has come and gone in fits and starts, with some societies saying "peace out" to it altogether.

WAR IS A CULTURAL INVENTION,

inevitable forceof nature.

War is not merely thrust upon us by powers beyond our control. There's no law of physics or society saying we need war in order to uphold institutions disguised as “rights” or “freedoms”.

WAR IS NOT REQUIRED