7. KRISHNAMURTI: WAR AND CHILDREN

”Although war is so obviously detrimental to society, we prepare for war and develop in the young the military spirit.
But has military training any place in education? It all depends on what kind of human [woman] [human] beings we want our children to be. If we want them to be efficient killers, then military training is necessary. If we want to discipline them and regiment their minds, if our purpose is to make them nationalistic and therefore irresponsible to society as a whole, then the military is a good way to do it. If we like death and destruction, military training is obviously important. It is the function of generals to plan and carry on war, and if our intention is to have constant battle between our neighbors and ourselves then by all means let us have more generals.

“If we are living only to have endless strife within ourselves and with others, if our desire is to perpetuate bloodshed and misery, then there must be more soldiers, more politicians, more enmity – which is what is actually happening. Modern civilization is based on violence and is therefore courting death. As long as we worship force, violence will be our way of life. But if we want peace, if we want right relationship among men, whether Christian or Hindu, Russian or American – if we want our children to be integrated human beings, then military training is an absolute hindrance, it is the wrong way to set about it.”

“To raise a child sanely, to help him to be perceptive so that he [she] sees through these stupid prejudices, we have to be in close relationship with him. We have to talk things over and let him listen to intelligent conversation; we have to encourage the spirit of inquiry and discontent which is already in him, thereby helping him to discover for himself what is true and what is false.

“It is constant inquiry, true dissatisfaction that brings creative intelligence; but to keep inquiry and discontent awake is extremely arduous, and most people do not want their children to have this kind of intelligence, for it is very uncomfortable to live with someone who is constantly questioning accepted values.