Voice of the Day: Merton on Protest

The important thing about protest is not so much the short-range possibility of changing the direction of policies, but the longer range aim of helping everyone gain an entirely new attitude toward war. Far from doing this, much current protest simply reinforces the old positions by driving the adversary back into the familiar and secure mythology of force. Hence the strong "patriotic" reaction against protests in the United States. How can one protest against war without implicitly and indirectly contributing to the war mentality?

- Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation