To support my anti-war ethics, should I move to Costa Rica?

by Hank Pellissier

War War War War War

I am a citizen of the USA, a nation that’s instigated 62 violent attempts at “regime change” in my lifetime. [Link] Killing people everywhere, in big and small numbers, in “fake-dangerous” enemy countries with that don’t really have WMD and in helpless little islands like Grenada, 1983.

How do I feel about this? Depressed. Angry. Helpless. Sad.

Is it my fault? No no no no no I’ve never killed anyone but… Of course I pay my taxes to the US IRS, to help fund our enormous military budget. Biden’s recent proposal asks for $813 billion, a war chest BIGGER than the next eleven nations combined. The military budget is seventeen times larger than the proposed expenditure to fight the climate change emergency.

Guns Bombs Soldiers Jets Tanks Nukes - money for every powerful weapon but no money for public health insurance or affordable housing or college education.

Why is my nation perpetually at war? I believe one reason is because we’re manipulated by greedy giant arms merchants (Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamic, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and many more), enabled by major media, to enter conflicts incessantly. Weapons manufacturers elevate their stock value if there’s violent engagement or international tension.

Taxes are due April 15. Should I only send 50%? Should I be a war tax resister, like Henry Thoreau, sitting in jail? I don’t want to do that; I’m already an insomniac; a dank mattress in a cell with a new roommate won’t improve my sleeping.

I have realized, rather slowly, that I’m staunchly Anti-War. I belong to Code Pink and World Without War, I helped publish an e-book on Global Peace Strategy, I’m a certified mediator, and my Master’s thesis examines ahimsa (non-violence) in the haiku of Kobayashi Issa.

Am I a “pacifist”? Perhaps not. I have a temper; when fully agitated I yell obscenities. I’m not conflict-adverse, in truth, I’m kind of a drama queen attracted to confrontation. If Will Smith slapped me? I’d quite possibly hit him back… but…

Geo-Politically I’m Non-Violent. I don’t like war. I don’t want to kill anyone and I don’t want to be killed. I don’t even want to hurt anyone. I prefer to “talk it out, let’s compromise, or better yet, let’s look for a win-win solution.”

Where are the mediators now, anyway? Putin and Zelensky - are you listening to experts on conflict resolution everyday?

Putin is a death demon, of course, but - I don’t like NATO either because it seems to be an military alliance of 30 nations, encircling Russia with missiles. Military alliances sparked World War I and encouraged World War II - can’t Europe learn from mistakes?

What are my options? Pay my taxes to the war machine, I.e., military industrial complex, and rejoice that I live with a bad conscience in the preeminent military superpower, in safety until psychopathic alphas start squishing red buttons?

Should I join the Quakers and spend every weekend with aging peers on City Hall steps, wearing plain clothes and a long face holding up a PEACE sign that passersby avoid looking at?

Should I relocate to mostly-neutral Switzerland, with its bomb shelters, compulsory military service, and lucrative arms dealing?

Or New Zealand, the nuclear-free hobbit-land at the edge of the world? I could dwell in the steam-punk anachronistic village of Oamaru and pretend the realpolitik world doesn’t exist.

No No No No No

I think my best option is what I already did, once, with my family, back in 2008-2009. We lived for a year in the cloud forest of Monteverde, in Costa Rica - a de-militarized nation, no army.

Monteverde was established by Quakers from Fairhope, Alabama. Four conscientious objector “Friends” were thrown in prison for refusing to register for the draft; when they were released, they escaped US militarism with a group of eleven families, hacking through the jungle of Tilaran mountains, to a foggy paradise, where they established a cooperative, pacifist future of pura vida.

I ache with nostalgia for the year I spent there.

I can be an Atheist Quaker, non-believing in God but believing in peace.