John,
Beginning July 3rd we're offering an online course called Leaving World War II Behind.
This course is 100% online and interactions are not live or
scheduled, so you can take part whenever works for you.
WBW's online courses
are self-paced, using videos and texts and graphics, available on your
schedule, 24-7, and discussion forums in which you can use videos and
texts and graphics to discuss and gain feedback, as well as to submit
optional assignments for feedback. There are also a few optional zoom
calls. Those are the only parts of the course that are scheduled.
Everything else is simply available on your schedule.
Learn more and register here.
Course fee: $100 (Pay less if you have to, more if you can.) There will be a limit of 150 tickets sold for this course.
Everyone registered for the course will receive PDF, ePub, and/or mobi (kindle) versions of David Swanson's book Leaving World War II Behind,
which will provide additional reading to those who want to go beyond
the written, video, and graphic materials provided in the course.
The purpose of the course is to inform the participant and enable
them to inform others of why World War II is not a good justification
for military spending and war planning, both because WWII happened in a
very different world from today's, and because common beliefs about the
nature of and justifications for WWII are false. By debunking myths
about
WWII having been necessary, justifiable, and beneficial, we can
strengthen arguments for moving to a world beyond war.
The course
will explore why WWII was not fought to rescue anyone from persecution,
was not necessary for defense, was the most damaging and destructive
event yet to occur, and could have been prevented by avoiding any of several bad decisions.
Goals
This six-week online course will enable participants to:
- explore questions about WWII as they ask, “What does WWII have to do with military spending?”;
- produce their own pitch to explain how and why WWII did not have to
happen, and test their ideas against the critical feedback of others on
the course;
- investigate ideas about why the U.S. (and other major allies)
participation in WWII was not justifiable, focusing especially on how
the U.S., Britain, and allies did not have to prioritize opposing the Soviet Union, develop
and promote the dangerous bunk science of eugenics, develop the practice
of racist segregation, develop practices of genocide, ethnic cleansing,
and concentration of people on reservations, fund and arm the Nazis, and engage in an arms race with Japan.
- develop an action plan for how to bring their learning back to their
own context, in a way that influences their own practice and the
learning and practice of others.
Objectives
By the end of the course, therefore, participants will be able to:
- explain their understanding of the relationships between WWII and military spending today;
- present their case for why they think WWII did not have to happen;
- produce an argument for why WWII was neither justifiable nor beneficial;
- explain how they can support their claims with evidence;
- know how to use their learning from this course in the development of war abolition work in their own contexts.
Learn more and register here.
Thanks!
—World BEYOND War
World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, chapters, and affiliated organizations advocating for the abolition of the institution of war.
Donate to support our people-powered movement for peace.
Opt-in to mobile updates. Manage email preferences. Privacy policy.
Should giant war-profiteering corporations decide what emails you don't want to read? We don't think so either. So, please stop our emails from going into "junk" or "spam" by "white listing," marking as "safe," or filtering to "never send to spam."
World BEYOND War | 513 E Main St #1484 | Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
World BEYOND War | 450, 4-2 Donald Street | Winnipeg, MB R3L 0K5 Canada
