Looking for Square Two: Moving from War and Organized Violence to Global Community

By Douglas Mattern

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589823575
• ISBN13: 9781589823570
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Millennial Mind Pub
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Become a world citizen

We've been living on borrowed time for 24 years. It was in 1983, as Douglas Mattern reports in this book, that a Russian officer named Petrov decided not to act on what later turned out to be a malfunction that reported (incorrectly!) a U.S. nuclear attack. Mattern found there have been at least 19 other such close calls to date. If the time isn't right for nuclear disarmament now, there may not be time tomorrow. In this book, Mattern shares a lifetime of his courageous peace activities and concerns. The main text is a concise, rivetting 143 pages. He is the President of the Association of World Citizens, advocating we each become a world citizen and participate actively for the good of everyone on this planet. Mattern proposes the United Nations as providing a suitable basis for leading us into world citizenship: this book contains an appendix about the United Nations (its structure, accomplishments and how it might be enhanced). Mattern covers other dangers besides the nuclear ones to convince us of the need for world citizenry: the ongoing wars, military spending, abuse of weaponry, coporations that maximize profit without consideration of environmental impact and that spread the inequality of wealth as they increasing conrol the laws of nations. The path toward mass consumerism is leading us beyond the planet's limits but no reasonable effort by the corporations is being made toward sustainable economies and sane national politics: it is simply not in their short-term interests. We need to do something about that, for their sake and ours. You and I can make that difference, Mattern hopes, to the extent we join together as world citizens. Idealistic? The alternatives are frightening but how much longer can we rely on our current leaderships and avoid our own constructive participation? It's a question I ask myself every day and, unfortunately, unpleasant answers are being made for me. As a world citizen in the manner Mattern proposes, there may still be a chance to lessen the damages that our joint apathy has wrought.

Atlantic Book Review

Atlantic Book Review by Mike Smith The bottom line of peace activist Douglas Mattern's Looking for Square Two is simple: get rid of all the nuclear weapons in the world or else! He makes his point clear from the beginning and keeps our interest with stories of close calls. For instance, the most memorable story is that of Stan the Man's, about Soviet Colonel Stanislov Petrov. He was on duty one night in 1983 when the "early warning system" reported that U.S. missiles were on their way to his country. Mattern tells his story and how we all could have been nuked with the push of a button. Mattern subtly leads up to how our government has gotten progressively more corrupt since the days of Roosevelt and Kennedy. For example, in the first two weeks of the Iraqi War, Mattern reports that the U.S. used more than 3,000 cruise missiles with a price tag of $500,000 each. Near the end of the book, Mattern tells us that cuts in education and HIV/AIDS treatment are on the way in favor of tax cuts for wealthy citizens. My favorite part of the book was the discussion of weapons in space. Mattern describes huge "Space Rods" that will strike down targets on Earth and destroy them with their speed and weight alone. Other space weapons, including laser, radio frequency, particle beam, and kinetic energy weapons, are currently under development. We're halfway through the book at this point and we can't stop reading because it sounds too much like science fiction, yet we know it's real. While it can be preachy at times, offers a little too much history in parts, Looking for Square Two is a great book about what will happen if we don't rid the planet of nuclear weapons. Looking for Square Two by Douglas Mattern ISBN 1-58982-357-5 $16.95 196 pg Political Science & Government Millennial Mind Publishing © 2006 Atlantic Book Review. Reviewed by Mike Smith.

Must reading

This book covers the most critical issues of our time. It is a book that should be read by everyone concerned about the future of our civilization and our own country. Rather than just stating the problems, the author offers realistic solutions to the issues of nuclear weapons, the United Nations, Globalization, and real democracy that is rapidly eroding in the United States. The book is also interesting reading with many stories of the authors experience in peace work and as a senior engineer in Silicon Valley Corporations.