Words can be especially persuasive, asking others to embrace a particular point of view. In addition, words can be effectively used rhythmically to evoke images, memories, or feelings.
There is a great variety of ways in which words can be artfully assembled for political purposes, such as speeches, testimony and slogans. In wartime, propaganda frequently uses language as a powerful weapon to create, separate, and destroy all kinds of people, places, and ideologies. At the other extreme, poetry takes us back to the center of who we are as human beings.
A slogan or quote may be a memorable motto, phrase or thought used in a political context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. It varies from the written and the visual to those performed in chant or in music. Notable words can often serve more as social expression of unified purpose than as communication to an intended audience.
Perhaps, art can prevail over injustice most effectively by revealing the truth of who we are and why we must fight for our humanity.
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War Poem for Peace
A decades-long observer of conflict zone violence, Stone points out reasons for warfare, and suggests what is needed for there to be an end to war.
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Voices in Wartime
There are many powerful voices in the global movement of 'Poets Against the War' which came to inspire the 2004 documentary film 'Voices in Wartime'.
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A Time to Break Silence
King's famous speech on the inhumanity of the U.S. war on Vietnam was an extension of the racial justice principles he had long advocated.
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Mother's Day for Peace
Mother's Day was, in its origin, an anti-war statement - an event organized by Julia Ward Howe after the Civil War to protest war, with a commemoratve poem.
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Poems of War and Peace
This celebrated poet-activist combines her Palestinian heritage with hip-hop influences to perform her meditations on war and peace.
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Pity the Nation
It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted in a society in which your government is committing and enabling crimes against humanity.