Question 5

Beloved Osho,

The chimpanzee who made reagan famous as an actor was called bonzo. reagan was his sidekick. there is a rumor that it is actually bonzo who is in the white house, and reagan is skulking up a tree in beverly hills. beloved master, do you know the inside scoop on this story?

 

I know it. It is not a story, it is the truth! I have met Ronald Reagan in our own hills, so certainly Bonzo is in the White House. And except people like Bonzo, who would like to live in White Houses?

 

All politicians are chimpanzees — without exception. They look like men, but they behave like chimpanzees. You should not go by the looks, you should watch their actions — and all their actions are idiotic. And it is not only today; it has been so for the whole history of man.

 

Unless we get rid of politicians and create a humanity where politicians are not needed — and, in fact, there is no need for them — we will not be able to survive long.

 

The politicians are seeing clearly that they cannot exist anymore. Their futility is becoming clear, so they are planning to destroy the whole planet. Rather than being thrown out of their jobs, their great presidentships, prime ministerships, they would destroy all life on this planet. It is in the hands of the intelligentsia of the world not to let them do this suicidal act.

 

All scientists of the world should stop creating any war material. They should make it clear to their governments that they are ready to work, but they will work only for life, not for death. The same nuclear energy can make this earth again young, can destroy all poverty, can make humanity live for the first time in real comfort, luxury, can allow people to develop their talents, their potentials to the highest peak possible.

 

And it is a very simple thing: all the scientists who are serving the governments and creating more and more death weapons, should just stop, and start creating more and more life-enhancing energies. The same energy, nuclear energy, which can make this earth a dead planet, can make this earth the most glorious and the richest planet in the whole universe.

 

Politicians want war. That is their vested interest. Without war, what are they going to do? You can see it in a simple fact: all your great politicians are born in times of war. If any politician wants to be a great leader, a great hero, then war is a necessity. Just look: from Genghis Khan to Tamerlane to Nadirshah to Alexander the Great to Ivan the Terrible to Napoleon Bonaparte to Adolf Hitler to Benito Mussolini to Joseph Stalin to Churchill to Roosevelt — what makes these people great heroes? It is war. If there had been no wars there would not have been great heroes.

 

Politicians live on war. And now the game has come to its ultimate peak. The old wars, those bullock-cart wars, were okay. A few people died, somebody became victorious, somebody was defeated. But now war has lost all meaning. Nobody can be defeated and nobody can be victorious. With war losing all meaning, politicians have lost their greatest vested interest.

 

And if politicians disappear, there is no need for nations. I cannot conceive why nations should exist. Science has turned the whole world into a small global village. Yes, there can be a functional world government. But there is no need of armies — millions of people just sitting stupidly polishing their guns for years, doing “left turn, right turn,” and then creating Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For all that is ugly, the whole credit goes to the politicians.

 

Just a general raising of consciousness is needed, and the politicians will melt like snowflakes. And with them will go nations, national boundaries, stupid ideas of some nations being special, just born to rule over the world. And all the energies which are being wasted in creating war materials — and that is not a small amount: seventy-five percent of the energy of the whole of humanity is being diverted into war. We are living on only twenty-five percent of our energy.

 

Just think: if one hundred percent of our energy is available, there is no need for any Ethiopia to happen. There is no need for anybody to remain uneducated, poor. We can make this world a paradise — the politicians just have to go on a long, long weekend.

 

- Osho, “From Bondage to Freedom, #39, Q5”