Swords to ploughshares

{{Short description|Converting weapons to peaceful civilian applications}}

{{About|converting military technology|the American veterans' NPO|Swords to Plowshares|the Bible verse where the term originates|Isaiah 2}}

File:Starry Plough flag (with fringe).svg, with a sword in place of a ploughshare.]]

File:Schwerter zu Pflugscharen - Jewgeni Wutschetitsch - Geschenk der Sowjetunion an die UNO - 1959.jpg in the United Nations Art Collection]]

File:Hand-separated large candlestick church chandelier with brass wax drip tray - GDR around 1980 - Use of armoured steel and brass - Single piece - Weight 10 kilograms.jpg chandelier with brass wax drip tray – GDR around 1980 – Use of armoured steel and brass – Single piece – Weight 10 kilograms]]

Swords to ploughshares (or plowshares) is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications.

The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah chapter 2:

{{quote|Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the {{Sc|L|ORD}}, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. –|{{Bibleverse|Isaiah|2:3–4|NRSV}}}}

The ploughshare ({{Langx|he|אֵת}} ’êṯ, also translated coulter) is often used to symbolize creative tools that benefit humankind, as opposed to destructive tools of war, symbolized by the sword ({{Langx|he|חֶרֶב}} ḥereḇ), a similar sharp metal tool with an arguably opposite use.

In addition to the original Biblical Messianic intent, the expression "beat swords into ploughshares" has been used by disparate social and political groups.

A past example from the period 1993 continuing to 2013 is the dismantling of nuclear weapons and the use of their contents as fuel in civilian electric power stations, the Megatons to Megawatts Program. Nuclear fission development, originally accelerated for World War II weapons needs, has been applied to many civilian purposes since its use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including electricity and radiopharmaceutical production.

Biblical references

File:Mosaic Yael Portugheis in Beit Habad Gallery (6244238560).jpg, quoting Isaiah 2:4, with lion, spear and spade.]]

Beyond the above usage in the Book of Isaiah, this analogy is used twice more in the Old Testament/Tanakh, in both directions. In Micah, it is recited word for word:

{{quote|He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.|{{bibleref|Micah|4:3|NRSV}}}}

In Joel, the opposite is said:

{{quote|Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”|{{bibleref|Joel|3:10|NRSV}} or 4:10 in the Masoretic system.}}

An expression of this concept can be seen in a bronze statue in the United Nations garden called Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares, a gift from the Soviet Union sculpted by Evgeniy Vuchetich, representing the figure of a man hammering a sword into the shape of a plowshare.

Confucianism

James Legge's translation of Analects of Confucius includes a story of Confucius asking his disciples to list their aims, resulting in praise for the virtue of Yan Hui:{{Cite book |last=Confucius |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb09336.0001.001 |title=Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean |date=2012 |publisher=ACLS Humanities E-Book |hdl=2027/heb09336.0001.001 |isbn=978-0-486-12292-2 |language=en |translator-last=Legge |translator-first=James}}

{{Blockquote|text=At last came Yen Yuan, who said "I should like to find an intelligent king and sage ruler whom I might assist. I would diffuse among the people instructions on the five great points, and lead them on by the rules of propriety and music, so that they should not care to fortify their cities by walls and moats, but would fuse their swords and spears into implements of agriculture.|title="Chapter V, Section III: His Immediate Disciples"|source=Confucian Analects, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean (1892)}}

Practical applications

File:Tokyo Tower 2023.jpg, the second-tallest tower in Japan, is partially constructed from steel obtained by recycling US tanks damaged in battle during the Korean War.{{Cite web |last=Fackler |first=Martin |date=30 December 2008 |title=Tokyo Tower goes from futuristic hope to symbol of the good old days |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/world/asia/30iht-tokyo.1.18997227.html |website=The New York Times}}{{Cite web |date=2023-11-28 |title=Day 259/365 of Steel - Tokyo Tower |url=https://steelexplained.com/day-259-365-of-steel-tokyo-tower/ |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=SteelExplained.com |language=en-US}}]]

After World War II, military surplus AFVs were sometimes converted into bulldozers, agricultural, and logging tractors, as seen in the American television series Ax Men.{{cite web|url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/civilianshermans-after-the-war-they-went-to-work.html|title=Civilian Shermans: after the war – they went to work...|first=Simon|last=Templar|date=11 October 2015|publisher=|accessdate=11 June 2017}} Two are currently preserved at the Swords and Ploughshares Museum in Canada.{{cite web|url=http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/ploughshare.htm|title=Shermans into ploughshares|first=Hanno|last=Spoelstra|website=web.inter.nl.net|accessdate=11 June 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.calnan.com/swords/|title=The Swords And Ploughshares Museum|website=www.calnan.com|accessdate=11 June 2017}} French farmers sometimes used modified versions of the obsolete FT-17 tank, and similar vehicles, based on the T-34 tank, remain in widespread use in the former USSR.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/2341811.stm|title=BBC NEWS – Monitoring – Media reports – Ukraine turns tank into tractor|website=news.bbc.co.uk|date=19 October 2002 |accessdate=11 June 2017}} A British agricultural engineer and collector of classic tractors, owns a Sherman tank that was adapted to plow Lincolnshire's fields in response to the shortage of crawler tractors.
From the 1970s onward, several anti-war musicians have played guitars made from military surplus weapons. Jamaican reggae star Peter Tosh famously owned a Fender Stratocaster built around an M-16 rifle.{{cite web |title=More Than Music: Peter Tosh And His M16 Rifle Guitar |url=http://diply.com/reggae/article/tosh-m16-guitar |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207075222/http://diply.com/reggae/article/tosh-m16-guitar |archive-date=7 December 2017 |accessdate=11 June 2017 |website=Diply}} In the present day the Escopetarra, a guitar converted from the AK-47, is the signature instrument of César López, Souriya Sunshine, and Sami Lopakka of the Finnish death metal band Sentenced.{{cite web|url=https://www.unodc.org/newsletter/en/perspectives/no03/page008.html|title=UNODC Perspectives No. 3 – Escopetarra: Instrument of peace|last=UNODC|website=www.unodc.org|accessdate=11 June 2017}}
Nitrogen mustard, developed from the chemical weapon mustard gas developed in World War I,{{cite web | url=http://www.cwc.gov/assets/pdf/outreach_industry_publications_cwc004.pdf | title =Introduction to Industry Implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention | author =United States Department of State, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance; United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security | publisher =cwc.gov | date =May 2004}} became the basis for the world's first chemotherapy drug, mustine, developed through the 1940s.{{cite journal |author=Gilman A |title=The initial clinical trial of nitrogen mustard |journal=Am. J. Surg. |volume=105 |pages=574–8 |date=May 1963 |pmid=13947966 |doi=10.1016/0002-9610(63)90232-0 |issue=5 }}
Peaceful nuclear explosions, the application of nuclear detonations to civilian applications such as excavation and mining, explored by the USA (Project Plowshare) and USSR (Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy). However, the nuclear fallout and other contamination produced quickly rendered such programs impractical.
Swedish aid organization IM Swedish Development Partner launched Humanium Metal, using metal from illegal handguns to create everyday objects. The first product announced was headphones by Yevo.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42599566|title=Illegal guns turned into headphones|last=Kleinman|first=Zoe|date=2018|work=BBC News|access-date=2018-01-15|language=en-GB}}
The Global Positioning System was originally developed to enable more accurate strikes with long-range weapons by the United States, but its purpose was later expanded to include civilian applications such as personal navigation assistants.
The Plowshares movement (British, Christian, founded by Daniel Berrigan), Trident Ploughshares (British) and Pitstop Ploughshares (US, Christian) are peace movements, inspired by the book of Isaiah, in which participants attempt to damage or destroy modern weapons, such as nuclear missiles.
The Megatons to Megawatts Program, agreed to in 1993 by the United States and Russia, successfully converted 500 metric tonnes of fuel from Soviet-era nuclear warheads into fuel for nuclear power plants over a period of 20 years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=13091|title=Megatons to Megawatts program will conclude at the end of 2013 – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)|website=www.eia.gov|access-date=2020-04-02}}

In political and popular culture

The Starry Plough, a flag associated with revolutionary Irish republicanism and socialism, features a sword as the plowshare.
Twelve-term US Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul wrote a book entitled Swords into Plowshares: A Life in Wartime and a Future of Peace and Prosperity, in which he discusses growing up during World War II and living his life through war after war.{{cite book|title=Swords into Plowshares|first=Ron|last=Paul|date=17 July 2015|publisher=Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity|isbn=978-0996426503}}
In his farewell address, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, when speaking about the military–industrial complex, stated:

{{quote|Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.}}

For his first and second inaugurations, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the oath of office with his hand on two family Bibles, opened to Isaiah 2:2–4.{{cite news |author=United Press International (UPI) |title=Protestors' shouts mar inaugural ceremonies | date=20 January 1973 | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1973/01/20/Protestors-shouts-mar-inaugural-ceremonies/9270282371459/ | access-date=18 October 2017}}{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4639596/inauguration-day-presidents-bible-passages/|title=These Are the Bible Verses Past Presidents Have Turned to on Inauguration Day|magazine=Time}}{{cite web | last=Ross | first=Scott | title=Obama's Inaugural Bibles: Lincoln, MLK | website=NBC 6 South Florida | date=21 January 2013 | url=http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/national-international/Inuaration-Day-Bibles-and-Passages-186343462.html | access-date=18 October 2017}}
In their speeches at the signing of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin all referenced the saying in calling for peace.{{cite book|title=Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter| year=1979 |publisher= Office of the Federal Register|pages=518–520|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j_5-9zWaBI0C&pg=PA518}}
In Ronald Reagan's address to the 42nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York.{{cite web|url=http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1987/092187b.htm |title=Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Archives |publisher=UTexas.edu |date=1987-09-21 |accessdate=2013-01-01}}

{{quote|Cannot swords be turned to plowshares? Can we and all nations not live in peace? In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences world-wide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien than war and the threat of war?}}

The song "[https://megadeth.com/releases/5056/ Ashes In Your Mouth]" by Megadeth{{Cite web|last=Concepts|first=Lucid Design|title=Megadeth|url=https://megadeth.com/|access-date=2021-12-22|website=Megadeth|language=en-US}} uses a reference to plows and shear to swords:

{{quote|Melting down all metals, turning plows and shears to swords

Shun words of the Bible, we need implements of war

Chalklines and red puddles of those who have been slain

Destiny, that crooked schemer, says the dead shall rise again}}

The popular anti-war song "The Vine and Fig Tree" from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Songbook repeats the verse{{cite web |url= http://www.fredsakademiet.dk/abase/sange/greenham/song9.htm |title=Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp Songbook |publisher=Fredsakademiet.dk |accessdate=2013-01-01}}

{{quote|And everyone neath their vine and fig tree

shall live in peace and unafraid,

Everyone neath their vine and fig tree

shall live in peace and unafraid.

And into ploughshares beat their swords

Nations shall learn war no more.

And into ploughshares beat their swords

Nations shall learn war no more.}}

The song "The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley (1989) uses the Joel inverted version of the phrase:

{{quote|O' beautiful, for spacious skies

But now those skies are threatening

They're beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king}}

"Heal the World" by Michael Jackson (1991):

{{quote|Create a world with no fear

Together we'll cry happy tears

See the nations turn

Their swords into plowshares}}

Finale of the musical Les Misérables:

{{quote|They will live again in freedom

In the garden of the Lord.

They will walk behind the ploughshare,

They will put away the sword.

The chain will be broken

And all men will have their reward.}}

The name of a card in Magic: The Gathering, a popular trading card game.{{cite web |url= https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=271 |title=Swords to Plowshares}}
A poem by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai:

{{quote|Don’t stop after beating the swords

into plowshares, don’t stop! Go on beating

and make musical instruments out of them.

Whoever wants to make war again

will have to turn them into plowshares first.}}

Guns into Plowshares, a sculpture by Mennonite artists Esther Augsburger and Michael Augsburger
The marketing slogan used by the fictional Globotech Industries in Small Soldiers, serving as the introduction to the movie, and foreshadowing the central plot of smart ballistic missile guidance microprocessors being mistakenly used in children's toys.
A "Swords into Ploughshares" badge was worn by Christian peace groups in East Germany. Wearers of the badge who refused to take it off were barred from educational and work opportunities by the state.{{cite web | title=Object : Swords into Plowshares badge, GDR 1980 | website=BBC | date=1970-01-01 | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/CXrfizyzQP2YFgx-BniBBw | access-date=2024-08-16}}