ATWA

ATWA was the name for Charles Manson's philosophy. It stands for Air, Trees, Water and Animals. It is a very basic earth-oriented philosophy basically about respecting the planet we live on. Nothing too far from most Indian philosophies.

Various Manson quotes on the subject:
"I don’t think in goods or bads, just is’s, What it is. Not what I was, want or hope. Whatever life is, it is, and bad and good got nothing to do with it. A snake eats the baby squirrel. Mamma squirrel may say that’s bad, but snakes got to eat. The life cycles are and only humans got the order fucked up."

"Your water’s dying. Your life’s in that cup. Your trees are dying. Your wildlife’s locked up in zoos. You’re in the zoo, Man. How do you feel about it?"

Atwa means "cease-fire" in Arabic.

Atwa is also a song by System of a Down, found on their cd Toxicity, which was released in 2001.

In the song, Serj Tankian sings about the breakdown of relations between himself and another person. He has given up on trying to rectify the situation, as conveyed in the lines:

"You don’t care about how I feel

I don’t feel it any more"

Thus this cease-fire is not a happy event. Rather, Serj has sacrificed his feelings and called a cessation of hostilities between two hostile parties.

It should be noted that System of a Down is a band of Armenian heritage, but is often open to contributions from many cultures as shown in Serj's Serart album.