Thinking outside the box

Real peace in the world would require real people to think outside the box.  Anything that is familiar is easier to understand than an untried concept and the higher the stakes, the less likely people are to move from what they consider a given to an unknown solution.

Since a human being picked up the first rock and hefted it at another human being doing something he didn’t like, it has been acceptable to use armed force to settle disputes.  There is nothing like pain to put a stop to something – for a while.

War is so much more complicated.  Not only is it promoted by anger and fear, it is also a very profitable proposition for the people who provide whatever the war utilizes.  Somebody has to make all those weapons, uniforms, vehicles, tents, huts, barracks, bullets and ships and planes that transport it all.  And in recent wars somebody outside even got paid to provide services like food preparation.  War only costs the people and government money.  It makes money for an elite few.  It makes enough money that they can afford whatever it takes to keep it going. 

We are a long way from the days when people donated their materials and services to protect their country.  Our soldiers may be good men who want to give their all to protect our country, but they are also in an organization where sadistic sociopaths and greed flourish.

It is possible to protect a country, to win a dispute, or change the way things are without war the way we know it now.    It is untried on a worldwide scale and it might take longer than it does to blow up a city or gun down a thousand men, but in the long run nothing can take longer than war.  We have been fighting wars since time began.  They never end. They just go underground to regroup.  Eventually each one rises from the ashes slightly changed, a little bit wiser and often stronger.  Yet, still as determined as ever to continue on in the old ways to get what it wants.

If I want to get rid of mosquitoes I can slap them, spray them, put up bug killers to electrocute them, but they are still around.  The most effective way to fight mosquitoes is to eliminate what it takes for them to breed.  The same is true for wars.  We need to eliminate the things that create war.  Healthy, well fed, well educated, well treated people who feel they are powerful enough to have a say in what is going on in their world eliminate the cesspools and stagnant conditions that wars use to flourish.

It would not be an easy shift in thinking, nor would it be the end all answer. There would still be the sociopaths, sadists, and greedy people to deal with and we could still have our armed forces.  But they would be armed with the knowledge for negotiating peaceful solutions and protecting people by providing them with the accouterments and knowledge that is necessary for living satisfying lives.

It would be a good start along the road to decency and civilization.