We have lived through:
the Stone Age
the Bronze Age
the Iron Age.
It is time to get beyond the War Age.
How is war doing as a method of conflict resolution? It is difficult to think of what else for which it might be useful. But does it actually resolve conflicts, or does it just serve to enliven and thereby perpetuate them? A look at the history of armed cities and states reveals that a better solution is now available.
In the past, nations and groups have armed themselves to defend themselves from their neighbors and increase their chances of survival. Today, with many countries possessing missiles that travel more than half-way around the world, we all have dangerous neighbors. The number and destructiveness of these weapons can handily wipe out most life on this planet, and keep it uninhabitable for milennia. The chances of total annihilation have thus risen on both counts. No war, however valuable its objective, is worth this existential risk.
WAR
BENEFIT/ RISK = 0
The risk of total annihilation is infinitely bigger than any war’s goal.
Therefore now, to assure our survival, we must find peace. It’s similar to the environmental situation:
In the past we had to control nature to survive, now we must control ourselves so that nature may survive. If nature fails to survive, we do too.
In the past we have prepared for war to protect ourselves from existential threats; now, we must prepare for peace
to protect ourselves from an existential threat.
1.Most wars are about land and their resources. Yet the wars destroy that very land, waste or lay waste its resources, and its people.
2. A few wars are theoretical: based on religion or precepts such as “All people are created equal.” Although we may agree
with the tenets and at times even praise the outcome of such wars, there must be another way to adjudicate such
claims.
3. Some wars are the result of sheer human misery. Since all the world’s in danger whenever there is armed conflict,
one easy solution here is for the world’s more fortunate to help the people out of their misery.
What Circumstances Underlie War?
Unemployment and loss-of-property through environmental change amongst other causes are the chief sources of
war’s personnel. This is a mammoth problem, yet the funds saved by avoiding military build-up would probably
go a long way toward employing people or providing a “basic wage.”
The motivation of the leaders is often pride, greed, maintenance of position, or they may be subdued by pressure
groups in their nation or external to it.
The motivation of the soldiers and armed people may be pride, wanting a job, either domestically or as mercenaries,
anger, hatred or another emotional motive such as revenge. That is why they fight. If they have no such motivation,
the leaders may use laws or brute force to compel them to kill people and and destroy property.
E.O. Wilson once described humankind as having “paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and
god-like technology.” Neuroscience finds that our lower brains, the source of our emotions, are stunningly like
those of reptiles, fish, birds and the other mammals, and so are the emotions that originate there: penguins mourn, many fish
nest, eagles are monogamous, snakes strike back.
Many wars, if not all, are either due to these primitive emotions, or they are caused by the aftermath of previous wars.
Bob Dylan sings of “guns and sharp swords in the hands of small children.” We adults must take them away,
for their own good and for ours.
ON THE ONE HAND, OUR ABILITY TO TRANSPORT ANNIHILATION-STRENGTH WEAPONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD THREATEN US AS NEVER BEFORE.
ON THE OTHER HAND, OUR COMMUNICATIONS ENABLING TRACKING OF EVERY EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY OBJECT, AND OUR ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER SO INSTANTANEOUSLY AND UNIVERSALLY ENABLE US TO STOP OURSELVES FROM WAR AS NEVER BEFORE.
THESE HIDEOUSLY BRUTAL AND OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE WARS PERPETUATE THE CYCLE:
ENMITY – WAR – DEATH AND DESTRUCTION-MORE ENMITY – ANOTHER WAR – MORE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION – MORE ENMITY-…
THIS HAS BEEN THE CYCLE SINCE HISTORY WAS RECORDED, AND PROBABLY LONG BEFORE THAT. APES HAVE WARS.
WORST FEATURES OF WAR:
Death of many people – protagonists and mainly civilians
Destruction of a great deal of property housing people and institutions
Cost of rebuilding after the war
Resentment, vengeful hatred of the bereaved
Cost of preparation for the next war
Diversion of focus from humanitarian enterprises (science, medicine, history, psychology, art, space exploration, etc. ) to non-humanitarian enterprises (armaments, etc.)
Loren Fishman, MD
Columbia University Medical School
WAR
9/3/24
The US gave Ukraine some coveted fighter planes.
Last Friday one was shot down by friendly fire.
In a sense, isn’t it all “friendly fire?”
The enemy today is not whom we are fighting. the enemy is war itself.
For every legitimate and corageous war hero, there are probably 100 dead civilians. Can we not find a better use for bravery?
My Plan:
Note: No early disarmament. It may take 100’s of years for disarmament.