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They are all around us…they are something we can’t…we should not ignore…the destruction…the heartache…the sorrow…the images of war.
As I watch one country try to take over another country that was autonomous and free I am struck how war brings out the best and worst in us…by its dichotomy.
In a war we see missiles flying…bombs dropping…bullets trying to kill as many people as they can…it is the very definition of man’s inhumanity to man.
But we also see strangers taking in strangers…people helping people any way they can…it is the very definition of man’s humanity to man.
It is amazing once the fighting starts…once war has cast its evil spell…how we not only see how horrible humans can be…but how wonderful as well.
Which gives us something to hang onto…because if the worst in us can bring out the best in us…then there is hope in the future for the rest of us.
Certainly it won’t be easy…in our planet’s history it hasn’t happened yet…and no doubt it will take all our energy…and tons of toil and sweat…
But here is something else we also can’t…we should’t ignore…the more we sweat for peace…the less we bleed in war.
How can such a simple concept be so difficult to comprehend…
Peace is the only thing that can ever save a world that war is trying desperately to end
I imagine, however, the best reason we should strive that wars forever cease…
is so that the eyes of every baby born…will only see images of peace.
Powerful War Images
Lynching, drawing and quartering, Jean D'Arc syndrome, beheadings, every other scene in game of thrones. Public sees it (is conditioned) to see supreme violence as entertainment: rape and murder and burning. Bombing is an extension, death by pain is viewed x-rated torture. Inured or direly affected by images vary. Our children and theirs will be heirs to all of it. Hunger, human migration, purges, mass slaughter, genocides: virtully what we see and have seen on steroids. May we never see nuclear launches.
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Peace? When was that? Somewhere on Earth, someone is murdering someone else, singly or en masse all the time, every minute. In the mythology, god threw satan out of paradise and it was on! or humans are heiarchial and have to be best, biggest, baddest. Civilizations get too big, too powerful and then crumble internally or by those jealous or loathing their dominance. See Egypt, France, Germany, Macedonia, Aztec Civilization. Rome et al. The Crusades were no picnic.
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Enter Russia and an EGO. Breast beating bully trying to scare bigger badder bullies. (EU, usa). Have you seen the usa drone that delivers 50#'s of explodive to destroy, well anything it wants directed by a soldier to avoid civvies? WMDs. That weapon, care of the Pentagon, is in $800 million package for Ukraine.
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I am tired of disputes over land, olden scores, and mineral wealth. (See end of movie, Three Days of the Comdor, Max Von Sidow and Bobby Redford. "They'll just want us to get it for 'em.") Talk about powerful images: most recent tech wars, pix hirishims nagasaki and Nam and vampire books and movies - Peace? No. Wars, like poverty, gonna always with us.
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Lady A
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Begin in the Mirror
Wherever there’s something to be gained, there’s war. Be it in your back yard… across the street… or across the world.
War Is a Racket as Smedley Butler put it, in 1935. I reckon it’s been that way for thousands of years. It’s one of the unfortunate aspects of humanity. I don’t reckon we’ll ever see a cure for it, outside of divine intervention.
And that might be coming too, very soon.
But the one thing you can do, as John pointed out below – is start with the man in the mirror. Or woman, as it may be. It’s the one thing we can do.
Because our soul is our real estate, and that’s always the best place to begin.
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Yes, peace, and we all can start small
It's first got to be an end to war within one's self, before ending war in the world.
It's next got to be an end of war in one's home, one's family, before ending war in the world.
Then it must be an end of war in the neighborhood, the community.
These things precede any hope of ending warring within a city, a state, a region, or a country, let alone before ending war in the world.