As much as I'd like to say otherwise, war and violence is in our blood. It has always been. The idea of living in peace is almost "foreign" or "alien" to the human race. We just can't grasp that concept. Probably because we have never lived in permanent peace.
Sadly, peace doesn't last forever. Sooner or later, different groups within a peaceful society rise up with different ideologies. Not necessarily entirely different but even the minute change in ideology is enough to breed violence. And sooner than you know, peace is broken. Shattered into a million pieces and disintegrated. Then comes the long and bloody war, and the waste of thousands of innocent lives. Beautiful settlements turned to barren battlefields stained with the blood of the innocents and of the people forced into a meaningless war...
While the need for power may affect only one individual, wrong ideas and beliefs have the ability to corrupt entire nations, giving rise to all-out chaos. When one acts on behalf of his ideology, he believes that he is right - even if he is wrong. That false idea has been placed so deeply and securely inside his mind that now he is ready to sacrifice his life for it. In comparison to this, a power-hungry individual may go to extreme lengths but he is at least somewhat sub-consciously aware that what he is doing, is wrong.
Ideas and beliefs are strange things. It is definitely fine to have different views and beliefs, but enforcing those beliefs onto others at gunpoint and threatening violence if your views are not accepted, is wrong. Ideas and views are very important to people, they are highly valued. I could go even as far as saying that when one's ideology is not accepted by others he feels.. hurt. Just as if you gave a precious gift to your friend and he declined to accept it.
Enforcing anything upon anyone is wrong. Something that many people fail to understand is that there are people with different ideologies, views and opinions. Not everyone has the same views and nor they should. If they did, then it would be a world where no one ever asked any questions. And that my friends, is the death of science and reason.
Since the dawn of civilization, there have been wars. In recorded history, the first war ever took place on 2700 BCE between Elam and Sumer. This however does not mean that 2700 BCE was the year warfare began. There are pictographs depicting armies at war long before 2700 BCE. Of course the two World Wars are still fresh in our memory, and they should be so that we don't forget the millions of people who died fighting evil. Those who win wars get to write history. Not always a story is told exactly as it happened. Some details are left out, some are made up, some are highlighted. In celebrating the victory, the victors forget what caused the war in the first place. Napoleon once said,
"What then is, generally speaking, the truth of history? A fable agreed upon."
Let's face it, there will always be wars. I can't believe that I have had to type this, but it is true. Realistically, long-term peace isn't sustainable. There will always be that one person who needs power and will even fight a for it if it comes to that. There will always be that one group who holds different ideology and will do it's best to make sure that it's ideology is the one that dominates. It's morbid and almost pessimistic but it is also the truth. An ideal society would be without evil, where evil can never set foot right? But every possible society is susceptible to evil, so realistically this isn't possible.
History repeats itself unless we learn from it. And so far, I don't think that we have. It is very hard to root out evil from society and unless it's roots are cut, it spreads at the speed of light. Today, we are falling victim to this very tragedy. There is ignorance, there is evil, and there is darkness. But all is not lost.
Where there is dark, there is hope too. And you cannot kill hope. Just like you cannot kill ideas. Even in the heart of the soldier on a bloodied battlefield there is hope. Hope that he may be able to go back home. Hope that he will not die in this god-forsaken wasteland. Hope that he will live to be the age of 100 and pass away quietly and peacefully. This hope wins battles and wars. This might seem overtly optimistic but the power of hope should not be underestimated.
Like you and many others, I too hope that one day world see a state of permanent peace. Where everyone lives together in harmony, where there exists the actual right of free speech and expression. But is such a world possible?
That remains to be seen. I do hope that somehow we accomplish this before anything goes wrong. With the destruction we have at our disposal, the next war might as well be the last war this planet ever sees. My favorite Einstein quote also reflects this,
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
And this is as true as it gets. I hope we never get to see that day... I hope.
Sorry if this seems pessimistic, but you can never get optimistic with such powerful subjects. If you liked the article, please don't forget to resteem, follow, and comment. Thanks!
Thank you for a well prepared article. It is certainly clear form the history of our species and observation of our environment why this should be the obvious conclusion.
I find though, that the wonders of existance and the complexity of all things are way beyond our current capacity to understand them, manipulate them or even begin to discuss them from any firm foundational framework.
We simply do not undersand things.
As one who has been through the atheism mill, I find it impossible to deny the existance of forces beyond our comprehension and am convinced of an all-encompassing intelligent, sustaining force which permiates all structure, whether atomic, cosmic, biological or etherial.
To quote one of my favourite sources on the subject in question : "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Mosiah 3:18
And so I believe it is in our nature to be kind and helpful and forgiving and to seek to be benevolent. There are however factors which would convince us of other views and the 'natural man' succumbs to these all to often, thereby provinding his fellows with destructive examples and we drag each other down into the realms of negative consequence.
It was prophecied that a time will come when a little child will lead us and teach us. That time is not far off. Just last night I watched a 4 year old girl answer some fairly interesting questions for her age. But the kicker is they were asked in English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese. Not only does she answer in each language fluently but demostrates comprehension and dexterity way beyond what we might expect.
When we give up our striving to do things our way and acknowledge that the ways provided in our instruction manuals are indeed the correct ways, then we will have peace and prosperity, no more poor, no more war and no more strife.
Instead of going over the whole topic, I'll shamelessly leave a link to an old post of mine - https://steemit.com/history/@liberosist/the-sudden-decline-of-war
Unfortunately you're right :( there will be always wars, at least as long as mankind will learn to live in harmony with nature, elevating his spirit by learning the noble truths taught by the Buddha. Look at my blog if you want ot see what i'm talking about. Anyway great post :)
This was a nice read, thank you! I think it's quite interesting how the fear of mutually assured destruction has actually kept the peace between major powers to some extent, there would almost be a sort of twisted reassurance in it if it wasn't for the fact that just a single mistake or pathological leader could result in total annihilation. It's a situation that isn't going to go away and given enough time the probability that it will happen is worrying to say the least.
Nobody wants to be the one who fired first, you're right. The tensions have been slowly building up, let's hope they never reach the breaking point.