I have come to realize that one of the most difficult concepts for humans to deal with is the idea expressed at the end of the last blog, that conflict is caused by humans who used to be peaceful. As a result we find ourselves attempting what Einstein said was impossible: trying to solve a problem with the same mind that cause the problem in the first place.
A similar situation exists in the field of education. Bill Gates has been infusing millions of dollars to deal with inequities within the education system. The problem is that the inequities within the education system were not introduced by uneducated people. Nor were they necessarily caused by graduates of the types of bad schools that are being upgraded with money from the Gates Foundation. We used to have a great education system and the products of that system caused parts of it to fall into ruin. Even if we were able to accomplish what the Gates Foundation wants to accomplish we would only return to the first page of the same book. It will not be long before the same process that brought parts of the education system to ruin begins again.
The same is true of the peace process. Former US Senator George Mitchell is correct: "There is no conflict that cannot be resolved. Violent conflict is created and sustained by human beings, and it can be ended by human beings." But it is not enough to end all conflicts. It is not enough to obtain a just peace or a long-lasting peace. Those are admirable goals but they only return us to the first page of the same book.
We need to create a set of circumstances that will ensure that humans will never again have the need to create violent conflict.
Here I recall Abraham Lincoln's call at his Second Inaugural:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.
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Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the idea that our war is normal.
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic that in this scientific age our scholars subscribe to this view with no supporting evidence. On the contrary, there is overwhelming evidence that the opposite is true.
ReplyDeleteI think their "scientific evidence" is the premise that human war and violence is equivalent to violence within other species or between other species.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I conclude when I'm speaking to evolutionists/naturalists: they'll often point to predation as evidence.