War and Peace
The unavoidable, regrettable, and unchangeable truth is that without conflict, a multitude of people would be without their jobs. History teachers, for example, would have no world or civil wars, no anarchic revolutions to teach, and where would the syllabus be without the Nazis and the Ruskies? Soldiers, those whose behavioural problems meant they were expelled from school, where would they go? Generals, their secretaries? If the world were truly peaceful, then there would be no police, no murder mysteries, possibly even no satirical panel shows.
Of course this is an exaggeration, and I only use these examples to highlight my point; I fear that the human race was not built for peace. Every time we are given the chance for peace, we crumble and choose conflict. Man’s fatal flaw of hubris is perhaps to blame. Unfortunately, with the growth of media control in the modern age, man’s overwhelming sense of pride has mixed with post-20th century paranoia, creating a cocktail of suspicion which inevitably results in violence being used in an attempt to assert authority and ensure control.
I want, more than anything, for the world to be peaceful, as I am sure many do. But the question is, how should we go about it? Much of the public doesn’t want there to be a war, and in interviews, nobody with power seems to particularly want a war, so why on earth are we permanently in some stage of conflict and aggression? What could the reason possibly be?
Right now, the answer must be even more complicated than we expected. Iraq was attacked because America was suspicious (and the needed red diesel). They were attacked on a whim, they were attacked because of a thought, not a fact, not on evidence, but on a suspicion. One person (or one country’s) paranoia has caused thousands of deaths and a great deal of damage.
The answer? I don’t know. I want to. But I fear that that isn’t one.
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