Years ago I was at a party chatting it up with someone. She was an interesting gal who enjoyed talking about things I like such as politics, music, etc. She brought up the issue of peace."Do you believe world peace is possible?" she asked.
"No," I quickly replied.
"No?" she asked with a surprised tone.
"No," I said. "If it is possible it'll never happen in our lifetimes."
"I don't know things are changing."
"Yeah for the worst. The world is far less safe than it was ten years ago and I'm not just talking about terrorism. There are more nukes, larger armies, and many more powder kegs then there were prior to WWI."
"I don't know," she said. "Things are changing. Don't you believe the ideal in Star Trek that one day everyone will suddenly realize the benefit of working for the common good?"
"No. It's a nice idea, but one that'll never happen. As long as the very human trait that is greed still exists we will never see peace."
"I don't know," she said again. "Things are changing."
"Yeah like what?" I asked. "What current world event makes you believe that nations are on a road to peace?"
"Well I don't know one specifically, but we're on our way."
"Look it's a nice dream, one I wish more people had, but if we sit here and be naive and keep telling ourselves we're already on the road to peace when in fact we're not is more dangerous than any nukes ever produced. If you truly believe peace can exist then reality must be accepted and something must be done otherwise we're just enabling the harbingers of war by our lack of action believing that the problem is taking care of itself."
She dropped it at that and didn't want to discuss the issue any more. I kind of felt bad for bringing down her hippy dream of everyone living in harmony, because at times I wish I had such a vision for our world. Then again I don't buy the fact that we can stop violence by giving people botany and listening to Dan Fogelberg.
"Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done." - Mark Twain
2 comments:
I am with you on this one. I don't forsee world peace. I don't even know how you would define it. Even if there were great relations between all countries there would still be internal violence. SO much of the human condition would have to change.
That being said, it is still the most worthy goal to strive for.
Scott
I know the kind...
.... RUN.
Post a Comment