War & Peace
The history of our civilization is littered with wars, bloodshed and genocide. Conflict has been ingrained within human civilizations throughout the ages. We fight each other at the slightest provocation in the name of religion, race, rights, freedom, democracy, or plain greed.
Furthermore it is sometimes argued that war is necessary in order to achieve peace. So we awkwardly glorify conflict in order to justify it, at the same time using twisted arguments to deny this, by continuing to commit vast resources from the state to enable arms manufacturing and warfare in all its guises. We also celebrate conflict in the telling of endless tales about heroes and battles, liberation and oppression, good and evil.
Some claim this is a natural phenomenon arguing that it is in our nature to compete and fight to protect what is rightfully ours - whether that be land, property or simply a belief system. Human beings, it is asserted, are innately aggressive, yet only partly rational. Apes in all but our outer shell. Why else would we allow religious dogma to kindle fear and superstition to the extent that it hinders and retards true development?
Others, realizing the destructive nature and ultimate futility of feuding, question the intelligence as well as the morality of such 'primitive' behaviour. Their argument is that dialogue, conducted in a spirit of reciprocity and with the intention of finding common ground, is more likely to result in sustainable peace and social advancement. Yet the habit of taking up arms is one we cannot seem to avoid. Mainstream media and war-mongering pundits invariably latch onto any kind of conflict, or its possibility, in a frisson of almost carnal arousal - like a shiver looking around for a spine to run up.
Today though, there is an added imperative to take into account. The pursuit of conflict comes at enormous cost - in terms of lives, cultures and capital. Increasingly the cost of war is one we can least afford; unless, that is, we choose the path of what used to be called mutually assured destruction. There are fortunes still to be made by reckless dealers in that sector. Armageddon is still a good bet for any wealthy psychopaths willing to engage.
This time, however, communism is not the enemy. It is not more predatory forms of capitalism, nor the threat of a nuclear accident. It is not even global heating, the opioid crisis, or the rise of China. Nor is it the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic - although it might be related to attitudes that allow dangerous gain-of-function research to continue unregulated.
The 'enemy' to which I refer is the self-righteous tenacity of the global north's colonial mindset - its attachment to the illusion of progress (primarily through the cult of competitive individualism, democracy, socio-economic stratification, and unrelenting growth) together with its evangelistic determination to cling to power by insisting this paradigm is in the best interests of the human family. More explicitly it's the casual apathy to signals urging the need for better, more culturally inclusive sense-making, as part of a much-needed metamorphosis of mind aimed at enhancing our capacity to reimagine human purpose.
Ironically, embedded in this call for a new consciousness is a universal imperative: balanced against the trillions of dollars wasted on wars is now the pressing need to save our home from environmental destruction and subsequent civilizational collapse.
At a time when urgent action is required by all nations and communities working together, the continued drain of billions of dollars on the machinery of warfare is unspeakably immoral and utterly insane. Questions thrown up by the dogged recklessness of military campaigns go to the very core of who we are as human beings.
Occasionally one hears a case by advocates that the military budget is the mainstay of the US economy; that the Pentagon is a key sponsor of technical innovation as well as a major source of employment. At one level these claims are true but it is an erroneous argument. Injections of billions of dollars into the economy cannot help but generate thousands of jobs. Likewise, when the US government spends a significant portion of its budget on maintaining and bolstering the most powerful military force in history, this cannot fail to result in technological innovation.
Yet is it not also true that directing hundreds of billions of dollars into fields such as education, renewable energy, organic agriculture, ecologically intelligent urban renewal, and the hydrogen economy would create a hothouse environment supporting radically new technologies? The answer is a resounding yes!
Obviously a great deal is at stake here. Wars and war-mongering activities consume valuable resources and hinder humanity’s actual advancement by manufacturing confusion, death and destruction. Choosing to end war must be the first serious step in a giant leap of consciousness aimed at redesigning a world based on peace, abundance, and a perpetually self-replenishing, life-enhancing, planetary ecology. We have nothing to lose but everything to gain.