This Veterans Day, you won't often hear that World War I was called “the war to end all wars.”
The phrase carried hope, back then, that humanity would finally learn from the scale of its unprecedented toll to people, family, nation and economy. Causing the suffering that led us to World War 2.
Yet over a century later, we continue fighting wars, mourn, rebuild, reload, then repeat the cycle.
Veterans know better than anyone! War is not a movie plot or a patriotic slogan. It's real lives, families, and futures that will never be. If gratitude means anything, it must mean learning from what has already been paid for in blood, trillions in treasure, environmental destruction, and now new costs in 'deterring' the next conflict.
Unfortunately, with the exponential growth of AI, the evolution of WMD, new weaponry including autonomic weapons systems, and the weaponization of every technology...including our own nation's laws -- Peace is not possible. DO NOT believe it. Not until we unite and put the rule of law above the law of war as Albert Einstein, other wise souls, and Rotary leaders in the past have all clearly acknowledged.
Now, the predominant overarching global peace movement is governments firmly believing in "Peace through Strength". The so called 'progressive peace movement' has failed for decades to unite with the other progressive movements (environment and economic/social justice) and remains stuck in its 'believe enough and hope it will work' mode. It's persistent 'Peace through Disarmament" efforts.
Disarmament is delusional in a world where everything is weaponized, the protection of national sovereignty trumps the protection of human rights and the environment. Even the most logical human minds ignore this insanity.
The progressive peace movement should flip its priority to Health. An unambiguous word, unlike Peace...which remains ill defined by most minds in multiple polarized ways. This is not a sane recipe for any sustainable solution. It's more like 'faith' in a word. A word that requires hope, optimism, and prayer (feel good thinking) but not an engineering process that usually achieves very workable results for people or the planet. Imagine the possibility of a healthy mind, body, spirit, family, community, culture, environment, government, economy...
The so call "Peace Game" now being preached to achieve world peace by 2030 is the perfect example of a cult that ignores the root causes of violence and persistent conflict. These root causes are mental constructs and non-biological identities that our minds have invented to rationalize keeping power. Reasoning that leads to the mass murder of our own humankind and sacrificing our own bodies to protect what we believe as a dominant concept (religious, economic, political). All of which remain creations within our mind...not evidenced in our DNA.
The service of soldiers to protect ones own nation's freedom and security is profoundly honorable - and sometime necessary as in WW II and Ukraine's fight for survival. But only because powerful governments and 'we the people' have failed to honor and abide by the "Truths" that we should all "hold to be self-evident", like the universal "inalienable Rights" offered 249 years and 129 days ago, in the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
Even thousands of years before that was the creation of religions (all based on the concept of the Golden Rule) then the same concept by indigenous cultures before Religions. Humankind has always known what to do, had the resources and technology to achieve it, and the intelligence/logic to create heaven on earth. We only lacked the wisdom. People in power, however they got there, fell into the Intelligence Trap. Minds believing they are so smart they could not be wrong. Then believing everything they think. Usually their own great ideas to benefit those in power. Then ignore the repeated failures from history.
History has given us multiple opportunities to change our mind's course. Even before the bible. After World War I, the world proposed the League of Nations . After World War II, we built the United Nations (Rotary played a key role). After the Cold War, there was a chance to invest in cooperation rather than rivalry. Yet we chose and still wage a global war against Terrorism- a tactic of the weak and vengeful, that can NEVER be defeated.
At each turning point, we could have strengthened diplomacy, addressed poverty, globally enforced basic human rights through the global rule of law, and built economic stability across regions for every nation and population. These are the conditions that prevent war. Instead, we fell back into fear, suspicion, and endless competition that will bankrupt every nation that participates...even when there are no wars.
In today's news the growth of terrorism is shifting to Africa. Nuclear nations are investing more money they don't have modernizing their arsenals. Conflicts continue in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. The warning signs of a gray, or perhaps a kinetic World War is concerning to anyone following news trends.
The solutions remain. Unfortunately, the evolution of AI is beyond our minds capacity to understand, or predict its power. Yet we still hesitate.
What is wrong with us is not the lack of intelligence. It is a lack of collective wisdom to create the political will to change our way of thinking and the political and economic systems engineered dozens if not hundreds of years ago.
We already know how to prevent war. In biology, there is a name for species that do not adapt to their environment. They are called 'extinct'.
If we truly honor veterans, we must stop creating more of them.
WTF? Wise up! And rise up. Consider Project 250 as a possible action plan.
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