The 3 R's of War

[serryjw]

Race
Religion
Resources
Have we ever had a time in modern history that this planet has not had war? Is Peace possible? I understand why kids enlist for an education or opportunity BUT why do we have people give their lives for war as officers? Few (Joe Wilson) go into the Diplomacy as a career. Until this entire planet lays down it's weapons for the good of mankind we will always worry about the next war. I doubt if we have ever been closer to world annihilation than now. War for Race (ethnic cleansing) and religion can be prevented but war for resources is the killer. Energy, water & food = survival. That is where we are now and I don't see how we can stop this run away train until half this planet is dead. Too many are greedy & have a sense of entitlement. The last few minutes of Three Days of the Condor keeps echoing in my head. :cry:

[The Traveler]

1. Your post

reminds me of something I learned in an anthropology class. Polynesian warriors from different tribes would paddle hundreds of miles to confront each other in ritual war games. Sometimes people were killed, usually by accident.

Ultimate warriors, they learned to make peace. But they held on to their warriorship.

There is value in being ready to fight. It requires discipline and courage. But there is value in being ready to find ways to achieve peace. That, also, requires discipline and courage.

Peace cannot happen without risk. If you are the leader of a nation, risk cannot be responsibly assumed without being ready to react to potential consequences.

The Polynesian tribes worked it out. We can too.

[serryjw]

4. Can you imagine GREATNESS

Bushit the idiot standing at the UN and stating Americans and all its' allies are totally disarming for the good of mankind. We EXPECT all nationals to do the same. The UN will have worldwide UN inspectors verifying all nations will do this. IF they do NOT all other nations will immediately cut all trade and impose sanctions that will make them a worldwide poria (sp). We will use all our worldwide resources and technology to help mankind. We will NOT allow Corporate America to rape other nations. NOW that is greatness.

[The Traveler]

5. Oooh ... I like your vision

How 'bout this one. We will stay strong. We will arm Israel and Iran. You guys wanna kill each other? Go for it. Or meet with us and do business and make better the lives of our people. God will know you by your choice, but the choice is yours.

Let us stay armed, but live together in peace. We're smart enough to do this.

[serryjw]

7. NO, as a species we are NOT

smart enough to stay armed without killing each other. The money that is spent worldwide could feed and house the 3rd world. We could start building water filtration plants instead of nuclear planets. We could give worldwide child immunization to developing nations
BTW as an aside WE FIRE ( Oh, We can have Trump do it. He is good at YOUR FIRED!)Wolfowitz. The world bank can not longer rape and pillage other nations

[The Traveler]

8. I agree with you

but as a student of anthropology must also disagree with you. The warrior instinct must find a channel. My hope for future revoves around that instinct applied to the cause of getting the human race through the consequences of global warming, which to me presents both danger and mighty opportunity,

[serryjw]

9. A worldwide cataclysmic event might

very well be the only thing that will stop this worldwide train wreck. Global Warning and Peak OIl are it. Remember Al Gore's movie will be out 5/26...just in time for debate and the 2006 election

[The Traveler]

11. "Train wreck"

Yeah. That about sums it up. Only a fool fights in a burning house ... yet still we fight. To a professional soldier, this makes no sense.

[peacetheonlyway]

2. great post..

succinct and well outlined.

Eckhart Tolle explains that race and religion drive ordinary respectable citizens to commit terrifying crimes against humanity because these people's ego needs fulfillment so they take on the ego of the collective 'race' or 'religion'. since no person can really be that idealized and egoistic vision, it normally results in a conflict within the person, because their NOW is in total conflict with the thoughts (usually wrong) and ideas in their head that have been the result of conditioning ... take terrorist bombers.. what possible reason could account for taking one's own life so early in life?

Tolle himself came close to committing suicide and realized that the problem was he was listening to 2 voices within, his EGO and that still / peaceful / inner presence which represented the real Eckhart.

add resources to the list of problems and you have "perceived" fears about the future.. meaning people will fight for the perceived security in the future when in fact, their NOW is totally secure and most of the time the resources exist or solution close by to solve their resource problem.

take oil... could we as a nation place incentives NOT TO USE cars.. tax incentives, governmental incentives to build out cheaper transportation alternatives.. and worst case scenario will being forced not to use cars really destroy people's lives? didn't our grandparents operate without cars just fine? last time I checked there are still bikes and horses around..

in other words while I agree we are closer to annihilation, we must recognize the demons in power driving us there are not in touch with their more spiritual sides (a side all humans have).. if we can help them recognize that the 'now' is not composed of enemies, not composed of a persistent fear or worry of a potential bad future, we can go a long way toward alleviating this meltdown..

transforming others takes extreme compassion and extreme faith in humanity to correct itself.. take these retired generals, who would have thought generals would stand up as the final stopping block to bush's mad race to nuking iran?

recognizing ego's fault in all of this and turning toward a path of your own inner peace, and speaking that peace to others (i.e. showing people how the now is beautiful, actually quite paradise like) and helping people spread this message is the fastest way to reverse the ills that have happened thus far....

[serryjw]

6. Remember Dr Stanley Milgram's experiments

Exactly what happened at Abu Ghraib. Given the opportunity people will seek to take control over another
quote.......
Controversy surrounded Stanley Milgram for much of his professional life as a result of a series of experiments on obedience to authority which he conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly, that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants.

end quote.....
http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.php

[peacetheonlyway]

10. you have made my night

what an incredibly smart response and something I had no idea anyone did research on..

i do remember being upset my college psychology teacher did a pavlovian experiment with us
where everytime he rang a bell, we dipped our finger in a cup of candy powder and after about
20 times rang the bell and asked if we were salivating for the taste of sugar..

i was incensed that almost 90% of the people's hands raised.. it disgusted me he would even do such an experiment..

but thanks for the weblink.... very interesting stuff...certainly explains nazi germany where people watched their neighbors getting dragged out of their homes and did nothing to stop it....

[serryjw]

12. That is why low level

Corporate supervisors are a pain in the arse. They have the first taste of control over people. They usually handle it badly.

[lonestarnot]

3. Don't cry! Work it! Fight it! Stop it!