Wednesday, September 20, 2006
University Of Peace
In the current issue of the Beijing Review, there was a rather good article that pointed out we have many schools in the world to teach war, but none to teach peace. It suggested that the path to peace might start with the creation of such universities and that in a time when the world is crying out for peace and peacemakers, we are sorely lacking in anyone trained to the task.
War is big business. There is always money to be made in war, but where is the profit in peace? If we could make peace as viable a profit maker as war is today, then we might be able to actually sustain lasting peace in the world. The trick of course is to find a way to make peace pay.
Perhaps also if there was a way that did not violate free trade to make it impossible to realize any profit from war it would also help. (like imposing such dramatic taxes on any gain realized as a result of war to make it an unpopular way to make money)
Back to that article. This author made the article an invitation, or a challenge to all nations to individually or jointly create schools for peace. One thing I do not recall being mentioned in the article was religion which would actually have to be left at the door to the class rooms as we all know the history of using religious beliefs to embark upon "holy wars" which in fact were sometimes not so thinly veiled wars of aggression over property and wealth.
Arbitrators and negotiators could take the place of troops and guns. They would need to have more of a global consciousness than a national one in order to be unbiased and really look at all the issues and find common ground for all parties.
From the perspective of a follower of the Tao, it appears that Christianity and Islam are not all that far apart in theology, yet some would have you believe there is a holy war in progress. Somehow making a war one of a holy cause is supposed to validate it. People still die, there is still ground taken, there are still the same prizes and costs.
Bush is taking the stand that his war is righteous because it is against terrorism. Think about that for a moment. It is first and foremost, an un-winnable war because with each terrorist you kill or maim, you create two or more (sometimes even hundreds) more terrorists. He claims to be there to spread democracy.. which like the previous argument makes you wonder if he is really this stupid or just a liar since he fails to recognize that Hezbollah was democratically elected as part of the Palestine government .
Ok, cease fire for a minute on Bush. What about Condi Rice? Sent supposedly to negotiate a peace or help to do so. As far as I can see she has no qualifications as a peace maker or peace keeper. She delayed her trip for what, a month? to give Israel time to bomb the crap out of the Hezbollah before she could step in and have the appearance of being a peace maker with all the best intentions. The only agenda for the United States is to put folks in power who agree with us and destroy those who don't. (or better yet, let someone else destroy them and we wont step in to look like the good guys until the "bad" guys are pretty much wiped out.)
We need to have institutions of higher education that teach peace, negotiation, and ethics. We need to have the graduates of such institutions be the negotiators and peacemakers of the world without valuing nationalism above globalism.
Maybe we can even make this a race. Which Nation shall rise above all others and be the first to create a higher education institution of Peace? Which Nations will band together in an attempt to end wars forever ? Who will be the first to hand out diplomas in Peacekeeping? My money is not on the US as long as Bush still holds the reins.
War is big business. There is always money to be made in war, but where is the profit in peace? If we could make peace as viable a profit maker as war is today, then we might be able to actually sustain lasting peace in the world. The trick of course is to find a way to make peace pay.
Perhaps also if there was a way that did not violate free trade to make it impossible to realize any profit from war it would also help. (like imposing such dramatic taxes on any gain realized as a result of war to make it an unpopular way to make money)
Back to that article. This author made the article an invitation, or a challenge to all nations to individually or jointly create schools for peace. One thing I do not recall being mentioned in the article was religion which would actually have to be left at the door to the class rooms as we all know the history of using religious beliefs to embark upon "holy wars" which in fact were sometimes not so thinly veiled wars of aggression over property and wealth.
Arbitrators and negotiators could take the place of troops and guns. They would need to have more of a global consciousness than a national one in order to be unbiased and really look at all the issues and find common ground for all parties.
From the perspective of a follower of the Tao, it appears that Christianity and Islam are not all that far apart in theology, yet some would have you believe there is a holy war in progress. Somehow making a war one of a holy cause is supposed to validate it. People still die, there is still ground taken, there are still the same prizes and costs.
Bush is taking the stand that his war is righteous because it is against terrorism. Think about that for a moment. It is first and foremost, an un-winnable war because with each terrorist you kill or maim, you create two or more (sometimes even hundreds) more terrorists. He claims to be there to spread democracy.. which like the previous argument makes you wonder if he is really this stupid or just a liar since he fails to recognize that Hezbollah was democratically elected as part of the Palestine government .
Ok, cease fire for a minute on Bush. What about Condi Rice? Sent supposedly to negotiate a peace or help to do so. As far as I can see she has no qualifications as a peace maker or peace keeper. She delayed her trip for what, a month? to give Israel time to bomb the crap out of the Hezbollah before she could step in and have the appearance of being a peace maker with all the best intentions. The only agenda for the United States is to put folks in power who agree with us and destroy those who don't. (or better yet, let someone else destroy them and we wont step in to look like the good guys until the "bad" guys are pretty much wiped out.)
We need to have institutions of higher education that teach peace, negotiation, and ethics. We need to have the graduates of such institutions be the negotiators and peacemakers of the world without valuing nationalism above globalism.
Maybe we can even make this a race. Which Nation shall rise above all others and be the first to create a higher education institution of Peace? Which Nations will band together in an attempt to end wars forever ? Who will be the first to hand out diplomas in Peacekeeping? My money is not on the US as long as Bush still holds the reins.
