Monday, March 2, 2009

War Is Good

Of course I don't believe war is good, but I was talking to someone who insist that it is.

His first argument is that it contributes to the economy, therefore it is good. My response is that it may create short term jobs, but the end result is negative. First off the tools of war are destroyed in the process of war, so have no secondary contribution to the economy. Second infrastructure is destroyed, causing the need for reconstruction and further debt loads. Third and most important, lives are lost.

According to him, loss of life on a massive scale is good, because if there had never been any wars the planet would be so crowded from overpopulation, that we would all be starving. Maybe over population would be a problem now, if all the past wars had not taken place, but maybe not, we can't assume that. We may have found other solutions to the problem, if that was our most dire problem. Because we have acted like savage beasts in the past, does not mean that we should continue in that manner.

I work under the assumption that killing humans is wrong, and advocate doing whatever is possible to end violence. If this causes overpopulation, then we will work on solving that problem. Do not assume that war is the best solution to this problem.

The problem with over population, seems to be a lack of resources, but is it really a lack of resources, or is it a lack of application of brain power. For example, we will probably run out of oil in the near future, but this is only a major problem if we never find alternatives. If we spend all our effort searching for oil we will not find alternative ways of doing things and alternative sources of energy.

The real problem is beliefs. We believe that there is no solution so we don't look for one. We believe that the other guy is the problem, so we don't do anything about improving ourselves. We believe that our beliefs are the truth, and all other beliefs are false.

Be careful what you believe in, because the mind has the habit of turning your beliefs into reality. Its not that your beliefs cause the universe to reconfigure to conform to your beliefs. There is no hidden Secret here that will make all your wishes come true. What is happening is that your mind is very good at filtering reality, so that you only see evidence that appears to support your beliefs and don't see contradictory evidence. Your beliefs also drive your actions, both consciously and subconsciously.

If we start believing that every life on this planet is valuable, and that our problems are solvable, we just might start doing things differently. The status quo is not acceptable, we as a global society, and as individuals must constantly strive for better ways of doing things.

2 comments:

Stu said...

Crikey Bill who are you hanging around with!

"War is good because it's good for the economy"? Jesus, so it's ok for children to get maimed as long as he can continue to get cheap stuff at Walmart (I'm assuming it's a he, women generally don't "do" war)

If there was ever anyone who needed pointing in the direction of the Zeitgeist movies, it's him...

Good blog though.

Stu said...

Oh, and on the overpopulation thing, people are so naive about this.

Read the 3rd paragraph here.