The following continues the serialization of Chapter 1 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity: (The numbers are for references.)
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Is it Possible to Survive Without a Military?
In a word, yes. There are 24 countries with no military. Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius and Panama have no defense expenditures. However, they form alliances and maintain a police force of some sorts. Grenada actually gave theirs up after the U.S. invasion in 1983.
None of these countries seem terribly concerned about an invader. In fact, a strong case can be made about how utilization of all tax dollars for peaceful and economic purposes would actually strengthen the country. There must be a clue here as to what to do about large defense budgets. Just think, if no country had a military, then no country would be threatened. There must be a simple solution here, somewhere. My very first Huffington Post article published almost a year ago suggested a mechanism for getting to ZeroD.
Is World Peace Possible?
The Bushmen of the Kalahari live with no internal or external violence. In fact, there are at least 25 societies around the world today with little or no warfare.596 In Beyond War, Douglas Fry demonstrates how war can become obsolete.205 He differentiates between human frailty towards personal problems and warfare. The former is natural, the latter, can be controlled. The bottom line, from studying aboriginal societies, is that fighting wars is not an essential attribute of society. Warfare is not inevitable.
Ironically, waging peace has not been a safe task. Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin were assassinated seeking the peace. The Dalai Lama proposed a Team Nobel to prevent wars, an inspired, but hazardous, idea.
The Spark Matsunaga-inspired U.S. Institute for Peace has found a home in Washington, D.C., and is a think tank with a goal towards resolving conflicts through peace, not war. A partnership with similar organizations throughout the world, the religious sector of society and the United Nations seems hopeful as the structure for the future.
While not exactly world peace, there are various humanitarian and environmental missions that can serve as pathways to amity. Certainly, military units throughout the globe have assisted during major natural disasters. That’s a given. Also, too, there seems to be a calling for adding environmental remediation as a complementary task. There are many more examples worthy of consideration (that article mentioned above suggests having a segment of the current military transition out by working on green energy technology), but just one, providing shelter for the homeless, should be underscored as an opportunity. Military bases become obsolete and navy ships are mothballed. Each base commander should be urged to reach out to the community. The advantage of involving the armed forces is that they also have the capability to provide re-training. A little irony, but in Chapter 5, it is suggested that each church also become engaged in this mission, for they too have the means to link with jobs through their congregation. What better partnership than war and peace to assist humanity?
But to the purpose of this section, one surefire way for the world to cooperate is from a threat to the entire Planet. We saw this in Independence Day and Mars Attacks, movies where aliens try to conquer us. An interesting point was made in the fourth “Body Snatchers,” this one in 2007 called The Invasion: where one of the aliens tries to persuasively argue that there would then be no war in Iraq, no genocide in Darfur…no conflict in general. This would mean that everyone would become a Stepford Human. There is something missing in a society without any conflict. Do we ban the Olympics for being too internationally competitive? Little League Baseball?
In any case, there must be something better than what we have today, and Herman Wouk has been quoted to say: “War is an old habit of thought, an old frame of mind, an old political technique that must now pass as human sacrifice and human slavery have passed.” As Kenneth Boulding, a speaker at one of the workshops I early co-directed, said, “anything that exists is possible.” Yes, worldwide peace is most definitely possible as our civilization matures. It’s only a matter of time.
In a word, yes. There are 24 countries with no military. Costa Rica, Iceland, Mauritius and Panama have no defense expenditures. However, they form alliances and maintain a police force of some sorts. Grenada actually gave theirs up after the U.S. invasion in 1983.
None of these countries seem terribly concerned about an invader. In fact, a strong case can be made about how utilization of all tax dollars for peaceful and economic purposes would actually strengthen the country. There must be a clue here as to what to do about large defense budgets. Just think, if no country had a military, then no country would be threatened. There must be a simple solution here, somewhere. My very first Huffington Post article published almost a year ago suggested a mechanism for getting to ZeroD.
Is World Peace Possible?
The Bushmen of the Kalahari live with no internal or external violence. In fact, there are at least 25 societies around the world today with little or no warfare.596 In Beyond War, Douglas Fry demonstrates how war can become obsolete.205 He differentiates between human frailty towards personal problems and warfare. The former is natural, the latter, can be controlled. The bottom line, from studying aboriginal societies, is that fighting wars is not an essential attribute of society. Warfare is not inevitable.
Ironically, waging peace has not been a safe task. Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin were assassinated seeking the peace. The Dalai Lama proposed a Team Nobel to prevent wars, an inspired, but hazardous, idea.
The Spark Matsunaga-inspired U.S. Institute for Peace has found a home in Washington, D.C., and is a think tank with a goal towards resolving conflicts through peace, not war. A partnership with similar organizations throughout the world, the religious sector of society and the United Nations seems hopeful as the structure for the future.
While not exactly world peace, there are various humanitarian and environmental missions that can serve as pathways to amity. Certainly, military units throughout the globe have assisted during major natural disasters. That’s a given. Also, too, there seems to be a calling for adding environmental remediation as a complementary task. There are many more examples worthy of consideration (that article mentioned above suggests having a segment of the current military transition out by working on green energy technology), but just one, providing shelter for the homeless, should be underscored as an opportunity. Military bases become obsolete and navy ships are mothballed. Each base commander should be urged to reach out to the community. The advantage of involving the armed forces is that they also have the capability to provide re-training. A little irony, but in Chapter 5, it is suggested that each church also become engaged in this mission, for they too have the means to link with jobs through their congregation. What better partnership than war and peace to assist humanity?
But to the purpose of this section, one surefire way for the world to cooperate is from a threat to the entire Planet. We saw this in Independence Day and Mars Attacks, movies where aliens try to conquer us. An interesting point was made in the fourth “Body Snatchers,” this one in 2007 called The Invasion: where one of the aliens tries to persuasively argue that there would then be no war in Iraq, no genocide in Darfur…no conflict in general. This would mean that everyone would become a Stepford Human. There is something missing in a society without any conflict. Do we ban the Olympics for being too internationally competitive? Little League Baseball?
In any case, there must be something better than what we have today, and Herman Wouk has been quoted to say: “War is an old habit of thought, an old frame of mind, an old political technique that must now pass as human sacrifice and human slavery have passed.” As Kenneth Boulding, a speaker at one of the workshops I early co-directed, said, “anything that exists is possible.” Yes, worldwide peace is most definitely possible as our civilization matures. It’s only a matter of time.
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The Dow Jones Industrials eased up today by 50 to 8469, while world markets almost all fell. Gold went up $10/toz to $923 and oil slightly increased. You can read the article, "Three Cheers for Higher Oil Prices."-
The American hurricane season does not begin until June 1, but, in case you were wondering, these will be the names to come this year:
Atlantic Storms:
Ana,
Bill,
Claudette,
Danny,
Erika,
Fred,
Grace,
Henri,
Ida,
Joaquin,
Kate,
Larry,
Mindy,
Nicholas,
Odette,
Peter,
Rose,
Sam,
Teresa,
Victor,
Wanda,
.
Pacific Storms:
.
Andres,
Blanca,
Carlos,
Dolores,
Enrique,
Felicia,
Guillermo,
Hilda,
Ignacio,
Jimena,
Kevin,
Linda,
Marty,
Nora,
Olaf,
Patricia,
Rick,
Sandra,
Terry,
Vivian,
Waldo,
Xina,
York,
Zelda,
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