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The hypothesis of this Web site is that we need to take a step back from the war in Iraq and examine the institution of war in general, from a broader perspective, if we are going to avoid another war in the future. So what is this larger view? Where does this context come from? And how is this perspective going to contribute to a world beyond war? Right now, we are talking about the war in Iraq in terms of finding an answer to the current predicament. Should we stay in, get out... whatever. And, while these are certainly important questions, they are far too small in scope to give us a lasting solution to the problem of war in general. What we need is a new context. New Context So what is the new context? Simply this: We are living within a single, emerging, multi-form, energy event which we call "The Universe." Each and every one of us has been birthed into this magnificent miracle and are subject to all of its laws, conditions and consequences. We are made from its very stardust.
This system environs us. It is our context. How long has this environment been evolving? Science has
now given us a pretty good answer: around 13.7 billion years. And what has gone
on during that time? The emergence of new, ever-more-elegant forms of light,
energy, life, consciousness and love. Darwin called this process evolution. We now know that
it has a trajectory and has produced everything we see and know, including ourselves. Even our
thinking, and the very computers we use to send and receive messages over the
Internet, are created from the raw materials and processes of this Universe. You might say, "It's the boss." So what does this have to do with the institution of
war? Think about it.
If you mix blue and yellow paint together, you get
green. There is no doubt about it. Blue and yellow always make green. Whether or
not you choose to mix them is your decision to make. What they make is
already set. With war, it is quite a bit the same. We have
unconsciously allowed
war to emerge as we transitioned from
hunter-gathers to property owners, with crops and livestock. And, as we became
more civilized and nations
emerged, armies were needed to protect these resources. Thus, the institution of
war began. How long ago did this occur? Anthropologists tell us
about five thousand years ago... or, maybe ten thousand years ago at the most.
But Homo sapiens (Man the wise) has been around 150,000 thousand years. And the
trajectory of life on Earth goes back four billion years. War is obsolete Now, it is becoming clear that war doesn't work
anymore. Weapons don't make us safer and bombs don't protect us from anybody.
Even the military doesn't make battleships anymore. They have no value. And no
amount of guns can protect us from terrorism. 911 proved that. What is becoming apparent is that we have to change our
way of thinking if we want to survive. In the 1980s, a group in Palo Alto, California, examined
the institution of war and concluded that it had become
obsolete. That was over twenty years ago. It's time we retire the
institution of war, once and for all. We can do it! Culture Because war has become institutionalized, we have to
move beyond it by changing our culture. In order to do this, we have to
think differently. And see things with new eyes. And to do this, we have to
talk. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Either we are going to
die together, or we are going to have to learn to live together. And if we are
going to live together, we have to talk." Conversations The first step to retiring war is to begin a
global dialogue
on the subject. Culture changes as we change. If we will talk, and share our
thinking with one other, we will be able to find our way forward and be done with war once
and for all. What to do To begin this process, we need as many people as
possible to begin sharing this new thinking with those they know. Everyone has
many people in their e-mail lists whom they can send a message to, offering them
the URL of this Web site, and suggesting that they do the same with those they
know. Then, there are literally hundreds of ways each of can
make a difference. It will have to be a "distributed functionality" to work. No
one can do it for us. Together, we can learn from the war in Iraq and use it to
propel ourselves to retire this outmoded institution once and for all. It's time. Our children will thank us for it. It's the
right thing to do. Set some time aside each day to plan and implement your
own process of spreading the word. Contact your elected officials. Talk with
family and friends. Encourage others to replicate your efforts. Get out there! Send people to our Web site:
http://www.beyond-iraq.com. Working together we can make a difference. Thank You!
© 2007 Beyond Iraq |
