The Institution of War

If you look up the word "institution" in the dictionary, you can learn quite a bit about war.

First, the general definition of an institution goes something like this:

Institution:

A significant practice, relationship, or organization within a society or culture; an establishment.

A public organization with a particular purpose or function.

An enterprise or foundation.

A set of customs and behavior patterns ... as structures and mechanisms of social order among humans.

Then, if you go to Wikipedia, you find even more about institutions, including a very interesting fact: they often are not created intentionally, but rather emerge unconsciously as a function of conditions over time.

Here is the Wikipedia definition of institutions:

Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior. The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service.

Although individual, formal organizations, commonly identified as "institutions," may be deliberately and intentionally created by people, the development and functioning of institutions in society in general may be regarded as an instance of emergence that is, institutions arise, develop and function in a pattern of social self-organization, which goes beyond the conscious intentions of the individual humans involved.

So what does this have to do with war, and the institution of war? Everything! What is hidden in these paragraphs above is the key to (or one of the keys to) why we continue to use war to resolve conflict, and why it no longer works.

The institution of war has arisen largely outside our consciousness, and has gained a life of its own. It almost does its thing without our even having to think about it. And that is why we have to re-examine it now, and work to see that it has become obsolete.

John Boyle used to say that, "Insofar as we think of ourselves today, as we were in the past, our past is guaranteed to resurrect itself and become our future." His point was that we need a mindshift, or a new way of thinking, to see things (such as war) from a new perspective if we want change to occur.

Can we change? Of course. You don't see wars happening between cities or states anymore. And as Robert Keck suggests in his book, Sacred Quest, the institution of war is very short lived, in comparison to how long we, as Homo Sapiens have been around.

So let's start a global conversation about all this. Let's NOT allow ourselves or our representatives in government to focus on just the war in Iraq, with discussions solely about how to win (or get out) of THAT war. We need to be talking about all war in general. This is the only way we will finally get beyond war and not repeat the mistake we have made in Iraq.

If you want to help spread this message, please talk with others about this new way of thinking. Send the article above to everyone on your email lists, or to your government officials or media contacts. Ask them to do the same.

If we will all work together, we can retire the institution of war permanently.

Thank You!

© 2007 Beyond Iraq