WORLD PEACE?
So tonight I had some thoughts that I wanted to get down before bed just because I knew they'd keep me from a night of good hotel sleep here in Little Rock. 'Ere goes:
While talking to my buddy Sean today, he made a comment mocking world peace. It caught me off guard and made me pause, but I didn't think much more of it after that. But just now as I was trying to go to sleep it crept back into the section of my brain with the lights still on which caused a chain-reaction of subsequent brain activity. My response to Sean's off color comment was "yeah, that'd be so boring!" which is a pretty typical response for me. But the more that I think of it, the more I agree with my sarcasm that it would be boring and the more I believe that world peace will not be possible. Even the kindest tempered of people have people that they don't like. Some of them lash out towards that enemy and some don't, but regardless that enemy still exists in their mind. Everybody has disputes, and takes out insecurities, angers, frustrations, stressors, or whatever is going wrong inside their little worlds on somebody else. Sometimes people gang up and take these factors out on other groups of people, and some are smaller, 1 on 1 skirmishes. Neighbors, friends, family members, strangers, other social factions, entire religious groups, other nations/continents, your own nation/government, your husband/wife, the asshole in front of you in line at Dunkin Donuts before you've had your coffee in the morning, the even slower guy behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts... Anybody is fair game. When people see world peace, they mostly look at the broad-scale, worst case scenarios of war and genocide. Recently people have started saying that because of globalization that the world is getting smaller and that is going to keep us from fighting other cultures because we'll all become one global culture. That's as crazy as the America melting pot theory. Hundreds of years after birthing this theory, the big cities in the North hate the small towns of the South and vis-versa because of what they stand for. The vast majority of these people have never lived in the other spectrum and have not fully experienced a day in the other's shoes, and have no desire to do so. This has turned the US from a melting pot to a series of factions tossing each other's salads.
These disputes are what turn Americans to their TVs to see what is going on elsewhere. We love drama and tragedy, and if it isn't real enough to us (i.e. the majority of the population under 30, and those who are over the age without acting like it) we make our own. Why? Because we're bored. Because if everything works out perfectly in our lives, our minds go crazy and find something wrong and make it worse. Just look at any kid who's had their entire life handed to them without lifting a finger, and the drama they cause with their friends and family, and the mental problems they create for themselves.
It's Us V. Them, everywhere we turn. That is our survival instinct that has put us to the top of the food chain. By labeling other animals or plants "Them" we are able to separate them from our own kind, and as soon as that distinction is made, killing is easy. So what's my solution? If "they" come from a different planet, then it will be possible for humans to stop killing humans by combining the human race to be "us" and join forces against "them".
From going to a Catholic high school I can recall many discussions about good versus evil. I remember a discussion with a priest (who was in training at the time but has since been ordained) who talked about having both good and evil on the planet being a blessing. He referenced a series of books which talk first about a planet with all peace and a second with all hate, and a third being Earth where the two worlds collide and how it's be best of the two because we know what both sides feel like. The good days don't feel nearly as good to us without the aweful, terrible ones. We need tragedy to compare comedy to. Hell, Shakespeare does it all the time. I wouldn't know how good the best moments in my life were if it hadn't been for the harder ones. That's what makes the good times the reward. By seeing the worst case secenario, war, first hand my good days will be THAT much better.
So the next time I see a group of bong-players playing for world peace, I'll spit on them as they have me and tell them that I hope they loose their jobs too without a guilty conscience.
While talking to my buddy Sean today, he made a comment mocking world peace. It caught me off guard and made me pause, but I didn't think much more of it after that. But just now as I was trying to go to sleep it crept back into the section of my brain with the lights still on which caused a chain-reaction of subsequent brain activity. My response to Sean's off color comment was "yeah, that'd be so boring!" which is a pretty typical response for me. But the more that I think of it, the more I agree with my sarcasm that it would be boring and the more I believe that world peace will not be possible. Even the kindest tempered of people have people that they don't like. Some of them lash out towards that enemy and some don't, but regardless that enemy still exists in their mind. Everybody has disputes, and takes out insecurities, angers, frustrations, stressors, or whatever is going wrong inside their little worlds on somebody else. Sometimes people gang up and take these factors out on other groups of people, and some are smaller, 1 on 1 skirmishes. Neighbors, friends, family members, strangers, other social factions, entire religious groups, other nations/continents, your own nation/government, your husband/wife, the asshole in front of you in line at Dunkin Donuts before you've had your coffee in the morning, the even slower guy behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts... Anybody is fair game. When people see world peace, they mostly look at the broad-scale, worst case scenarios of war and genocide. Recently people have started saying that because of globalization that the world is getting smaller and that is going to keep us from fighting other cultures because we'll all become one global culture. That's as crazy as the America melting pot theory. Hundreds of years after birthing this theory, the big cities in the North hate the small towns of the South and vis-versa because of what they stand for. The vast majority of these people have never lived in the other spectrum and have not fully experienced a day in the other's shoes, and have no desire to do so. This has turned the US from a melting pot to a series of factions tossing each other's salads.
These disputes are what turn Americans to their TVs to see what is going on elsewhere. We love drama and tragedy, and if it isn't real enough to us (i.e. the majority of the population under 30, and those who are over the age without acting like it) we make our own. Why? Because we're bored. Because if everything works out perfectly in our lives, our minds go crazy and find something wrong and make it worse. Just look at any kid who's had their entire life handed to them without lifting a finger, and the drama they cause with their friends and family, and the mental problems they create for themselves.
It's Us V. Them, everywhere we turn. That is our survival instinct that has put us to the top of the food chain. By labeling other animals or plants "Them" we are able to separate them from our own kind, and as soon as that distinction is made, killing is easy. So what's my solution? If "they" come from a different planet, then it will be possible for humans to stop killing humans by combining the human race to be "us" and join forces against "them".
From going to a Catholic high school I can recall many discussions about good versus evil. I remember a discussion with a priest (who was in training at the time but has since been ordained) who talked about having both good and evil on the planet being a blessing. He referenced a series of books which talk first about a planet with all peace and a second with all hate, and a third being Earth where the two worlds collide and how it's be best of the two because we know what both sides feel like. The good days don't feel nearly as good to us without the aweful, terrible ones. We need tragedy to compare comedy to. Hell, Shakespeare does it all the time. I wouldn't know how good the best moments in my life were if it hadn't been for the harder ones. That's what makes the good times the reward. By seeing the worst case secenario, war, first hand my good days will be THAT much better.
So the next time I see a group of bong-players playing for world peace, I'll spit on them as they have me and tell them that I hope they loose their jobs too without a guilty conscience.