Friday 13 October 2000

Pic of the day: The leaves are turning brown day by day. Hastily the days are growing shorter and darker. A cold dampness has settled on everything, and a smell of decay lingers in the air.

Rumors of war

Today is not only Friday 13th, and a full moon. It is also the day the Nobel Peace Prize is announced. This year, it went to the president of South Korea. I guess he's an all around nice guy, at least if you're not a striking laborer. Let's hope he succeeds in keeping his country from a full scale war with the absolutely clinically insane regime on the north. God knows there is plenty of war in the world as it is, despite all the recent progress in almost all areas of science: No one has found a working cure against war.

That is not to say that we don't know how war comes about, or how to avert it. We have a pretty good idea of the processes that lead to a full scale war. That is not the problem. The problem is that people want war, and happily swallow camel-sized lies in order to continue the course towards destruction, insanity and hell on Earth.

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For instance, it is not like the current conflagration in Palestina has not been on the radar for a long long time. It's not like the world's mightiest mortals haven't worked overtime to try to stop it. But it just slides on, and there seems to be nothing anybody can do.

I'll say it without too much candy, my sympathy is with Israel. It is a modern, European-style nation. The people think like us, except they close their shops on Saturdays instead of Sundays. When I read for instance Jerusalem Post, it is not really different from reading any European or North American newspaper. People think and live the same way as we do.

In contrast, Palestina comes across as thoroughly medieval, like several of its Arab neighbors. The whole mindset may have been immediately understandable to our ancestors even 500 years ago, but it makes no sense to me. I can intellectually understand part of it. These people live in poverty, ignorance and filth. They are likely to die young anyway, so it may make sense to die with honor rather than to live in shame. Certainly the Vikings held a similar attitude. But modern humans have so much to lose - a long life in luxury, by historical standards - and so our priorities are very different.

Israel/Palestina is not just two peoples and two religions claiming the same land. It is two different ages, centuries apart, like a giant collision between two different time streams merging into one.

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It has been noted again and again that democratic countries do not wage war against each other. This may be for the simple reason that people do not want war, and when the people rule, there is no war. War is hell, and most people realize this when they grow up. They are not willing to die, or have their children die, if they can reasonably avoid it.

Another main reason may be the prosperity. For various reasons, freedom and the rule of law lead to economic growth. In a dictatorship (including the old-fashioned feudal monarchies) there is no reason to save up money: The rulers will eventually confiscate it when they discover it. In a free country, you get to keep at least a part of your income and wealth. You can think long term, invest and build. With the higher standard of living, there is gradually more to lose from war. Also people are more content, so it is not that easy to stir them up to deep murderous hate.

If we want to prevent war, then, we should encourage democracy, freedom, and economic growth. I'm happy to say that this seems to be done right now in Serbia. Western countries are pledging various forms of aid to help rebuild the former enemy. Let us hope that this will keep people from reverting to their sympathy for the Slobo. Certainly the Marshall plan after the second world war worked wonders for Western Europe.

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My outlook then is not quite as dark as many of my fellow christians, who study the prophesies of the various beasts and terrible wars and plagues and blood and fire. Sometimes I almost feel a certain expectation when there is talk about war in the Middle East. Finally some action! Of course, they want things to get going so we can come really soon now to the main course, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and the eternal glory which they look forward to sharing with him.

Me, I'd like to see that glory come with as little bloodshed as at all possible. I think that would also be more fitting for a man who cried on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

Then again, what do I know? It is hard enough to understand the things that are in my own little path through life.