War and Peace

I was watching this video and it made me think about a lot of issues in the world. As a random side note that I have discovered as I have gotten older is that the world is a crazy, intricate and insanely complex place. Seriously. Some time (if you get the time) you should really just think and contemplate about how people interact and how when you are faced with new situations where completely new faces appear, how insane it is to think that those people have been living in your neighborhood, or in your city, or in your state, or in your country and you have never even interacted or talked to them. I once had this idea about creating this picture with my bubble at the center (Of course! Who else would fill that position? No one!!!) and then connecting with a line to all of the other bubbles that I have had contact with at some point in my life and then continuing this process. If we did that, then I think it could be argued that everyone is connected to everyone else. And after thinking about this while typing it, it seems that this idea has already been put into action. People have already implemented this idea in the form of the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Anyhow, back to the video. Watch it if you want. It is one of my favorite bands making a video for their song. I think that the quality of the video and such aside, which was great in my opinion, it forced me to think about some of the themes it talked about. Maybe I made some gigantic leaps in my thinking when I was watching the video, but I do not think they are that huge and even if they are, this is my brain we are talking about and you consent to this type of torture when you read my first post.

The stated mission of the band at the beginning of the video is that this is a song for peace, ironic considering the title of the song is "This is War" usually a declarative statement made my some talking head made in an effort to encourage the populace to support his/her decisions and actions. However, it made me think: what if we were to take away all weapons, of any scale? Many countries have been trying to get rid of their weapons of mass destruction after the Cold War and the tensions associated with that period, but they still retain guns. Guns can do some damage as well. Granted, they cannot do as much wide-spread instantaneous or long-term damage as nukes, but they can still kill people and do on a daily basis. So, what if we were to band together as a world and get rid of all of our weapons?

Well, the first problem I thought about when I considered this possibility was that even if we were to get rid of all the guns, knives and nukes in the world, people would get creative and resort to something else. They would get broom handles and start beating people with them, they would take their headphones and choke someone they did not like. So, ultimately even if we were to completely eradicate weapons from the face of the earth, that would not mean that peace would ensue. People would get creative and start using random, seemingly harmless objects and use them as weapons.

This then led me to believe that fighting would have to cease in order for real world peace to ensue. You can take away all of the objects that do the killing, but humans are still here, coupled with other objects with the potential of killing. In order for world peace to ensue we would have to end the desire for fighting and conflict in human beings. Is this even conceivable? Can we completely eradicate any sense of fighting in humans, or is it simply part of human nature to be desirous of fighting? Perhaps not as desirous as I seem to have put it, but I hope you can get my point. Is fighting with violence simply part of human nature and thus unchangeable? Is violence one more characteristic that makes us human?

One more considerable question I thought about but was hesitant to put on my little scrap of paper I had available when watching this video and am still unsure about as I write about it now, is can there be fighting without violence? Alright, say we can't get rid of fighting because it is too deeply ingrained in the human psyche/nature but can we keep our fighting nature but do it without the resort to physical violence? Or are these two intricately intertwined issues to the extent that untangling them would be a hassle/impossible?

Anyway, I think that is about it for now. I went to a lecture tonight about science, religion and morality -- which was absolutely awesome. I will definitely be posting some more interesting questions the lecture brought up, along with an update on various academic things as tomorrow is a big academic-oriented day for me.