[lit-ideas] Re: On the prospect of World Peace
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 19:38:32 -0700
All thumbs today. That went off before the target was within range.
I had asked for a fuller account of something 'essential to the human spirit'
that perpetual peace would deprive us of. Eric wrote:
The sense of a lawless frontier, free from the peace-enforcing
Master Oppressor, a place to hide from all that peace, for one
thing. Also the degree of homogeneity and uniformity that would
result from the Master Oppressor's World Government would require
the removal of those aspects of culture that create stress and
conflict--and these stressors could be as simple as which side of
the soft-boiled egg one opens. Something would be lost if we only
were allowed to open the short end.
I have no idea why there should be no stresses and strains involved in
keeping
the peace, and why these would not be strongly rewarding. Think of aircraft
controllers. Think of mountain rescue guys. I'll lay odds that it's harder to
keep nations, including one's own, from going to war, than it is to just give
in and let them have at it. I think somebody from the League of Nations said
that.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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