conflict, war and survival

If that were the case it wouldn't be an impossibiliy, it would just mean we'd overpopulate. Fortunately I think we're smarter than that. In any case, I think it depends on which people you're talking about. If you mean any people fighting any other people at all, I think it is universal - people just have different interests, it's not even human nature, it's just a side effect of being different people. However, large groups of people have existed in relative peace when they were part of the same nation/empire and then fought each other after (or in a lot of cases, during) the breakup into many more independant nations. So until we're all one nation, there will always be war, and until we are all one person there will always be strife. I think attempting to acheive either of those things would be far worse than the alternative though.

I believe peace is possible once people move from the win/lose mentality of conflict to cooperative/coalition based conflict and resolution. When people view conflict as win/lose they tend to reach for the upper ground at any cost and through any means at their disposal, which often resorts to direct and physical confrontation.

As it stand now the world is in the grip of greed and self-righteousness. They know nothing of compromise or cooperation, and only when it serves their interests. If you change the mind set of man then peace in its true, unadulterated form is possible. I don't believe this will ever happen, though. After all man has never been faced with an event or cause which binds us together and if there should ever be such an event I have a feeling man would have a difficult time indeed shedding his past prejudices and embracing cooperativeness.

So the short answer: No, I don't believe there will ever be peace on earth.

I agree with Yattos.

It's Yottos, Frank. Simply Yottos.

Yottos, that was great. There is no way to achieve peace. War is a necessary component to our continued survival and dominance as a species. And I believe it has always been that way since the day the first caveman bonked somebody on the head with a rock to steal his brontosaurus burgers. It's the way it should be.

How sad we are.

I also believe that there can never be peace but for a completely different reason.

Abstinence from physical warfare can (and hopefully will) be prevented. However, the human mind is wired for competition and survival of the fittest. Hell, even ants have wars.

So, many wars will continue even after the great day when all men are at peace. There will be and are wars to keep the law, wars for the betterment of human kind, wars against authority, wars against people around us, and finally wars against ourselves.
We will have the war on drugs until all drugs are legalized. We will then follow the teachings of Emerson and Thoreau to question and sometimes fight authority. When that is over we will move on to wars against poverty and hunger. Then, we will try to do anything better than our fellow man. Finally, the only war that we will never win is the fight against ourselves: we will fight our looks, our age, our health, our minds for eternity.

To answer your question: no, there will never be an end to war.

But is cooporation really possible all the time? We all have different needs. You can't get around that. So there will always be differences in needs, differences in opinion, and someone will always have to win and someone will have to lose. Until there is a way for all of us to sastisfy needs without interfering with anyone else - but until we are all the same person, or we have infinite resources, that's not going to happen.

And for some resources, an infinite supply wouldn't help anyway. Like, getting along with personality differences. How do you resolve that one? Some people will just never hit it off with others.

Sheep, I see what you're saying, but I'm talking more about physical collective societal warfare. The wars on drugs, poverty and hunger are really more metaphorical to me. I don't really see how a war on drugs or hunger relates to people killing each other by dropping bombs on each other. I think that people will have conflicts forever, but to have one group kill another group is a different story. Why is it that as individuals, most people can go through life without killing even one person, but as a group, we are constantly killing each other? War is a natural and integral part of our nature.

In America, everything is a war. When you cure disease, you "fight" it. When you play sports you "conquer" or get "defeated". "The War on X" series that Bush has started is hardly surprising.

Even on a purely physical plane, the world has not been at peace for hundreds of years. What possible event could prevent more strife?
Is there even such a possibility that one event will stop all war (ie. aliens bringing ultimate enlightenment) or will it have to come about through some other means?

World peace will come about when everybody on earth thinks the same.
When do you think that will be?

When a good hypnotist makes a political statement.

this old thread got to me -



Maybe it isn't up to us if there is peace or not

Maybe we don't run the universe

Maybe we'll be forced into peace
in order to survive

But I think it will take great courage to make peace
when war comes so easily

Whatever country has the courage to begin ending war
will be leading a great revolution

War is out of date


"If we don't end war, war will end us."
H. G. Wells

It just takes time that's all - for the obvious to sink in

ADD GREED TO THE equation, why have peace when war is a way to work the system to gain more power and control, and all you have to lose is your caring about others peoples well being.\

and remember, we are animals, not everyone has enough intellect to realise that violence is utterly stupid, theres enough peril in this world to add hairless monkeys running around unsupervised with advanced weaponry.

its cheaper to pay 1 man to guard 9 than to pay all 10.