We seem to be living the “ancient Chinese curse” that was rumored to have been made up by Robert Kennedy in the 1970s. The phrase has been investigated many times because it has the “ring” of truth. Peace and plenty are not as interesting as war and famine. We can find a lot of times in history during which wars were common. It is, however, not easy to find extended periods of peace.
Not that long ago, England and France had what has been called the Hundred Years War. That was in the days of swords, shields, and bows and arrows. The carnage was horrendous. In the States, we also had a Civil War. More recently, we had what is known as World War One, which was thought to be the war to end all wars. It was followed by World War Two, which was followed by The Vietnam War. The one thing the wars prove is that humans are slow to learn.
When I was an undergraduate taking a psychology course, we had a saying, “Even a rat learns.” Humans do, of course, learn. They don’t always learn what’s most desirable, however. Instead of learning how to avoid war and otherwise reduce conflict, for example, humans tend to learn how to build and employ better weapons. A well-known play from Ancient Greece, Lysistrata, has women withholding sex from men to get the men to refrain from going to war. If it were actually that easy, I suspect wars would be ancient history by now.
War is, of course, very unpleasant, primarily for those who fight them, but also for those who care about those who go to war and for those who live in areas were the wars are fought. You would think that we would be sufficiently tired of war by now that we would make sure not to have another one. That doesn’t appear to be the case, however. If you’re old enough, you may remember the resistance to the War in Vietnam. That one was “my war.” I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t see any actual combat, and I came home alive. I knew people who weren’t so lucky.
My sense is that it’s about time we learned how to avoid war. During the Vietnam era, Another Mother for Peace was founded to promote peace. It seems to me that it is past time for us to realize that dream. You may remember the saying, “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” Now would be a good time for us to do what we can to make that true. And another one, if you are old enough to remember it: “Crystal Blue Persuasion”