Hypocrisy

Of late, I have been reading about the causes and indicators related to why people/countries engage in war and/or peace.  There are theories that point to economics, governance, population age, gender balance, resources and religion/ideology as root causes. We do know that a mix of all these play a part. There are other elements that rarely get discussed which are; stupidity, insanity, intolerance and to put it very simple – some people are assholes. Human trafficking is one such example of such behaviour. It takes an evil piece of work to enslave another to a lifetime of hell for monetary gain. However, human trafficking is a thriving business.

In my holistic understanding of the world I know that I contribute to the continuation of such practices.  I am alive therefore everything that transpires in this world I am a part of. Moreover, I understand that I am in a relationship with everyone else that is also alive, whether I know that person or not.  We are all here at this moment and that is reality.

In that context I often think of the hell a 14 year old girl has lived in the past five years locked in a cell only to be used as a prostitute? What causes us to act so horribly to a nine year old? This is the very base of individual impact that war/hell has on the world.  Going one step up we have the gang/organized crime element.

In this network we see elements of ethics beginning. The transactions of money and “goods” takes place because of the trust each side has.  People have to work together for the operation to run, this takes a strong need for common benefit.  All the while the operation is destroying the greater peace, which in turn destroys the common benefit of the entire world. Do you see the hypocrisy?  When you live in such a world you must rule with fear because logic, justice, compassion and humanity are dead.

Going one more step higher we get to world organizations and governments.  In this step we can add religions/ideological groups.  Violence that is brought about in the name of god, country, or whatever can be a murky area.  Sometimes these groups must defend against attacks.  However, there are some wars that have raged on for centuries and no one knows exactly why, other than it began due to a fear of the other. Fear only works on the weak and even then the weak can grow tired, then realize they out-number the rulers. This scenario has been going on between Christians and Islam for two thousand years and still going.  It is taking place in Mexico with the drug wars. It is taking place now in Syria and other areas.

Every country has signed onto the Declaration of Human Rights that belong the United Nations. Still we have member nations killing another because they believe/think differently.   While they kill each other on battle fields they turn around and defend their actions in terms of self- preservation. I am sure the person that locked up the nine year girl would use the same argument.

Use of force

Being a person that is known as a peace worker, because I am, often I get cornered into arguments about the use of force.  Well again that was the case last night. 

The use of force is one that I do wish we never had to use but as I have mentioned many times, we must deal with insanity.  The golden rule is a game theory strategy; treat another as you would wish to be treated yourself.  No one wants to be violently tortured to the point where death is near.  No one wants to be controlled to the point where the personal choice and life are meaningless.  Yet we live in a world where these situations are true for millions of people at this very moment.

In addition I got cornered in my statements concerning the RUSA, which on the surface seems to be a deep hatred for the RUSA.  In truth, it is the hypocrisy that truly infuriates me.  A country born out of the desire for democracy, rule of law, freedom and individuality has stepped on and crushed those very founding ideas time and time again.  For example, the constitution of the RUSA has provisions that every individual has the right to defend themselves.  The people even “fixed” the constitution by amending to include the right to use weapons in that defence.  Now if we are to expand into the scale of international politics, every country should be able to defend themselves with the use of weapons, which would include nuclear weapons.  However that is not the case.  Any country that the RUSA has threatened with violent military action does not have the right (so believes the RUSA) to defend itself using equal force.  Using that analogy, the RUSA doesn’t believe their constitution as a document for world peace.

I honestly believe that the experiment in which the founding people of the RUSA began is great and worth protecting.  However, I also believe that the past 60 years of ideology in the RUSA has been more harmful than it has helped.  I wish them all the best to get back on course because the RUSA can be a more positive factor in the world.