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A Higher, Nobler Cause for Man
by
Gordon Rowlinson
About
20 years ago, my wanderings lead me to
I
thought of what President Dwight Eisenhower said of military spending: “Every
gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the
final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold
and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending
the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its
children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud
of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
I
started thinking how wonderful it would be if all the countries in the world
would stop building high tech killing machines such as Trident submarines,
ICBMs, and B1 bombers. I thought how wonderful it would be if we stopped
wasting the genius of our scientists on high tech weapons that destroy and
hired all the world's brilliant scientists to design high tech space vehicles
and focus on space exploration. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we concentrated our
resources on nobler purposes other than war and killing each other? We’d be to
Pluto in no time! The briefest moment passed and I realized my foolish thoughts
of such a utopian, peaceful world were a mere idealistic dream. We are a
somewhat violent species and many times hostile to others. This is not a
political site, but I recognize that building expensive weapons with a defense
budget that puts a high drag on our economy is a necessity. Given how dangerous
our world is, if we did not spend a portion of our national budget on defense,
our country would fall into the war abyss.
Psychologist
Conrad Lorenz noted that predatory animals that can kill easily, have an inner
instinct not to kill their own kind. Wolves, rattlesnakes, lions, etc. do not
kill their own species. Human beings do not have natural predatory weapons such
as teeth and claws and cannot kill easily. Therefore we do not have an inner
instinct that prevents us from killing our own kind. Unfortunately we have
found out how to construct more and more efficient ways to kill each other such
as guns, rocket propelled grenades and Stealth Bombers. It would be fortunate
if our weapons were limited to clubs. A war with clubs would keep the casualty
count low.
As
we do not have an inner instinct to stop us murdering our own, we must use our
brains. The prophet Moses gave us the commandment “Thou shall not kill.” Jesus
said “Blessed be the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” and taught us to
love our enemies. This is SciFi site not a site about religion. But reaching
inward to thoughts of tolerance and humanity is a step in the right direction.
We are now out of the Christmas season where for a brief moment in the year we
thought of peace on earth and good will to men. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we
were somehow able to stop all war and have peace on earth and good will to men
all year round?
There
is hope for the future. During the cold war, both the
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