War and Snot

Anit-war. Many people have been and are anti-war advocates. I, also, am not in favor of war, but I am afraid that being anti-war does not help achieve any kind of resolve. War, you see, is not made for its own sake. We do not have anti-war campaigns that fight against pro-war campaigns (that would be ironic and antithetical for those supporting anti-war), but war is a symptom of a much greater disease.

I think we can all agree that as human beings we all have wants and needs. I am not going to discuss whether humans are naturally good or evil in this article, but for the sake of the article let us assume that we as human beings are evil. Evil, as defined by Project 86, is, “I want something you have. I want it oh so bad. Don't move. Hand it over. I won't stop until it's in my hands.” We have war because we want something some else has and they will not give it to us. We often try for diplomatic means but if those continue to fail then we resort to brute force to obtain what we need. This has been true for every culture in the history of humanity. Our wants and resistance to what we don't want have consistently driven us to violence towards our fellow man. This violence, this war, is fueled by our desires and because we believe that we are more superior or that our needs are greater than the human beings that disagree with us.

War is like snot. When the body is sick it generates more snot to help fight against the germs and disease present in the body. War generates from necessity. When we have excessive amounts of snot coming out of out bodies we know that there is a deeper sickness within that is generating the excess of our defense mechanism. To simply stop war would be like wiping a runny nose. More snot will follow. Wiping it away does not solve the problem, it only treats the symptom.

The real disease comes from our own desires. We must stop wanting what others have so much that we force ourselves upon each other, or wanting to avoid what others are trying to give us. Some people simply want other people dead. War is necessary to fight and defend ourselves from the onslaught of endangering forces. War can protect us in the same way that snot helps us stay healthy by capturing infectious germs in our noses before they can reach the inner, vulnerable parts of our bodies. To stop war we must stop thinking of ourselves as superior and in greater need than other human beings. To be anti-war is to be anti-snot. If we truly seek for war to end we must be anti-want.