The Price of Peace
I opened my browser the other day and my eyes flashed across my homepage - BBC’s world news site. The breaking news involved a death toll and pictures from Mother Nature’s latest slap: a massive, 8.8-on-the-Richter-scale earthquake in Chile.
This follows a devastating earthquake in Haiti and floods in Northern Pakistan.
A few months ago when Haiti was first hit, I remember talking to K4 with a surge of pride – what happened in Haiti was a force of nature, not a man-made abomination and in the face of tragedy, the stronger nations of the world pooled their resources, pulled together and set out to rescue their fellow man. It’s inspiring, really…
…Especially when you consider the amount of time we normally spend trying to devise ways to destroy other countries or the effort we put forth in turning our heads in a different direction when we see other countries involved in hate bombings, genocides (think Darfur), apartheids, or the facilitation of corruption.
But after hearing about Chile, it got me thinking a little bit. I’m so used to reading about suicide bombings and getting annoyed at all these enemies we feel the need to create to keep up in the game of world politics that I never considered the alternative: taking up arms against the Earth. Is it a better force to fight?
Or does it make the world a scarier place? Think about it for a second. At least with human enemies (even the ones wielding the threat of WMDs), we can provide the masses with an illusion of control. Did we even find Osama? I don’t even know actually what the deal is with him, but I know that he is one person that, I’m under the happy lie, we can find and snuff out – him and all of the people carrying out his will. Yeah they plan sneak attacks and they play by different rules and that makes them a bit scarier than the conventional army but whatever, we’ll figure out their strategy at some point.
But Mother Nature? How do you deal with her? You don’t always know when she’s going to strike, and even when you do, you don’t always have the means to protect yourself, or you don’t have time. But forget logistics. I think it’s the idea that is the scariest. Human enemies are useful firstly because of the illusion that we can conquer them. But secondly, they are great because they give us a focus for our anger and aggression and for the injustices we experience. Who will be the focus of our anger when Mother Nature does all of the killing? You can’t exactly stab a tree and feel better about it. Somehow the satisfaction of harming another human being just doesn’t translate.
(I know it sounds terrible, but reserve judgment on the messenger – I call it like I see it. Human nature is what it is.)
And Haiti and Chile – is it just me or are these not normal occurrances? That is why everyone’s jumping to the rescue isn’t it? What if the natural disasters continue to increase? Is the inevitable conclusion that we’ll get used to hearing about that and not jump up to help every time?
And, just a twisted, ironic thought to close it off for today: It’s awesome that we’re all working together and helping each other out in times of real need…but there is destruction and death nonetheless. Is this the price we pay for world peace? Hmm.
