Department of Peace.....

[poltr1]

This week's discussion topic:

One of my colleagues in the Mankind Project is involved in developing a United States Department of Peace. A Google search on "Department of Peace" identified several resources, including the website for The Peace Alliance, an entry on Wikipedia, and the website for Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign bid in '08.

My question is: But will it fly? Is such an organization viable? I've had enough of war -- especially the one in Iraq -- and it would be nice to go back to peacetime if we can. But I realize that wartime is what keeps the massive Defense Military Industrial Complex running, and there's lots of money (and jobs!) to be had in that arena.

I'm hopeful, but at the same time, I'm skeptical.

Thoughts? Discuss.

Comments

[kliklikitty.livejournal.com]

Sadly I think the only thing that will unite our world in peace is if the earth gets into a war with another world. I don't see that happening anytime soon though. We exist on a world that is meant to be the crucible for our souls. It's how we deal with every horrible thing that happens especially wars that often make or break us spiritually imo.

I too hate and am tired of war. I wish we would give peace a real chance but I doubt I'll ever really see that in my life time. Even in times of so called peace there are still to many things boiling over in to many places for me to honestly call it peacetime. It's just a time in wich the US is not acknowledging that it's at war some where.

[athenawindsong.livejournal.com]

Not possible for another dozen years or so. We gotta shake off the ick of the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Dubya eras first. (Side note: I don't support Hillary even though I like her idea of turning Bill into an ambassador - any president can do that with him - I just want a new regime in the White House)

Fresh blood means new ideas. But new ideas cannot take hold until the old ideas have run their course. This is why I give it a dozen years.

However, if the proposed Department of Peace includes in its policies aging hippies making o's around bonfires, no shoes Thursdays and tree-hugging Fridays, that would be a wonderful thing. ;oD

[owlsforodin.livejournal.com]

Will religious groups finally give in an accept that divine grace can extend to those outside their denomination?

Will any human group, however defined, be willing to extend the courtesies existing within it to those whose are outside it?

I think that those seemingly simple concepts are the real obstacles. The biggest obstacle to all of these may be that we ARE human, and that humans are mammals. Most mammals live in groups, and most of these groups consider almost anything outside of their own group to be a threat, including, and sometimes especially, their own kind.

The bottom line to me is that as long as any group of humans is willing to consider any other group of humans as not being on the same level as them, they will somehow rationalize away their willingness to slight them and conflict will result, and sometimes that conflict will rise to violence.