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

[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.