Project Peace

2000-1-4 18:23:00

Blayne Writes
"The main problems I have with the peace declaration are that it sets up a new world bureaucracy and puts a world army/peace keeping force under its control. History has taught us that, however good the intentions are, it will end up subverted for the gain of those in the controlling bodies ranks."

JJ
There is no way to avoid an organizational structure for any body that administers the rule of law and some rule of law will be necessary for some time to come.

Blayne
"Also having to have an army to ensure peace has never worked but temporarily at best; violence begets violence and ensuring peace for fear of reprisal constitutes peace at threat of force or fear of reprisal. And force is in opposition to the kingdom of heaven."

JJ
Keeping a relatively strong military for the United States, for instance, has prevented any other nation from attacking us for 55 years. If we had maintained no military force I assure you this country would have been taken over by someone out there.

Thus having an army for this nation has at least preserved the peace as well as freedom within our borders.

Force, when it is for self-defense, is not in opposition to the kingdom of heaven. There is a time and place for all things said Solomon.

I wouldn't call the putting forth of the United Order idea of the early Mormons as a peace plan; an economic plan perhaps. It sounds like you want to establish an order, something like the Amish have today with emphasis on farming and carpentry.

This was tried in early Mormonism and other religions many times and has never worked. So how do you expect to take something that only succeeded in making people miserable and creating the kingdom of heaven with it?

I would much rather live in a society where my neighbor calls a professional contractor to fix his roof rather than expecting me to help him do it.

If I want to help a neighbor through my own free will, fine, but I don't want to live in a society where I am expected to burst out helping on a daily basis whether I feel like it or not. Even more important, I do not want to depend on the unreliable spontaneity of others for my needs.

Currently I do not know any of my neighbors personally, or even know their names, even though I have lived in the same house for 12 years.. I say hi to them over the fence now and then but Artie and I are happy to keep our good friends a little distance from us. That's one of the reasons they stay good friends and are always happy to see us and we them.

The basic idea of equality however, is a principle I agree with, and have written about how it can be achieved through business. The series is called the Molecular Business and can be found at:

http://www.thenewagesite.com/jjdewey/molecular/business1.php

By the way Samu, thanks again for doing such a good job in keeping up on the archives. How are things? [Editor's note: The archives are now maintained by Larry.]

I've also been meaning to comment on John's fine statement:

"Interesting discussions going on in here. JJ, I wonder that your statement didn't actually say, "we often spend a lot of unnecessary energy worrying over something we can do SOMETHING about.........".

Good point John. I find that when I start actively working on a solution to a problem that my attention is on the positive end result and not on worrying about the current problem.

And Marylin, saying a few cuss words in the privacy of your car is far less harmful than a hurtful action or word directed at and received by another human being. If you actually got out of the car and cussed the guy - that may be something to work on, but it doesn't sound like that is what happened.

Hope to get back on the badly needed subject of truth next as Susan seems to be nudging us toward.