Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "war-and-peace"

Peace and War are two sides of the same coin. Where there is peace, there will be war - where there is war there will be peace. War is only the making of peace. This war does not necessarily have to be external. In most cases, the real war is internal, which means, it takes place within the human mind - within you. One way or another, war will keep on festering on this planet, until humanity becomes a real wise species. And we have a long to go till we actually achieve it, mostly because, we are still not an advanced species, no matter how much we boast about it. We just like to feel that we are advanced, for all the basic technological discoveries that we have made. But the point is, technological discoveries may make a species advanced, but they do not necessarily make a species wise. A wise species would be the one at peace with the self. Without the self there is no excellence. Without the self there is no advancement.

All creatures have it - the self, but the humans are the most advanced, because, they have the most complicated form of the self on this planet, thanks to the process of Evolution, which led to a uniquely intricate neural network inside our head. Other creatures just have the taste of it, because most of their brain power goes to managing the physical functioning of their body, and very little is left for mental faculties beyond the needs of survival. However, do not for a second think, that we are the best there shall ever be. Yes it is true, that in aspects of excellence, especially the ones that have to do with the faculties of the mind, we are indeed the best. But we still have a long way to go to become a real wise species, at least the way we hail ourselves to be in the very title "Sapiens".

To become real Sapiens, we need to act as sapiens. And even though some humans do act as true sapiens, or at the very least, they try to act that way, the unfortunate reality is, most humans don't. These humans often lose their basic faculty of reasoning to such an extent, that they adamantly vote for a narcissistic, human-looking, orange orangutan and make him the leader of a great nation. Such a scenario is only possible because a huge portion of the human society is still infested with superstitions, prejudices, sectarianism, mysticism and bigotry. And we the humans shall not be worthy of the title "sapiens", unless we do away with these primitive evils, that consistently drag the human civilization back to stone age.

Do away with prejudices - do away with separatism - do away with bigotry, and you shall witness the dawn of a new world- a world of real peace - real harmony - real acceptance. In that world, love and kindness shall run in the veins of humans, instead dogma-induced hatred. Such humans will be worthy of the title Sapiens. They shall be qualified, by all means, for the title "human". But the point is, it is not going to happen so easily. And more importantly, it is not going to happen, unless humanity learns to value humanity over everything else - and I mean everything else. No Bible, no Church, no Priest, no dogma of any kind, shall be above the humans - above basic human elements, such as love, compassion and reasoning. Human character should be judged only by the measure of these elements, not a book, a prophet, a messiah, or an institution. To quote from Principia Humanitas"

"Human you are, and your religion Humanism."

That's it. That's all there is. If you are a human, you have all the religions in you, if not, then no matter how many scriptures you hold dear, it will not make you worthy of the title "human", let alone the title "religious." As I have said in "Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism"

“Let your conscience be your scripture and your actions be your religion. Let the humans be your church and compassion be your worship. Let love be your gospel and acceptance be your revelation.”

When you are wise, peace shall follow, or we can also see it the other way round. When you are at peace with the self, you will be wise. And from that internal wisdom, shall emerge peace for the whole world - real peace - peace that will unite, not divide - peace that will be celebrated, not fought for. So, start working for that peace my friend. Let your child have a better world, than the one you were born in.



Further Reading

Principia Humanitas

Illusion of Religion: A Treatise on Religious Fundamentalism

Shake the world savaşçı,
The world is only a reflection of you.
Break the mold o kahraman,
In a civilized time these molds won't do.
Your story is the one of a warrior,
Not the one fighting with weapon.
You are the hero without arms,
Your power is your determination.
One person can end a war,
If they give all to the making of peace.
You are the answer to the world's prayers,
But you must keep your prejudice on leash.
Go sleepless, starving and unappraised if needed.
Be the guerra of inclusion and unite the divided.

Bombs kill terrorists,
Books kill terrorism.
Missiles kill extremists,
Mindfulness kills extremism.
Guns kill supremacists,
Goodness kills supremacy.
Law restrains cruel people,
Love reforms cruelty.
Sarin cripples the malicious,
Service cures malice.
C4 impairs the prejudiced,
Curiosity treats prejudice.
Violence can be revolution no more.
For all degradation kindness is the cure.

Enough with the worship of chains!
Enough with celebration of selfishness!
Time it is to shatter the altars of separation.
Time it is to be the ravager of primitiveness.
Let us hang all our sectarian gods and idols.
Let us start a new worship of love and liberty.
Let us be prophets and messengers of harmony.
Let us be disintegrated in realization of inclusivity.
Let us go insane and kick all prison-gates down.
Let us burn locks to ashes with flames of heart.
Let us call upon the vigor eternal from within.
Let us hunt down the last trace of inhuman dirt.
Let us draw a noble anatomy for civilization.
Let us lay ourselves as cornerstones of ascension.

Hudson, Thames, Nile and Sindhu,
All are now red with the blood of the innocent.
Who is to blame for such catastrophe,
Everybody who accepts arms race as upliftment.
Suited savages have seduced them to believe,
That bigger the military greater the pride.
It’s necessary for politicians to sell nationalism,
Or else their loyal subjects will all get untied.
Acts of national security only breed insecurity,
Which forces people to seek comfort in weapons.
True, lasting stability and serenity of a nation,
Comes only from a universal desire for union.
Let the politicians sell war in the name of peace.
Why must the citizens buy it like rats chasing cheese!

Stop calling it war, for war implies faults on both sides. It’s an invasion, where the state of Russia is the aggressor and the people of Ukraine are the victim. And stop saying that your prayers are with the Ukrainian people, for prayers may give you comfort, but it does nothing to alleviate their suffering. Shred all hypocritical advocacy of human rights and be involved in a meaningful way that actually helps the victims of Russian imperialism.

At the moment, don’t buy my books, help the people of Ukraine instead. Consider supporting Nova Ukraine, People in Need, United Help Ukraine, UNICEF Ukraine, Ukraine World, The Kyiv Independent, The New Voice of Ukraine, and other organizations working on the ground.

Peace doesn't come through prayers,
Peace comes through responsible action.
When the invader stomps on innocent lives,
Not choosing a side is a consent to oppression.
Ask us for water, we won't let you go unfed,
But do not mistake our gentleness as fear.
If you so much as lay a finger on our home,
We'll defend it with our blood, sweat 'n tears.
We ain't no coward to selfishly seek security,
When our land is being ransacked by raccoons.
When the lives of our loved ones are at stake,
We'll break but never bend to oligarchical buffoons.
The love of our families is what keeps us breathing.
To preserve their smiles, we shall happily die fighting.

It takes hundreds of years of hard work to build a civilization, and yet with the press of a button we can destroy it all in a day. Let us not press the button my friend. In fact, if we must destroy something let us destroy the very button of destruction, both from outside and inside.

Let us incapacitate every single button of death and destruction, be it technological or psychological, and redirect that energy towards creation and conservation. You see, destroying the nukes mean nothing. Destroy one, another will be built in its place in a matter of months. We have to nuke the hate in us first, so that we no longer feel the need for nukes against our own kind.

However, for the sake of investigation, let us forget the common sense of peace, and talk defense strategy for a moment, in a way that might make sense to world leaders. You see, the best defense against a nuke is not another nuke, but a code. It is the best defense because it is exponentially less expensive.

In a technologically advanced world, the most powerful nation is not the one with nuclear power, but the one with coding power. So, to the so-called leaders of the world I say - if you're still foolishly worried about your neighbor's nuclear capabilities, don't go about wasting billions of dollars on a nuclear program, just spend a fragment of those funds on post-launch warhead hacking.

But then again, it would open up a new realm of problems at a different level, because any nation with exceptional wireless channel manipulation expertise can remotely take over the command of another nation's nuclear warheads. So, at the end of the day, so long as there is animosity among the nations of the world, between mind and mind, sustained by stupid borders and foul ideologies, there is no safe way out.

I'll say it to you plainly. Wasting nuclear power on warheads is a barbaric use of a scientific revolution. Let me elaborate with some numbers.

A single nuclear warhead contains nearly 4 kilograms of Plutonium-239, which in a nuclear power plant can produce sufficient heat to generate about 32 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, that is, 32 Gigawatt-hours (GWh). 1 GWh of electricity powers about 700,000 households for one hour, hence 32 GWh would power about 22.4 million households for one hour. Now, if we divide that number by the number of hours in a year, that is, 8760, we are confronted with an astounding revelation. It is that, the radioactive material from one nuclear warhead can power over two thousand households for a year (2557 to be exact).

And that's just the radioactive material we are talking about. Many more resources are required to set up a nuclear program. The point is, instead of wasting such potent and precious resources on fancy, frivolous and fictitious geopolitical insecurities, let us redirect those resources to alleviate actual, real human suffering from society. Let us use them to empower communities rather than to dominate them - let us use them to elevate the whole of humankind, rather than to downgrade the parts that we do not like. Because by degrading others, we only degrade ourselves, whereas by lifting others, we rise ourselves. Remember, there is no world peace, so long as fear is off the leash.

War is expensive, peace is free,
Yet war is petty, peace is priceless.
War is childish, peace is for adults,
Yet war is complex, peace is child’s play.
War is for fools, peace is for the sage,
Yet sages sustain war, deeming peace foolish.
War is strain on the brain, peace only needs love,
Yet intellectuals justify war, calling peace rubbish.
War is good for maintaining control over the people,
Hence imperialists peddle war in the name of justice.
But all imperialists are the fault of the civilians,
All wars are a failure of our civilized citizenship.
No war is tougher than the civilians of the world.
Exercise that potential to abolish all imperial gall.

Truth is simple,
Lies are complex.
Light is simple,
Darkness is complex.
Honesty is simple,
Deceit is complex.
Humility is simple,
Arrogance is complex.
Curiosity is simple,
Conspiracy is complex.
Acceptance is simple,
Discrimination is complex.
Peace is simple, war is complex.
Love is simple, hate is complex.