The Peace Makers

Read the piece after coming across reply 3.
It brought something of a lump in my throat. Great charactors, almost perfect for a short story. Not too complex, not overly simple. The story and the idea behind it are both ahead of their times; in terms of timetime as well as thought.
This was thought provoking. And on chowk!

Regards and chai to you :)

Dear Ras,

Thanks for the encouragement! Know any publishers? :-) In the last few months I`ve indeed started to take some steps in that direction, but I suspect it will take a few years before my writing career gets of the ground. In the mean time you`ll be able to continue enjoying my writing for free at Chowk :-)

Q

Quiton,
this is not flattery but out of the many contributors on CHOWK,
you just might have what it takes to make it as a commercially successful writer.
I enjoyed this piece thoroughly.

Ras

Dear Brat,

I think it will take all of the above. not to mention silencing the cynics and unbelievers by proving them consistently wrong :-) World peace is possible, but it will almost certainly take a very long time to achieve. In the mean time we must each do our part every day to work towards that goal the best we know how, and ensure we teach our children to do the same. We would be remiss not to acknowledge the importance of the warrior code to the human psyche, but I, like most people in the world, have found many ways of venting my aggression without injuring others. So I`m convinced we can increase that group of people until it encompasses almost everyone. As for those who would rather continue to make war, we will simply have to find less destructive ways to neutralize them. That`s the point I`m trying to address in some of my recent writing because I believe that our technological prowess will allow us to find solutions in that space. In fact, had we been a bit more adept at controlling our innate bloodless
t, we would probably have invented very effective combat intervention techniques by now. Stay tuned for my next story which focuses on how to neutralize enemy combatants in a war zone without killing them. Particularly poignant in light of the recent debacle in Russia; but I expect more of that kind of warfare. Hopefully careful application of technology can help prevent the kind of disaster we witnessed there, but it will require a real commitment from the powers that be to develop non-lethal weapons and techniques. Blowing up people with remote control airplanes, while high-tech, strikes me as not only barbaric, but also extremely costly. Those individuals are potentially much more valuable as captives than as martyrs!

I had not read Aamir`s poem; thanks for the pointer, I enjoyed reading it very much. I do find hope and encouragement in the many recent major conflicts that have been resolved with much less violence than would otherwise have been the case, from Ghandi to MLK to Mandela. We are fortunate that we can build on that foundation, because those great leaders have shown us that it can be done.

Q

Quinton:
Enjoyed the piece. While all of us dream that one day we`ll resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner, you`ve taken that idea and made it into a story. Great. Good work! And it doesn`t seem far-fetched. Although it does seem like it`ll be a while before something like this happens.

I guess once human lives are considered to be a `scarce` resource people may naturally start finding other ways of resolving conflicts. What do you think it`s going to take? Education? Work towards reducing poverty and ignorance? Better communication between groups of people who share the common peaceful vision, and can work together to form organizations which intervene effectively?
Your article made me think that we`re definitely going that way.
I also liked how you portray the primal need to be aggressive when attacked, but how years of training, education helps our hero to resist those urges.

btw: have you read Aamir Ansari``s poem ``Anything Can Happen``?

to dream is to hope..... but I don`t believe we`ll ever have any real peace any more than I believe in Jehovah`s witnesses who tell me God intended for lions and humans to live side by side in harmony!