Already Against the Next War
Years ago, I first saw the clever bumper sticker that says: I’M ALREADY AGAINST THE NEXT WAR. It made me smile because, as a Quaker kid, I was already against the next war. Today, it seems to me that the moral charge of already being against the next war carries weight. If we are against it, we should prevent it.
There are scatterings of war here and there on the globe, and they are pretty nasty. However, possibly quite soon, probably in my lifetime, the planet will tip over two degrees of climate change into runaway climate chaos. Massive migration, food shortages, water scarcity, uninhabitability, epidemics, and economic failure will lead to humankind’s least useful response to crises—war. Hough! Good God, y’all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin’. Say it again!
[Incidentally, violent coups are not how national leaders suspend democratic process and extend their increasingly despotic rule these days. Gradual erosion of functional government (I’m talking to you, USA), and the rise of a dynamic new leader who can exploit a crisis are the formula for dictatorship. Any combination of the above growing crises, or a manufactured one, might provide a leader with the conditions to suspend democratic process—indefinitely.]
So, if we are already against the next war (I am! It ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreaker. Brings only to the undertaker.), we need to think prophylactically about the causes of war. And we need to think both inside and outside “the box” of conventional ideas. A sustainable, war-free world isn’t just the world we have today with manageable climate, a tofu chicken in every pot, and not too much war.
No, It’s a transformed planet, people! It’s a world that has outgrown national boundaries (but respects diverse cultures), has a shared governance and agreements, where all nations have disarmed, where the global economy and society has been transformed into indefinite ecological thriving, and full participation when we have outgrown racial, cultural, gendered, species, and religious enmity.
The peace that passeth understanding dwells in the space that Quakers have helped to steward for these three and a half centuries. An evolutionary leap in consciousness is ripening all over the blue planet in tandem with the rise of global harm and chaos fueled by fear and greed. If we are already against the next war, some deep, possibly collective leading of the Spirit may be calling to us. Are we listening for it? Are we ready to put our faith into practice?
