Can We Really End War?

I say we can—by withdrawing “the consent of the murdered.”

Hey—

I’ve said before that the motivation for my All For All series at Democracy at Work is the belief that our social imaginations need to catch up with our technological imaginations. I went for broke in the last episode, asking one of the biggest questions: can humanity end war forever?

Here are some bullet points I put together for it (we need a better expression than “bullet points,” don’t we?):

• War is often justified as "inevitable," but history shows that institutions like slavery (once deemed permanent) can be abolished.

• Many societies have existed without war. It’s a cultural invention, not biological destiny.

• Modern wars (e.g., Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza) are tied to resource control (oil, trade routes) and imperial decline.

• The U.S., like all empires, uses military force to compensate for declining economic/financial dominance ("a dying animal is the most dangerous").

  Grassroots Solidarity: Examples like the 1914 Christmas Truce show soldiers can spontaneously organize themselves to reject war, and can inspire the world in the process.

  We can replace military camaraderie with nonviolent communal institutions which also offer purpose and service.

• We must strengthen international law and UN representation (beyond elite interests).

The episode ends with a call to action: to reject fatalism, challenge war propaganda, and build cross-border solidarity to dismantle the political economy of war.

Some quotes:

• "Until a couple hundred years ago, it seemed impossible to imagine a world without slavery... War, like slavery, is a system we can dismantle."

• “War is not fundamental to human nature. We've just been told it is."

• "If we refuse en masse to participate in the machinery of war, war will have to stop."

• "We are caught in the grip of madness, and the United States is at the heart of it."

• We need global solidarity to withdraw the consent of the murdered."

Let me know what you think.