I want to thank everyone who read and thought about my essay No Knives, No Guns, No Killing! . There were a number of responses and I will address them all in this posting.
Jim Krepelka of Silicon Valley, CA writes:
DISARM! If you want peace lay down your weapons. All of them.
Let me guess: Democrat?? You subscribe to "Rosie"?? You have never left your mama's womb?
Good grief.
No, I am not political. I don't think any political party can make our world safe. All present Governments are Adversary-Neutral organizations. It's time to move on to something better. Human knowledge can grow without limit. When knowledge in embedded in matter-energy, it becomes a tool. Unlimited knowledge can produce unlimited tools. When tools are used to hurt people, they are called weapons.
Human survival is not possible with the use of unlimited weapons. I.E. weapons are obsolete. It is time to give them up. I am suggesting it is time for humanity to grow up!
Victor Tanner writes in response to my indented statements:
We need to create a zone of safety. And, then we can begin to extend that zone. We need to protect those within the zone and isolate those outside the zone. This is how the immune system in our body works. Within the safety zone, there should be no tolerance of adversity. None! No violence would be allowed. No weapons would be allowed.
The immune system routinely commits genocide (figuratively speaking). Without its fanatical, violent presence, your body would be defenseless against the equally fanatical, violent intruders.
Speaking as a physician, a normal healthy immune system will never injure a normal health cell in your body. Those cells are living in a zone of safety. If a microbe--virus or bacteria--breaches the boundary--in the body this is the skin. The immune cells immediately attack and destroy the hostile invader. The normal cells of the body have no defence against invaders. They rely on the immune cells for their safety. This is synergy. The human body is a synergic organization suriviving in a adversary world. Within the skin of the body relationships are synergic. My suggestion is that we learn from the body. We create zones of safety for our familys, our neighborhoods, and communities. Within these zones there are no weapons none. The only individuals armed would be Containment Officers. The simple possession of a weapon would be an adversary act, with risk of exclusion from the zone of safety.
Now sometimes, normal cells of the body are injured and lose their indentification with the body. They begin to act as adversaries. Cells that are so damaged are called cancer cells. Most of the time the immune system recognizes this aberrant behavior and quickly kills and eliminates the cell preventing in from spreading. We now know that even healthy humans have many cells become cancers during their lifetime, but most are destroyed with causing disease. Unfortunately, sometimes cells escape the scrutiny of the immune cells and then threaten the life of the individual.
Most of us know that our immune system is constantly looking for adversary invaders--virues, bacteria, and other microbes. We might be suprised that the immune system is also constantly surveying all the normal cells in the body looking for signs of cancer. This positive surveilance is a powerful tool for health. But it means there is no anonymity for individual cells. All cells are known to the immune system, and they are constantly watched and verified to be normal healthy cells.
Think of the impact the end of anonymity would have on crime. It would be very hard to hurt others if your public life is constantly observed and any adverse act can rapidly be contained.
Victor Tanner next writes in response to my statement:
In a synergic future, we could create a The Life Trust Guardianship that would be entrusted with the public safety. It will utilize synergic mechanism based on synergic morality to insure freedom from crime. This synergic organization will act more like our body's immune system, than like the law enforcement agencies we are familiar with today. Life Trust Guardians will accept the premise that adversary behavior is caused by ignorance and not badness. Their focus will be on containment of adversary events followed by education and rehabilitation of those responsible, and then on prevention of future events.
My admittedly unscientific observation tells me that adversarial behavior is caused by scarce resources, selfishness, and training (loosely defined), and genetics (which I don't like to dwell on because I assume there's little that we can do about it, but I figured I had better include it). Some of the most violent people in the world--as measured by results--are also some of the best informed. So I think that violence is first caused by necessity. Those who aren't violent because of necessity (survival), often have access to plenty of knowledge through education and associates. So what is their adversarial behavior caused by?
Conflict is defined as the struggle to avoid being hurt--the struggle to avoid losing. When physical harm results from this struggle we call it violence. Adversary behavior originates in the animal world. Earth supplies limited space for the animals. Space is finite. Good space is even more finite. It is very limited. There is only so much good water, so much good grazing land, so much good shelter, and so much good potential food. There is not enough to go around. The animals must compete for this limited amount of good space. They compete by fighting and flighting. They compete by attacking and killing other animals. Animal survival depends entirely on finding others to eat. The herbivores depend on finding plants to eat. The carnivores depend on finding other animals to eat.
But human survival does not require conflict. We can choose to co-Operate. We all know this. Familys work together to survive. They help each other. This can be scaled up. The United States military co-Operating with England, Canada, and Australia defeated the Germans and Japanese by working together.
My argument is that we need to scale up co-Operation to include all of humanity.
Modern warfare is obsolete. Humans can create knowledge without limit. When knowledge is incorporated into matter-energy, we call it a tool. Unlimited knowledge can produce unlimited tools. When tools are used to hurt people we call them weapons. Unlimited weapons are not compatible with the continuation of the Human Species.
It is time to grow up. It is time to put away the adversary toys. Modern warfare is very dangerous. It can easily escalate out of control. Today, the five acknowledged nuclear powers--U.S., Britain, France, China, and Russia possess about 31,000 nuclear warheads. This does not include the number in the hands of Pakistan, India, and Israel all with one or more weapons with an estimated total of a few over 100. There are also unknown numbers of chemical, and biological weapons. These weapons are located in numerous nations including America, Russia, England, France, India, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and who knows where else. For decades these weapons of mass destruction were tightly held by the super powers, but now with the breakup and breakdown of the Soviet Block, tens of thousands of these weapons are no longer well controlled. Today, unlimited knowledge makes it far too dangerous to play with weapons.
Victor Tanner next writes in response to my statement:
It is time to put away the adversary way.There is no need for weapons in the zone of safety. In civilized community, the simple possession of a weapon is an adversary act. It must be surrendered immediately and voluntarily, or you leave the zone of safety.
Living in the zone of safety is not a right, it is a privilege available to civilized humanity. Civilized humans do not want or need weapons.
Our message to Saddam Hussein, and all who would act to harm humanity. This needs to be applied to all nations holding weapons of mass destruction. That includes not only India, Pakistan and Russia, but also to Israel, England, France, and yes even the United States.
DISARM! If you want peace lay down your weapons. All of them.
Who's ignorance is required for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to go forward? The handful of people in control? I don't think my desire to protect myself on the street should be judged on the same scale of "civility" as those who would burn a country to the ground. And I would suggest taking another look at motives, and the ramifications of centralized power.
However, I am grateful for your optimism--which I share, to a degree--and your search for answers. --Vic
My proposed Life Trust Guardians (LTG) are charged with the protection of Humanity as Individuals and Humanity as Community. They would never intentional harm innocent people regardless of their nationality. Within synergic community it is understood that actions that injure the Earth, the Environment and all non-human Life also injures humanity.
Code of the Synergic Trustegrity Guardians
1) A Trustegrity Guardian may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
2) A Trustegrity Guardian may not injure an individual human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the First Law.
The Earth Trustegrity Guardians would protect and preserve the Earth Trust including the Earth and all the Natural Resources. The Trust would be administered to best serve present and future humanity.
The Life Trust Guardians would protect the Life Trust including all living systems — all life forms — this includes all humans, all animals, and all plants.
And, thirdly the Time-binding Trustegrity Guardians would protect and preserve the Time-binding Trust — the accumulated “knowing” from the lives and actions of all the humans who have ever lived and died. Our inherited Wisdom, Knowledge, and Information including Architecture, Art, Literature, Music, Science, and Technology. Because of their committment to protecting all who have lived and who have died, they also protect the "knowing" of the living — the Intellectual Property of living humans.
Another reader writes:
Greetings, After reading this I can only wonder where in the world your mind has been for the last 20 or so years! DISARM! Why is it that people like you always want the masses to disarm and only the "protectors" to have weapons, anyone that has ever studied Hitler and both world wars knows what happens when the people "DISARM". You can also ask England what happened when they DISARMED. In short, let's cut to the chase, disarming means quiting the fight and letting those that have power over you win, so tell me how the masses are going to ensure that another Hitler is not going to rise again, or someone or something worse? Please in your wisdom tell me.
As a former soldier, I claim that your way is a pipe dream! --Mike Joffrion
We are the people we have been waiting for. The statement is attributed to the Hopi Elders. I am not talking about disarming one nation. I am talking about the systematic and total disarmament of all nations. My alternative to the present warring adversary-neutral states is the creation of synergic community. Synergic humanity would take the Moral Highground. We would speak for the Earth and all non-human Life on EARTH. We would insure that all individual adversaries are contained--that all adversary groups are contained--that all adversary nations are contained.
I will prepare an article to explain how I think we could make this work. ...
You can read more about Synergic Trusts, Trustegrities, and Guardians at: A Synergic Future
Thanks for the interest and feedback.
Timothy Wilken, MD
Carmel, California
6:36:17 AM 
|
|
