How to END War, in just 3 steps:
- Hold individuals responsible for their actions
- DO NOT abstract personal responsibility to a group or collective
- Adhere to the principles of the Non-Aggression Principle and Nonviolent Communication
If you can consistently apply these 3 core ideas, it is IMPOSSIBLE to create an environment where war can happen.
Sounds too good to be true? Is this taking a complex subject and making it TOO simple?
No. It IS that simple.
Creating an environment where people will fight a war is MUCH more complex and difficult to implement than an environment where people want to interact voluntarily with each other.
Let’s walk through some examples and prove it.
First, what is a war?
Simply put, as the average person thinks of it, war is violent conflict between two or more groups of people that are fighting for control of people, land, or resources.
The much DARKER truth of war is that war is CAUSED by people who don’t FIGHT, and FOUGHT by people who don’t get CONTROL after they win.
Politicians and leaders have to convince individuals to fight and die trying to kill people they have never met, in order to give the POLITICIANS and LEADERS control over other people, land, or resources. The ones who profit from war don’t fight, and the ones who fight and die, don’t profit (other than the paycheck they receive for being soldiers, IF they are fighting for a state-backed military force).
So then how do we apply the 3 steps above, in order to end war?
Fundamentally, by REJECTING all forms of collectivism, because they are used ONLY to control and enslave individuals.
Let’s look at each step, one at a time.
#1 – Hold INDIVIDUALS Responsible for their Actions
When you don’t try to blame others for your actions, or allow others to do the same, you ensure that each individual is personally responsible for the actions they take.
This means no more “I am just doing my job.” or “I was just following orders.”
If I tell you to punch a baby in the face, and then YOU actually punch a baby in the face, which of us is responsible for the harmed baby?
If your first instinct is to respond with “Well, if…”, consider this:
If YOU had REFUSED to punch the baby, would it have MATTERED what I told you?
No, because sociopathic cowards have NO power outside of what they can convince or coerce others into doing FOR them. THEY aren’t going to do it themselves. That would be stupid! They might get hurt or killed!
No, they will send the people they have lied to and indoctrinated to take all the risk, while they enjoy the power and rewards.
#2 – DO NOT Abstract Personal Responsibility to a Group or Collective
I’m going to let you in on an open secret:
Countries don’t exist. You can’t see or touch a country.
There are only individuals.
Some people have taken it upon themselves to define invisible lines across pieces of land. And those people then claim that whoever lives within those lines is now under their control, and they owe them money and loyalty in exchange for “services and protection”.
Setting aside the fact that this is literally how you would describe the mafia, if you refer back to Step #1, you will realize that the people claiming power over you will NOT be the ones actually providing you with services OR protection, nor will they be personally taking your money by force.
No, they will tell OTHER people to take that risk, and offer them a cut of the money in exchange for doing the dirty work.
So just like punching the baby in the face in Step #1, what happens if YOU simply REFUSE to accept that job? What if YOU act on principle and refuse to accept stolen money in exchange for using force against other individuals?
What “power” does the sociopath ACTUALLY have?
None.
#3 – Adhere to the Principles of the Non-Aggression Principle and Nonviolent Communication
So how exactly do you keep from being fooled by the sociopaths? It’s quite simple:
Have principles, and refuse to violate them.
If you recognize that ALL people are individuals, and that they are responsible for their own actions, including YOURSELF, then you can apply your principles consistently.
If the Non-Aggression Principle guides us to NOT initiate the use of force against peaceful INDIVIDUALS, and Nonviolent Communication shows us that the best way to meet the needs of ALL individuals is to give them empathy without judgment, how is war POSSIBLE?
The reality is that it isn’t.
If you don’t dehumanize individuals by assigning them to an abstract collective (government, race, religion, etc.), and you hold individuals responsible for their actions, and ONLY their actions, how can someone on the opposite side of the world, or even across the street, POSSIBLY be someone worthy of being violently attacked or killed; if you don’t even know who they are, they don’t know who you are, and they haven’t initiated force or violence against YOU either?
War exists ONLY when individuals allow OTHER people to tell them what to do, under the illusion that THOSE people are then responsible for YOUR actions. You can then feel justified in using violence against individuals you have never met, and have never done anything to you, because they belong to some group that you have been told is “BAD”, using a complete lack of empathy, and purely judging them by some characteristic they share with a group of other individuals (geographic location, religion, race, etc.).
The final objection I can hear to this idea of personal responsibility is “well, if WE don’t use force and create a military, then OTHER people will, and they will do it instead of us!”
First, there is no WE. So what you’re saying is “If I don’t choose to use violence against people I don’t know because I’m told to, someone ELSE will.”
Or to use our earlier example “If I don’t choose to punch that baby, someone worse will do it!”
And this is exactly the thinking that perpetuates the cycle of violence.
REFUSE to punch babies. And if you see someone about to punch a baby, STOP them.
You can’t protect every baby in the world, so don’t go LOOKING for babies to protect. Build a community around you, and protect the people you know and care about from those that HAVEN’T read this.
And whenever possible, explain this concept to them as well. Then maybe we can ACTUALLY stop the cycle of punched babies.
And the cycle of killing strangers because we were told to by sociopaths.
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