Waging War No More

 THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN, on the seventy sixth anniversary of Japan's formal surrender in world War Two, promised that Japan will never again wage war, a promise his descendants may or may not be able to keep. Well intentioned, yes, but, as we like to say, be careful what you promise. If China attacks, Japan will most certainly wage more war. One nation down, one hundred and ninety four more such promises to go. At least, its a start. Pledges to pursue and preserve peace eternally have been made from time immemorial, as humans have long understood the futile destructiveness of war. "The war to end all wars", as the first world war became known, preceded the second world war, and many other since. The Bible, as it often does, got it right by instructing us to reshape the weapons of war into life sustaining tools. Doing that would provide enough prosperity for everyone. Albert Einstein looked up, into , and through the camera in his grey T shirt and severe facial expression and and told a likely verity: "As long as there are people, there will be war", in the famous photograph. I cannot predict the future, and neither can anyone else. When I was a kid in the nineteen sixties I thought that by the year nineteen ninety I would have the option of visiting cities on Mars or the moon. By nineteen ninety I though world hunger, poverty, and disease would be mere memories, as would war. I had too much youthful idealism and optimism and faith in science, and in humanity. Back then, I liked people. Well, nothing disillusions a young eager mind than age and life. I could barely wait for tenth grade to begin. Two weeks in, I was disappointed to the point of despair. Biology was noting but rote memory of species in Latin, and world history was a dull list of unexamined facts. I was saved by the intrinsic fun of geometry and its never ending puzzles, and by the creative inclusion of Huxley and Orwell, augmenting Shakespeare, by my English teacher. When my English teacher expressed her view that evolution by natural selection beautifully compliments creationism rather than contradicts it, I was skeptical, and still am, but the very ideal inspired me, and still does. Einstein, himself a dropout, said that considering the standard teaching methods used in the western world, it is amazing that anyone survives a formal education with intellectual curiosity and love of learning intact. I agree completely, and I tend to agree with him that there will always be war, though I remain hopeful of a better future beyond my life time, even if it is a hope of a rather dark and sardonic sort. Still, we must give the Japanese prime minister credit; its the thought that counts.