Moving Towards Absolute Peace In The 21st Century

When did killing ever solve anything?

As a millennial who has never stepped onto a battlefield let alone an actual war, I struggle to find a reason for pointing guns at innocent people, dropping bombs on school grounds, and merciless slaughter and torture of men, women and children. What has a war given us besides annihilation of cities? It has only given us a place where innocent children are denied proper education, where instead of reading books and learning math, children are thrown out into the big bad world at the youngest of age and forced to flee and become refugees.

A situation where instead of watching the adventures of superheroes like Batman and Superman fighting crime on screen, they are witnessing the death of their loved ones right in front of them, and the honest truth is some are even forced to pull the trigger themselves. Communities are ripped apart, resulting in a precarious environment for anyone, let alone naive children.

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To put things into perspective, 35 million people were casualties of World War I. You'd think that after these massive killings that humanity would have learned, but then another 60 million, an even bigger number, was concluded in World War II. One million in the Korean war, and three million in the Vietnam war. The Bosnian ethnic cleansing led to more than 200,000 casualties. Rwanda took another one million, and Iraq another one million, while the numbers in the Syrian and Yemen conflicts run into hundreds of thousands more and is unfortunately still counting.

The list goes on and on. I am astounded at how long the list of wars go; The Winter War, the Cold war, the American revolutionary war, the Ten years' war, the Thirty years' war, the French invasion, not to mention all of the civil wars, and it is important to note that these are only wars that were recorded in history. I do not doubt that the list expands much more beyond this precedence.

However, all of these battles happened in the past. Let's take a look at the current times we live in; the 21st century where technology has greatly risen, availability of resources improved, and democracy introduced. According to Chris Hedges, an American journalist, 108 million people have died in warfare in recent years. In the past 3400 years, only 268 of them have been peaceful, with absolutely no calamities. That is around 8%. I believe anyone can agree that that is a sad and small number.

Since the beginning, humans have resorted to violence as a way to settle disagreements. What is mine is mine, and what is yours is yours. If you want what is mine, you have to fight me for it. There shall absolutely be no form of sharing or compromise whatsoever. That was the mindset of the olden days, which funnily enough is quite similar to the simple mindsets of babies and children - minus the exasperating crying. In a way, wars were necessary. Our history books show that war was a recurrent phenomenon in the history of nations. Wars were mostly, if not the only thing we learned in our history lessons. The world has had wars of all types. In view of all the destruction it has caused, it is shocking how our planet earth is still standing and has not been blown to bits into the unknown universe.

Wars with economic motives are almost always the case. Power and wealth seem to be what everyone is gunning for. To achieve such luxury, many seem to believe that it is imperative to conquer and subjugate other groups, and by seizing their territory and resources until the other side is left with nothing.

Other reasons include religion and nationalism. In fact, most conflicts throughout history have been a clash between two or more different 'identity groups'. Case in point, the Christians and Muslims in the Crusades, the Jews and Arabs, Hindus and Muslims in India, the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the Israelis and Palestinians, the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians, and so on.

Humans in general have a strong need to belong to a certain group, to associate one's identity with another, to have a sense of belonging, to "fit in". We live in a world where labels are an essential to our daily lives. If you don't affiliate yourself with a certain group, then you would not be able to register for anything because your information forms will always be incomplete - I'm betting a lot of boxes will be left unchecked or you end up having to check "others" for everything. However, having a sense of pride in our identity is not the problem here but rather the extreme attitude of hatred and rivalry it creates towards other groups. It begins this atrocious contest of who is the better group.

Can and will this ever be solved when we know the fact that the grass is always greener on the other side? My parents taught me that there is always someone better than you out there and that's okay. Why can't everyone be happy in their own skins among people with the same background, same descendants and origins, and same beliefs, while still communicating with others who do not believe there is only one God but rather three, or with those of a darker skin colour and who talks differently? Wouldn't that be a better way of living? To hope for a world where people believe in the same thing, have the same experiences, same cultures and opinions is to hope for a pretty boring world in my opinion.

As a person who is trying to live in this world with an open mind, I must recognise the good that war has brought to us over the years. Yes, it has brought peace to certain parts of the world. It has taught us to have a sense of unity and patriotism for our country. It compelled us to be grateful for the older generation who had to sacrifice more than they needed to for our parents to raise us comfortably in a peaceful environment where guns are swapped with papers and books, where knives are only used in the kitchen, and where bombs are only used to destroy old buildings to make way for new developments. The stories we hear from our grandfathers and the true war movies we see on screens has inspired us to live and behave honourably. Warfare has also helped to build qualities in people which often lie dormant in "ordinary" life, such as discipline, courage, unselfishness and self-sacrifice.

Be that as it may, I see no difference between the benefits that war has bestowed upon us and the advantages sports has given us. To my knowledge, sports has successfully united us, football more than ever. Whenever the Malaysian football team is on, I who has never been interested in the game, tuned in to watch. I don't quite know what's happening most of the time, but I do know when the team scores, I shout "Gol!" just as loud as my father and brothers do. Lee Chong Wei has united all our hearts, regardless of race. The Chinese, Malays, Indians, Sarawakians, and Sabahians all cheer on for our great badminton player and without a doubt are all proud of him and what he has done for our nation. Furthermore, we have Nicole Ann David, Pandelela, Farah Ann, Julian Yee and all of our other unsung heroes who should be given more credit that they are given now because while we are not aware of it, sports has made out to be the moral equivalent of war, as stated by William James, a psychologist who wrote a paper on the psychology of war. In his professional opinion, he states that sports satisfy similar psychological needs to war. It has a comparable socially binding effect whilst excluding the use of weaponry, violence, and devastation.

Besides sports, the growth of democracy in most countries has helped tremendously, making it more difficult for governments to declare war against the will of their citizens. It has given a friendlier platform for nations to solve problems non-violently, where rather than in a camo outfit with guns and ammunition strapped to their belts, leaders walk into a meeting room in suits and ties and have civil discussions over drinks. The world has become smarter and more sophisticated, so why do we still need to succumb to combat and bloodshed?

The younger generation, the millennials, has a responsibility to become conscious of what is really happening in the world and the effects war can bring. Instead of knowing what the latest fashion trends are, or what other people had for breakfast on Twitter, it is vital for them to know that there are people like them who hasn't had food for days, who is currently desperately seeking asylum anywhere they can, who does not even know what Twitter or Instagram is or how to take a good selfie because their things were taken away, homes destroyed, and family members killed. As a youth, it's easy to get caught up in the materiality of the world, because for most of us, everything is connected and ever-changing. It's all so very fast-paced. We know things we don't even want to know in the first place. We have this psychological need to want to post anything and everything online, and for what? To be validated by people who hardly know you through heart and smiley emojis.

It's a funny world we live in nowadays, although one thing we can take from this is how fast information can travel from one place to the next, and this is what we must take advantage of; the role of the media. The media has a powerful force of driving youths to take part in certain things, albeit it is tricky to capture the attentions of these individuals, yet not impossible. Through media and creativity, one is able to gain knowledge of the past, of history and the morality concluded from it. As the famous saying goes, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it". Yes, we learned most of it in our history lessons in school, but unfortunately the information has most likely disappeared the second these students put down their pens and wrote their last word for their answer for the history exam. Then ask ourselves, what is the most effective way to learn something? I believe it is through stories, especially those presented in a more personal manner rather than just facts. Use the media to tell true war stories, true sufferings endured by not only the people in the past, but more importantly the people living in today's time all over the world, through television programmes, movies, podcasts, and interviews. Furthermore, it is vital to point out how wars are never a win-win situation, because one participant of a war is a hero to some, for others, a killer.

Why is it necessary to expose the young and pure minds of the nation to such atrocities like killing and bloodshed? It is simply to let them differentiate between the bad and the good. It is to shed some light to the aftermath of conflicts, protests and riots, and to let them know that there are other more humane ways to solve problems. It informs these individuals that self-expression and words are just as valuable a tool as a rifle on your shoulder.

However, the media is often used unjustly. Case in point, video games. There are such games that actually promotes ways of strategising attack and defence on other players, which may send the wrong message to some. For example, Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, God of War, DOTA, and many more. I understand that these games are brought up to improve problem solving skills, mental skills, and motor skills, yet these video games do draw up a fine line between what should be left in the gaming world and what should be applied in real life. People do not heal as fast just by drinking a potion or a tonic. People do not simply live again after dying. We do not get to retry from checkpoint. People are not just characters without families and a life of their own. It is important for the young people to distinguish these traits, because it may seem ludicrous and impossible to some, but there are cases of mental illnesses faced by youths nowadays where they find it hard to do so, and it starts by these said games which always starts off as all fun and innocent.

Besides the media, schools must also participate and take action. Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali had initiated the Criminalise War Club in certain schools, namely Sekolah Sultan Alam Shah, Tunku Kurshiah College, and Cempaka International School. This club aims to build a mindful community that is fully equipped with knowledge, awareness, and understanding of the effects of war, especially on women and children. It is a necessary step in order to blaze a new trail of peace and friendship with all, irrespective of race and religion. However, these steps should not only end here but rather it should be promoted to schools all over Malaysia, whether it be at a primary, secondary, or tertiary level. Not only should it just be implemented for the sake of it, but teachers and educators need to take action and play the necessary role in sculpting our future leaders to not only be smart and knowledgable, but to have high levels of empathy and moral inclusion in their actions.

Are shooting and pointing guns at people all we know in order to feel safe? It should not be and it cannot be! As I've said before, the world has grown smarter and more sophisticated, so surely there must be a better way and surely there must not be a need for warfare in the 21st century anymore.

A change can be made. Nothing is impossible. When there is a will, there is a way. These are the cheesy and typical lines that has been said over and over again when advice is asked and passed. Nonetheless, the sayings do not bear any less truth. A change can be made. Nothing is impossible. There was once a time where it was impossible to talk to someone without it being face to face, yet someone has made it possible to make video calls available with the click of a button. There was once a time where an answer can only be found in the pages of a book, yet now you need only to unlock your phone and type in your question and immediately a specific answer will pop up - although the legitimacy of the said answer can be questionable from time to time. There was once a time where the only way to get from one place to another is to walk with your bare feet, yet now we have a profuse amount of options; taking the bus, driving a car, taking the train, sailing, or even flying through the air. Who's to say that in the near future, teleporting oneself somewhere is impossible? Who's to say that time travel is absurd? Who's to say that we cannot live on Mars?

Who's to say that we cannot live in a world where wars are completely abolished?

I do not want this world to be a dream, an abstract thing, but rather I want this world to be the future. It will and it shall, because nothing is truly impossible. I believe that everyone should be moving in this direction, to criminalise wars with hopes of completely eradicating it, before we move on to petty things like hover cars, time travel, or what else we can put or change on an iPhone to make people believe it's somewhat different from the previous model. Together as one nation, we must move forward and build a reality where the world is free from man-made destruction and violence.

A reality where everyone chooses to make peace.