War Talk - A Student Take on War

War Talk – A students take on war I am not a troubled refugee from a war-stricken country, nor am I a professor from a renowned. But rather, I am a student from Cempaka Schools, living in a peaceful country with little to no strife or hardship in my life. My name is Low Chuen Leik and I stand here today to give you my take on … War So today we stand here in this day and age, seeking to eradicate war. It is a crime, no doubt on that, so here’s a new take on it; how can we stop war before it even happens? For that, we have to attain a firm grasp on why there is war, and understand very nature of conflict.

We could...say, perhaps, look at it from a biological perspective. It is a common assumption that people are innately aggressive, that the urge to fight and wage war against a fellow human being is in our genes and something we’ve been doing ever since the dawn of our species. War is human nature, and as long as we exist, there will be war. This ideology would lead to fatalistic conclusions that perhaps all war and conflict is in fact, inevitable.

No, it can only mean that war manifests as a result of rational human choices, each with their own motivations and reasoning behind them. In fact, recorded conflict between organized groups has only been appearing in past few thousand years, approximately when civilization first began. In John Horgan’s words; war is a cultural, not a biological phenomenon.War does not form as a result of resource depletion, financial profit, the opening of new markets, although they do play a part in lighting the flame.Our problem is simply a militaristic culture, a culture that glorifies war or even just accepts it, a culture that fails to renounce war as something as barbaric as cannibalism War is a human construct, something we invented and created and brought to life. Just like any creation of ours, it can be eradicated. Sure, war taps into deep biological proclivities, which is one explanation for how it is easy to continually re-invent and also spread like an infection. In the end, though, war is an invention, a social technology. What we have to do is simple; advocate and protest against war in all aspects of society. We have to demonize war, make the very idea of entertaining conflict unthinkable and warfare outrageously unacceptable. The United Nations remains the greatest and most far-reaching independent global body and thus has the greatest capacity to bring about dramatic changes; subdue the arms industry, enforce disarmament, limiting military expenditure. Religious institutions and secular groups can also aid in encouraging nonviolence. Then there is the golden key to success; education, where the minds of the next generation are molded before being thrown out into the big world. Teach them that war is unethical, that it is not a solution to uncertainty or disagreements. Overused as this may be, they are the leaders of tomorrow, and what good will our actions be today if tomorrow’s president charges headlong into war?

Well, where does this all start? Us, right here, right now. Not me by myself, nor you over there in the crowd. The human race as a whole, coming together, saying no to war. It won’t be easy, and the end of war is not right around the corner, but it is possible and can happen, will happen, because we humans are creatures of change, capable of overcoming great obstacles to reach where we are today. With education, enlightenment, and a world-spanning paradigm shift for mankind so that we may truly rid ourselves of the shackles of war. / put an end to war in the 21st century.