Peace

The Powers that be will never give us peace. Their power is based largely on fear, ignorance, hate, and conflict. Peace would undermine their power.

This is a systemic problem. It is not the personal evil of those in power that brought about this situation. It is not a person, party, or ideology that continues the violence. The system has evolved in such a way that conflict supports and extends the power of the powerful. Maybe some historian can determine how this came about. I don't care. I only care about fixing it.

How could it be that conflict would not increase the power of the powerful? How could the system be designed to avoid that feedback loop?

I'm not sure that I have an answer yet, but I have a few ideas. I'm sure that others, when challenged with this puzzle, will be able to improve or disprove these ideas and provide even better ones.

• What if the political leader who declared war must immediately be executed? If he really truly believes that people must die for some cause, then he must be first.
• What if the declaration of war (or start of any form of hostilities) could only be approved by a direct vote of the people? Then the people who will die will have a say in the matter.
  
• What if the profits of war-making enterprises (from oilmen who make gas for tanks to manufacturers of all types of weapons) were taxed 100% and redistributed to the families of fallen soldiers? Then the businesses that are directly involved in preparing for conflict must be involved in avoiding conflict in order to save their own profits.

Peace will not happen by accident. We must design for it, plan for it, and work for it. The lives that we have been living have not achieved it. If we want peace then we must change.