The Possibility of a Reduction of Violence in Our Time
Enduring a Civilization of Violence
The April 30, 2017 — sermon of The Path of the Happy and Honest Way church.
If you pause to examine the things that entertain you, count how many are pronounced with violence. The top selling films and certainly the top selling computer games often share a common thread. Killing bad guys is so common it is difficult to name a blockbuster that doesn’t begin, continue and end with the theme. Comedies and love stories are our only respite. They rarely, however do so well at the box office. In this society, we tolerate children playing games on phones, tablets and computers that involve the holding of a gun and the nearly constant killing of some virtual enemy. When concerned civic leaders attempt to curb this fascination they are attacked quite successfully with the idea that producing games about war and crime are simply a game developers first amendment right.
As I attempt grow further in this somewhat civilized time I measure how close I can come to a pure and just life by how little damage I can do and leave on this planet. But the fascination with killing and crime (from an outward perception) is still too prevalent and tolerable in my thinking and our combined thinking in this portion of an apparently civilized society. I wonder how long this can remain so. I wonder if we will ever grow to a higher level of peace. I wonder if humans can obtain a civilization free of war and free of violence.
I know that this is certainly unlikely in our lifetime. I also know that just because the reality seems to go against progress, that it should not hinder me from trying. I wish to pray for peace daily. I believe if we join and encourage those who do not think it is possible, then the pure and just civilization I pray for may come sooner.
Tolerance
If the greatest world leader is a person so diplomatic that war is unthinkable then that leader truly deserves to lead the world. If war is unthinkable, then leaders will think of real ways to solve conflicts that typically lead to war. This is simply an escalation in rational thought. It took a few extremely dangerous catastrophes to make it clear to humans that surviving a nuclear war is fantasy. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl made it easy to understand why Reagan and Gorbachev unilaterally sought to reduce nuclear weapons. If a nuclear war is unthinkable, then perhaps an ordinary war can become unthinkable as well.
We tolerate aggression. We glorify violence sometimes daily. We elevate actors and politicians to the level of hero simply by admiring their toughness and bravado. But we do so at the expense of the murder of innocents. When we stand in support of dropping bombs on another country and cheer like idiots standing in clutches of fist raised rallies hollering patriotic chimes, we forget that many thousands of miles away, a child lies dead, blown to pieces in a gutter. This fragment of what was once a living being is the remainder of some tragic failure of diplomacy. It is the dumb result of the tolerance of a strong man or woman that gained power and holds it with aggression and violence in direct conflict with another strong man or woman who personally feels threatened and justified in the tolerance of collateral damage to teach the other a lesson.
The fragment of life now extinguished is what matters here. Because until we stop tolerating and exalting violence and aggression we will all share in the sin of the murder of that innocent child. As we pump our fist in the air, and wave our countries flag on short sticks, marveling at the massive bright light, the smoke and explosive power of our countries bombs and munitions on wide screens in public places, zoom in. Look closely. Drop down to street level. Tell those beside you how proud you are at what we as a nation have done. Speak to the remaining bits of flesh you find. These are the same bits of flesh and blood that once encased and protected a child of God.