Wars Humanity Must Wage

Necessary Wars Humanity Must Wage

an essay by Matthew Bissonnette

Life in most Western societies is one of a high standard of living and complete lack of blatant hardships such as exploitation, oppression or slavery; in this part of the world we have complete ignorance of things like famine or no access to clean drinking water. But today countless millions on this Earth will wake up to a world of starvation, where some will have to watch a person they love die in front of them because of lack of food or clean drinking water. Others will wake up to a world where they will be exploited, or their labor will make their exploiters richer and these men and women will still live in poverty even though their work makes other individuals vastly wealthy. Some will wake up to a world where they will be dehumanized, made to feel less then human and thus their oppression justified even though membership to the human race is a birth right no one can deny. In the West, though our lives are not always ideal, we awake to a world everyday where we have shelter and food, and our rights protected by numerous laws; yet this is an existence many of this world dare not even dream of. Billions of denizens of the planet Earth live very hard, tormented lives and from these hardships there seems to be no escape. We are engaged in a war on terror, just another of many global conflicts which result in many deaths and untold destruction. Yet maybe we need to wage other wars; wars on famine, wars on exploitation; a war on the hardships many of our fellow human beings still suffer. Would it be wrong to try and use technology to solve some of these problems? Perhaps technological projects to provide fresh, clean drinking water to those without it; the Roman aqueducts used the principle of gravity to channel vast amounts of fresh water over long distances and surely we could do better. As for famine, is it possible to find or create some new food stuff which could be grown in vast quantities as cheaply and as easily as possible and though may not be a delicacy, is adequate for nutrition and energy. As for subtle forms of slavery and oppression; perhaps create international laws which protect people from forms of exploitation. Such wars are not about killing or destroying your enemy but about liberating our fellow man from the hardships they suffer. That perhaps it would help the perception of the West globally if we began a humanitarian effort to end the troubles many of the human race still suffer. It is our choice on what we do with the one life we are given, so maybe collectively we can achieve something which would be historically unprecedented and leave the world a little better off for our part. Like I said, it is our choice.