Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one. John Lennon
Connectedness—to family
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one. John Lennon
Connectedness—to family, community, and the planet—is arguably the bedrock of long-term social stability. Disconnectedness leads to social disorder of all kinds, including war. This cornerstone of A World Without War embraces the labors of anyone who builds bridges between individuals, groups, communities, nations, and between our species and the planet that sustains our lives.
Family - We are deeply social creatures and find our greatest fulfillment and happiness when we are connected in positive ways to family, friends, and community, as highlighted in the essay “What Makes People Happy.” To be entirely isolated socially—to be alone—is for most people an emotional disaster.
Not surprisingly, people who are happy are extraordinarily reluctant to march off to war or to send a loved one into war.
And the single most important connection individuals have is to family. So family counselors, religious leaders, even the creation of laws that undergird family connectedness, all are contributors to the “Foster Connectedness” cornerstone.
Religion - Religion cannot be overlooked when considering war, both as cause and cure. Although differences in religion may not be the principle cause of war (warmongers struggling over resources and/or power most commonly are the causes of wars), individuals who want to make war virtually always harness their people’s religious fervor to support their goal. They use religious or cultural differences to disconnect people from any sense of common, shared humanity. They foster disconnect, not connect. Therefore, everyone who is working to teach tolerance of religious differences and diversity, who strives to look behind superficialities to find commonalities not only in our humanity but in the human search for connection with the divine, also labors within the “Foster Connectedness” cornerstone of a campaign to end war.
Terrorism - Happy and satisfied young men and women aren’t inclined to become terrorists (Hudson 1999). As touched on previously in the essay “Enlist Young Men,” with respect to violence and aggression, older teen males who feel disconnected are ripe for recruitment into disruptive groups. They often become the boys in city gangs, the recruits in service to rogue warlords, the candidates for suicide bombing.
It’s not necessarily money or education that young terrorists lack (although that is the case for some) (Hudson 1999). It is happiness in the broadest sense (fulfillment, satisfaction, contentedness). The reasons they offer for why they have chosen violence may be varied, but beneath surface circumstances they ache with a deep dissatis