I went to the cinema this afternoon, to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Although I was not born when the original Planet of the Apes movie was released in 1968, as a kid I have always been a big fan of the series.
This movie did not disappoint, it really is amazing just how lifelike the animation of today is.
I think each of the movies tend to carry an important message about war and peace and this one is no different. Throughout the movie, you get a sense that in any conflict, there are parties on both sides who are good and kind and just want peace, but as is so often the case, bad things happen when bad people take control. I also found similarities from the movie to what has happened in real life with the fabrication of evidence to try and justify going to war.
You also get a sense for what challenges a good leader can face when dealing with those who are banging the drums of war.
Hi Ian,
I think somehow, we as man and woman-kind need to develop the TECHNOLOGY of peace – how can we take a ego-driven and hate-filled person, especially a world leader like a Putin or the heads of ISIS, and somehow cause them to see reason, and let go of the egotism and hate..
I don’t know how to do that.. And sadly mankind has probably spent millions of hours studying war, and as a result developed all kinds of incredibly clever and complex weapons systems. But how much time have we spent STUDYING peace and how to achieve it? Maybe 1% (or maybe .01%?) of the time we’ve spent studying war.
Sadly, I don’t it’s probably enough to just pray for peace, or try to send ‘positive-vibes’ to those people who are locked in egotism and/or hate. And I think one really loud, mean-spirited person at a party, or in a world political season, can sort of mess everything up pretty good.. How do we as a group deal with them?
I wonder if there is a group or person or persons somewhere that is actually studying peace, in the nuts-and-bolts, scientific-method way that one would use to create a new weapon of some kinds??
Hi George
When it comes to some of the hate and violent groups out there in the world, I think trying to make them see reason or change their way of thinking is a futile exercise.
When it comes to democratically elected leaders of a country, there has been a tendency for them to let the power to go to their head and forget that they are nothing more than public servants elected to carry out the will of the majority of the people.
I firmly believe that when people of peace unite and lobby governments on a large enough scale, the world can be a more peaceful place.
The internet as it is today, is sort of half way towards that goal, but it only enables people who speak the same language to unite. There is still the barrier of language. I think the real turning point will be when language translation via written and spoken word becomes mainstream. When people from america and Australia and China and Russia and Japan and all the other countries of the world can talk with each other, and the language barrier is removed. We have seen advances with speech recognition with siri and ok google, so its only a matter of time before such technology becomes mainstream.
As to a person or group that studies peace in a more scientific manner, an Australian philanthropist Steve Killelea has founded the Institute of Economics and Peace and they have conducted studies into peace. They are the people behind the global peace index, which has by the way reported to nobody’s surprise that the world has in fact become less peaceful. http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/news/1073
Ian