Subject: Creation Versus Destruction; An Argument For Nonviolence
Issue: Nonviolence
Date: March 9, 2003
Author: Ken Larsen

************************************

Creation Versus Destruction; An Argument For Nonviolence (3-9-03)

Throughout the evolution of our species and our culture, two opposing forces have been working together. The first has been the random creation of new genetic code or new cultural ideas, hereafter referred to as "memes." The second, and equally important, player has been the selective destruction of less successful code and memes.

If you think on the individual level, you fear the Destroyer because it may select you for destruction -- even if you deserve to survive, but the survival rate is not 100%. Thus, to you, the Destroyer is evil; it is your Demon. You struggle to propagate your code and memes in spite of the Selector. On the other hand, you exist because you were created by the random Creator, your God.

If you think on the group level, you are grateful for the services of the Selector, who keeps your code/memes clean and efficient. On the other hand, you fear the random Creator who may come up with something superior that will result in your selective destruction. So, the roles of God and Demon are reversed.

If you think on a world level, you realize the equal importance of Creator and Destroyer to the development and progress of the best possible total system. Thus, Creator/Destroyer, God/Demon, male/female, Yin/Yang, etc., become ONE as separate cogs in a single creative machine.

Until as recently as a few thousand years ago, we developed instincts and traditions to support both the individual and the group. In many cases, these instincts/traditions are contradictory. Whether you think at the individual or the group level, your view of these "natural" tendencies as evil or noble may be reversed. We accepted both sets of instincts/traditions because we were not thinking at either the individual or the group level. We were not thinking. It was natural to work for individual comforts while at the same time taking personal risks to nurture the group and defend "us" against "them". We were like the honeybee protecting itself individually, and then committing suicide (stinging) to defend the hive.

Suddenly, we developed consciousness and began thinking about ourselves. We were conscious at the individual level. We asked why we should follow our urges to reproduce and form tribes. Why should I stay and defend the tribe with my life when I can run and live? Before that question destroyed our social progress, we learned to believe in God. The older and wiser individuals in society used God to justify our social instincts. God explained why we should "multiply and replenish the earth." God explained how life was not without meaning or end. God explained how we would get our payoff later in another world. God helped us, individually, to follow our "irrational" instincts to nurture/defend our family and tribe. This thesis is totally independent of God's reality or non-reality. I am merely observing some effects of God's role in our development.

Thus, Consciousness and God have served us well as we have learned to master our environment and multiply it's carrying capacity for our kind. It has maintained the essential balance between random Creator and selective Destroyer. Individual inventiveness is the mechanism for the random creation of better ideas and better mousetraps. These ideas and inventions have been selected for adoption or disposal by the free market. Our mechanisms for cultural and personal selective destruction have been less benign. Three Destroyers have been selecting us. They are: famine, disease, and violence. They have kept our populations within the environment's carrying capacity while providing a mechanism for the survival of the fittest.

Now, we are faced with a second dilemma. It is a greater threat to our survival than the development of individual consciousness without a belief in God. Our amazing technology has given to each of our societies the power to destroy us all. I doubt anyone has the power to destroy life on earth, or even eliminate humankind. But, we do have the power to destroy our civilization, and we all have access to it. Communication technology has made a joke of such notions as nuclear nonproliferation. We are all within each other's fortress (911). Our weapons are no longer secure. Everyone has access to Armageddon. Escalated violence is no longer survivable, as a civilization or as a culture.

I. The Species Level.

Our survival demands that we take the next step. We must learn to shift beyond thinking as individuals and think on the species level. We must forever end the notion that countries can consider violence -- even as a last resort or final option -- even as a response to violence. Until now, we have wanted to destroy each other because we all carried the survival meme for destroying "them." It is time to exercise social consciousness and ask new questions. We must shift our consciousness to the species level and rethink the rules. I suggest that the necessary meme now for species success is that we expand the notion of "us" to include everyone. You would never punish your brother with a bazooka. You must now consider everyone your brother. The alternative is suicide.

Christ proposed nonviolence as an individual strategy. Gandhi demonstrated the power of nonviolence as a national strategy. Soon, perhaps now, we will face two options: either we develop an effective nonviolent strategy, or we join the extinct civilizations in our history. They all put their trust in violence. Now, wild animals wander over the dust of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, China, Greece, Rome, Mexico, Peru, etc. It is not a short list. If we continue to put our trust in violence, we are doomed to join their dust. Our money says we trust in God. For most of us, that God is a god of nonviolence. We must now learn to practice nonviolence as a society. I don't have the final answers. I suspect nonviolence includes refusing to fight, to run, to deceive or to surrender. It is not the coward's way. On the contrary, it requires more courage and commitment than violence. It means standing and saying to an enemy, I refuse to stop tolerating you. I will not harm you. I will not run. I will not surrender. You can insult me. You can injure me. You can destroy me. But, you cannot stop me from tolerating you.  It means we decide that no individual and no culture can be so evil that we would not choose its survival over total extinction of us all. It means we cannot use our violent means of species extinction, even to destroy those who would destroy us. At the national and cultural levels, we follow the honeybee example. We accept national destruction, rather than unsheathe the sword of human extinction our technology has provided.

It seems to me that any nation adopting such a strategy would eliminate virtually every motive another nation might have for aggression. How could anyone like Osama recruit terrorists against us if they knew we would never use our power against them or their culture? Why would Saddam pose any threat if he really believed nonviolence was our policy? Once any powerful country, like America, has demonstrated the effectiveness of the nonviolent strategy, how long would it be before the peoples of the world would demand that their governments follow our inspired example? Perhaps the best way to police the world is to stop policing the world. Bring all the troops home. Let all the refugees in. Give them no more reason to hate or attack us.

The Jews, Muslims and Christians have tried for centuries to control and destroy each other. Why? Each fears the others. They want to control and destroy each other because they want to control and destroy each other. The solution is simple: We must all learn to stop using the violence of government against each other. And, yes, a new idea is enough. This idea can be more powerful than all the governments and armies in the world. The pen is mightier than the sword, and the Internet is mightier than nuclear bombs. Why is the United Nations useless in this effort? Because it is an organization of governments, not people. Every government holds a national monopoly on violence. Have you ever seen an officer of any government use nonviolence as a strategy? We should not expect an organization of governments to produce peace. We must develop the nonviolent solution without governments or government organizations. The Internet might be the vehicle for our salvation as a civilization. It is certainly time for the people of the world to unite -- independently of government -- and take control of our destiny.

II. The World Level

As we think on the world level, we must replace the old violent Destroyers with a new and effective nonviolent Selective Destroyer. May I propose such a Destroyer? It is a new system of welfare. First, we eliminate government welfare because government is violence and this must be a nonviolent strategy. If we are to consider everyone as brothers (created equal), we certainly cannot force a brother to support something of which he disapproves. We cannot force atheists to subsidize the preaching of religion. We cannot force Christians to sponsor abortions. We cannot force monogamists to subsidize the children of polygamists. We cannot force anyone to help anyone else.

Next, we need to establish a worldwide network of private (volunteer) welfare organizations to replace forced government programs. As we do, I suggest that no one be given any assistance for more than a year while they are fertile. Yes, you heard me. Those with inferior genes/memes will be helped individually while we prevent their future offspring. Thus, we selectively destroy inferior genes/memes without violence. This will provide the balance we need to improve our genes/memes through random creations and selective destruction, while staying within the carrying capacity of our environment. I know it is brutal. I can only defend it with the argument that it is less brutal. It is less brutal than waiting until we are overrun and destroyed by famine or disease. It is less brutal than the plague of violence now consuming our planet.

The individual consciousness within each of us should accept this plan because no existing individual has to suffer. The group consciousness should accept it because it provides an effective mechanism for sorting among divergent genes/memes. No one has any reason to fear my proposal because an essential component is that no one will be forced. You will still be free to help fertile people. You will still be free, as a charitable organization, to consider each case and make that judgment. You will still be free to seek help without sterilization, or to live in poverty.

The good news is that as we divert our resources from military development to economic development, the resulting prosperity might postpone the need for selective destruction for a hundred years. The better news is that as enough of us adopt the meme for responsible reproduction, we might eliminate the need for any destroyer, violent or nonviolent, for a thousand years, or more. The magic of a symphony is not the clarinets or the violins. It is the harmony. Perhaps our divergent memes and genes can learn to celebrate our diversity and live in harmony, peace and prosperity through the worldwide memes of tolerance and trust.

In February 2002, as a citizen of Salt Lake City, Utah, I welcomed the world to my city. Now I invite the world into my heart and beg everyone else to do the same. 911 was a wake-up call. Now that we're awake, let's smell the coffee and do this right. We might survive a war with Iraq. Maybe so, maybe not. It is eventually certain, however, that the forces described above will destroy our civilization if we do not choose wisely. We have a distinct advantage over all the dead civilizations that went before. We have their history and we have the Internet. I, for one, prefer not to take the risk that we, as a species, will not get a second chance at this for another thousand years. We are intelligent enough to work out the strategy. The Internet is our tool for peace. Thank God for the Internet.

Now, spread this meme before Bush drops the other shoe.

Ken Larsen