Why Start a War? Your neighbor likes to throw loud parties. Every Saturday night, the street is full of cars and people. His stereo blasts rock-and-roll songs until 1 AM. You complain to anyone who will listen. You call the police. It does no good. Every Saturday night is a big party. How do you solve it? Do you talk to your neighbor and work it out? Or do you get a rifle and kill him? Of course, if you are sane, you control the problem with logic or communication. Even if this neighbor shot his rifle at you, you probably wouldn't shoot back. Killing people is not a sane response. As any war veteran can tell you, shooting or bombing people causes a lifetime of depression. So why does anyone start a war? As a decorated Naval officer in World War II, L. Ron Hubbard experienced war firsthand. In a book called All About Radiation, he writes, "Man has a madness and that madness is called war." "A government becomes worried about its ability to control its populace* and neighbors and resorts to war as a means of compelling obedience at home as well as abroad. "In actuality, a weakness and insecurity of government causes war. If a government were very strong and felt very secure, it would employ the most peaceful, quiet methods of granting beingness** and getting cooperation from its potential enemies. It wouldn't fight a war. "One doesn't find an educated, secure man fighting with his neighbors. No, the person who fights his neighbors is a very insecure and not sane." -- L. Ron Hubbard (*Populace: All the people in an area.) (**Granting beingness: Allowing others to be who they are.) Five Non-violent Recommendations 1. Whenever you want to attack someone, find out where you are weak or insecure. Improve your personal power in these areas and your urge to attack disappears! 2. Grant beingness to your enemies. Decide that it is okay for them to be who they are, even if they are different than you. They will no longer seem like enemies! 3. If you can't control people that you should control, get smarter. Use your communication skills, personal charm and intelligence to gain their cooperation. As history always proves, control with violence is temporary; control through cooperation lasts forever. 4. Whenever you hear someone recommend violence as a solution, find out what makes him or her feel weak or insecure. Discuss solutions that use logic, communication and personal improvement. 5. As you reduce the weakness and insecurity in yourself and others, you will want to attack the bigger enemies in our world: starvation, disease, global warming, insufficient water, insufficient power, bad education, crime, drug addiction, insanity and more. Imagine a world without these problems! Copyright © 2006 TipsForSuccess.org. All rights reserved. Grateful acknowledgment is made to L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to reproduce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard. Take better control of your life with the TipsForSuccess coaching website at www.TipsForSuccessCoaching.org. For permission to copy, print or post this article, go to www.tipsforsuccess.org/reprint_info.htm or click here. To subscribe, buy books, contact us or learn more about TipsForSuccess.org, click here. |