PEACE AND CONFLICT....from the perspective of The Simpler Way.

Key themes.

Conflicts of many types are largely due to the scramble for the world's scarce resources and markets. As the numbers of people increase and resources dwindle and everyone strives for more economic growth and higher living standards, conflicts deriving from this competition must become more common and more intense.

Throughout history conflict and war have been largely due to some groups or states trying to take more than their fair share of resources.
Our high "living standards" in rich countries would not be possible if we were not getting far more than our fair share of the world’s resources. The global economy is massively unjust; it increasingly allocates most of the world’s wealth to the rich few. If we insist on remaining as affluent as we are we will have to remain heavily armed.

The best way to become secure is to live in ways that do not oblige us to hog resources and deprive others. Global peace is not possible without global economic justice, and that is not possible unless we dramatically reduce consumption and move to The Simpler Way.

CONSIDER OUR SITUATION

From the perspective of The Simpler Way continued commitment to affluent living standards and economic growth can only increase the probability of serious conflicts of many types. Reflect on our situation:-

- Resources are scarce and many are being depleted at a rapid rate.

- Rich countries are heavily and increasingly dependent on imports for their resources and energy. We are only about 15% of the world’s population but we get about 80% of resources produced.

- Many of the resources the rich countries consume are taken from poor countries through economic processes which seriously deprive the majority of the world's people.

- Thus distribution of world resources is extremely unjust; a few rich countries are getting most of them, through the normal operation of the global market economy. If the already-rich countries insist on becoming even richer the distributions will very likely become even worse.

- World population will probably reach 9 billion; soon there are likely to be 1.5 times as many people demanding resources.

- Land available for agriculture might not increase at all, because the rate at which it is being eroded and otherwise lost to production. Water resources and forests are rapidly becoming more scarce. There will be much greater demand for these biological resources in the near future.

- If all the people the world will probably have by 2060 were to have the per capita resource consumption that people in rich countries average now, demand for resources would be 8-10 times as great as it is now.

- ...and everyone, including even people in the richest countries, is obsessed with increasing living standards, economic output, production and consumption and affluence as fast as possible and without end!

The inescapable conclusion:-

While all parties remain dedicated to greater and greater affluence regardless of how rich they already are, and there are nowhere near enough resources to enable all to be as affluent as the rich are now, there can be no outcome other than increasing competition between nations for resources and markets.

In other words, global peace is not possible unless there is movement towards The Simpler Way.
Global Peace is not possible without global justice.

The global economy is massively unjust. The few, maybe 15% who live in rich countries are taking about 80% of the resources produced in the world each year. It is not just that they get most of the resources on sale ( simply by being able to pay most for them). The economy also enables much of the productive capacity of the Third World, especially its land and labour, to be put into producing things to export to rich world supermarkets. This is why many regard conventional development as a process of legitimised plunder. It mostly develops industries and structures which deliver resources and wealth to the rich while ignoring the needs of billions of people and taking from them the capacity to produce for themselves to meet their own basic needs.

It is remarkable that the Third World has expressed so little outrage at this situation. This is partly because Third World countries are ruled by elites who have a strong interest in perpetuating the system since they benefit from it.
This situation has many implications for conflict. Firstly there is the effort Third World elites make to preserve their privileges by keeping their people down. At times this requires armed oppression, in some countries resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.

Brutal Third World regimes are often supported by the rich countries because they are willing to give the rich the access they want to Third World resources and markets.

The most important implication is that the rich countries use arms on a large scale to secure their empire. For example how long do you think we could go on getting most of the world’s oil if we did not have huge military forces patrolling the seas, in bases in the Middle East, supporting ruling elites who are hated by many of their people (e.g., the Saudi royal family.) Similarly armed oppression is required on the part of regimes who keep their economies to policies that suit us, and rich countries provide arms to make this possible.

 

Would the 1991 war waged by the West to expel Iraq from Kuwait have broken out if Kuwait had only been a major exporter of carrots instead of oil? Why was there no war to expel Israel from its invasion of South Lebanon, or Indonesia when it invaded East Timor?

In other words, ARMS ARE NEEDED TO MAINTAIN OUR EMPIRE, to guarantee our access to more than our fair share of the world’s resources. If we insist on having a way of life that is far more extravagant than all can share and that is only possible for the few of us, and if we take far more than our fair share of the world's resources, much of it from Third World regions, then we will need lots of military force and the readiness to use it. We will also have to go on supplying arms to the Third World regimes that will keep their societies to the economic policies that suit us.

Speaking to American soldiers at Camp Stanley, Korea, President Johnson said, "Don't forget, there are two hundred million of us in a world ofd three billion. They want what we've got -- and we are not going to give it to them!"
If that is our attitude, and it seems to be, then we had better remain heavily armed!

(Note that it is not a matter of us giving the Third World more of our resources. Many of the resources we get are taken from the Third World in the first place, th rough the market system ; i.e., by us offering to pay more for them.)

To put it another way,

We cannot have global peace without global justice.
We cannot have global justice unless the rich countries cease grabbing so much of he world's wealth.

To put it yet another way, do you want security? The best way to be secure is not by increasing military force but by changing to ways that enable all to live without threatening each other or taking more than their fair share. A peaceful world order cannot be achieved unless we shift to The Simpler Way, which would enable all to live well without taking more than their fair share or exploiting other regions.

The (unwitting) hypocrisy of the Peace Movement.

In general the Peace Movement fails to attend to the focal theme being stressed here. It has been largely made up of middle class people in rich countries who are pleading for an end to armed conflict while they go on living affluently… which is the main cause of conflict in the world. The movement does not say we can’t have peace in the world unless we the over-consuming few shift to much simpler living standards and ways.

Greed and history

The history of humans on this planet can be put in terms of people struggling to grab more than their fair share of the available wealth and power. Consider the behaviour of states over recent centuries, constantly jockeying diplomatically and fighting each other. Why? Simply because they are never content to live with what they have or content to organise satisfactory lifestyles for themselves within their own borders. There are always energetic "entrepreneurs" who are not content with being wealthy; they want more, so they go out looking for more resources and markets, and try to outmanoeuvre and bully their rivals. States try to increase their wealth, territory, status and power. This is largely what history is about.

Many people haven’t done this, and as a result we could say that they have no history. We refer to some of these people as "primitive tribes". They maintain stable social systems within stable boundaries and are not constantly seeking to outsmart or steal from their neighbours. This is not true of all tribes, but it is true of many, and it is totally foreign to the Western culture with its restless urge to go out and acquire and conquer and build empires and take over markets or one way or another to get more and more.

Most people fail to grasp any of this. They wonder why there are conflict and poverty and poor nations. Every now and then their leaders tell them their children must go to war and slaughter the children of other people just like themselves. They don’t like this much but it never occurs to them that they have brought it on their own heads by being enthusiastic supporters of and beneficiaries of the grabbing that has led to the conflict. They have enthusiastic about the empire building, the quest for more markets, the pursuit of national prestige, and they all want to be members of a great and powerful nation. Why can’t they be content to be members of a noble and admirable nation, or a caring nation? Above all they want the high "living standards" they can’t have without taking more than their fair share. They would angrily reject the claim that they are greedy; they only want normal, nice things. They don’t realise that lifestyles regarded as normal in rich countries are far more resource expensive than all could have.

Essential to The Simpler Way is the understanding that affluence is an enormous moral problem, and a dreadful mistake, and the basic cause of global problems. Even more important, The Simpler Way involves the recognition that affluence interferes with the achievement of a satisfactory life, i.e., that a high quality of life and peace of mind are best achieved through living more simply, frugally and self-sufficiently within cooperative communities and focusing on non-material goals.
(For an account of The Simpler Way, see The Alternative, Sustainable Society.)

 

For a collection of quotes and evidence on these themes see PEACE AND CONFLICT; Collected Documents.

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The Simpler Way: Analyses of global problems (environment, limits to growth, Third World...)
and the sustainable alternative society (...simpler lifestyles, self-sufficient and cooperative
communities, and a new economy.) Organised by Ted Trainer. http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/