Monday, May 09, 2011

[cuirgeef] How will the conflict end?

Pick an international conflict.  How will it end?  There are only 3 possibilities:

One possibility which does NOT count is for the conflict to continue until the end of time as mutual distrust, separation, and hate.  This is not an end; it's a powder keg, whose resolution has not yet occurred.

The first possibility is for one group to genocide the other.  Historically, I suspect a great many conflicts end this way.

The second possibility is for true peace to be achieved, and with true peace comes mutual understanding, dismantling of physical and social barriers, conversation, intermingling, intermarriage, and ultimately a blending or assimilation of one group, and culture, into another.  The blending is usually asymmetric, probably based on relative population.  Unfortunately, the prospect of intermarriage (losing a son or daughter to the enemy), of losing cultural identity, is so horrifying that at least one of the parties would prefer option #1 (genociding the enemy) over true peace.  This is a problem!

The third possibility is for the conflict to end due to external forces: perhaps a third invading party overpowers them both, or perhaps the heat death of the universe or other natural forces.

There is a bumper sticker with the word "COEXIST" written using symbols of the world's major religions.  I do not believe coexistence is stable over the long term (powder keg), only at best (or worst!) a prelude to true peace.

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