Recently more enlightened “Atomic Scientists” promulgated a statement-Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the authors of the Doomsday Clock Statement,
"Russia’s war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks."
Ipsos survey for AXA reveals, large majorities of the expert respondents said that they think the current global situation could lead to a number of worrying consequences... https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/global-war-horizon
I think in the 6th grade when I wrote letters against the war in Vietnam I figured peace was better than war. This in a town filled with military retirees and employees. I was fascinated by the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam and the Cold War and the China Russia border skirmishes. I was instinctively anti-war.
At 30 I read The Complaint of Peace by Erasmus and used a few quotes in fundraising to stop Contra Aid as a handwritten appeal next to the typed appeal. Of course I did not use this quote: “If the lower orders of the people were to act in this manner [hurting their brethren in war], some apology might be found in their supposed ignorance; if very young men were to act in this manner, the inexperience of youth might be pleaded in extenuation; if the poor laity only were concerned, the frailty of the agents might lessen the atrocity of the action: but the very reverse of this is the truth. The seeds of war are chiefly sown by those very people whose wisdom and moderation, characteristic of their rank and station, ought to compose and assuage the impetuous passions of the people.”
Then this quote I truncated- ”Now, if I, whose name is Peace, am a personage glorified by the united praise of God and man, as the fountain, the parent, the nurse, the patroness, the guardian of every blessing which either heaven or earth can bestow; if without me nothing is flourishing, nothing safe, nothing pure or holy, nothing pleasant to mortals, or grateful to the Supreme Being; if, on the contrary, war is one vast ocean, rushing on mankind, of all the united plagues and pestilences in nature; if, at its deadly approach, every blossom of happiness is instantly blasted, every thing that was improving gradually degenerates and dwindles away to nothing, every thing that was firmly supported totters on its foundation, every thing that was formed for long duration comes to a speedy end, and every thing that was sweet by nature is turned into bitterness; if war is so unhallowed that it becomes the deadliest bane of piety and religion; if there is nothing more calamitous to mortals, and more detestable to heaven, I ask, how in the name of God, can I believe those beings to be rational creatures; how can I believe them to be otherwise than stark mad; who, with such a waste of treasure, with so ardent a zeal, with so great an effort, with so many arts, so much anxiety, and so much danger, endeavour to drive me away from them, and purchase endless misery and mischief at a price so high?
If they were wild beasts who thus despised and rejected me, I could bear it more patiently; because I should impute the affront to nature, who had implanted in them so savage a disposition. If I were an object of hatred to dumb creatures, I could overlook their ignorance, because the powers of mind necessary to perceive my excellence have been denied to them. But it is a circumstance equally shameful and marvellous, that though nature has formed one animal, and one alone, with powers of reason, and a mind participating of divinity; one animal, and one alone, capable of sentimental affection and social union; I can find admission among the wildest of wild beasts, and the most brutal of brutes, sooner than with this one animal; the rational, immortal animal called man.”
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/erasmus-the-complaint-of-peace
For some weird reason, this splendid flic springs to this ol'mechanic's addled mind... filmschoolrejects.com › the-medusa-touch-1978-review
'The Medusa Touch is a slow burn horror thriller about a man who sees only the worst in people — and that includes himself. It's a glorious downer of a tale that's lacking a traditional monster...'.. The Medusa Touch (1978) Classic British youtube.com/watch?v=kzmUgMICuOk [ffwd 1.30.00]