A CENTURY OF VIOLENCE

ALFRED NOBEL believed that peace should be maintained if nations, possessed deadly weapons. After all, nations could quickly unite and bring gruesome ruin to any aggressor.  "This would be a force that would make war impossible," he wrote.  According to Nobel's view, no sane nation would  provoke a conflict if the consequences to itself would be devastating. But what has the past century revealed?

Less than 20 years after Nobel's death, World War I broke out. This conflict  saw the use of new deadly weapons, including machine guns, poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks, airplanes, and submarines. Nearly 10 million soldiers were killed, and more than twice that number were wounded.  The barbarity of World War I caused renewed interest in peace.  This led to the formation of the League of Nations.  U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, a prominent figure in this cause, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.   

Funny! it didn't stick and, in my opinion, no imperfect sinful human being deserves any kind of recognition for anything.  They are suppose to be happy or proud that they did something good.  God expects human-kindness from everyone, it is suppose to be natural thing to do, for example, saving someone from drowning etc. God did not think  or want people to want to do things and be rewarded for them, it is suppose to be  something a kind person would normally do for someone.  Remember:  "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you."  If a person cannot do something kind and not expect something in return, other than a thank you, then they are not a kind human, they are just showing off. But this is what the world has come to and that is a sad, sad thing. And to be rewarded with a medal or trophy for  a kindness that should come naturally without expectation is not right! Just be proud of what you did out of kindness and Jehovah will reward you later. 

Yet, any hopes that war would end once and for all were dashed when, in 1939, World War II broke out. In many respects this was even more horrendous than World War I. During this conflict  Adolf Hitler expanded Nobel's Germany's largest ammunition factories, with over 9,000 employees. Then, at the head of the war, Nobel's factory was completely annihilated by an Allied air raid that dropped more than a thousand bombs.  Ironically, those bombs were developed with  the help of Nobel's own inventions.

The century that elapsed after Nobel's death saw not only two world wars but also countless smaller conflicts. Weapons proliferated during that period, and some of them became even  more sinister.  Consider a few of the military devises that have been prominent in the decades since Nobel's death.

Note: There will never be true peace in this system of things, because no one can get along with another and humans don't have a clue as to how to run a country. 

Next time: A CENTURY OF VIOLENCE/Small Arms and Light Weapons

From the Awake! magazine