The Myths of War
To create peace, we must refute the myths of war.
If you want to know whether people are naturally loving or violent, all you have to do is examine war propaganda. War propaganda manipulates our most powerful instincts, which are love of family, love of freedom, and the desire to help others. According to propaganda, wars are always about liberating people and self-defense. There has never been a war in history where the invaders openly said, “We’re going to war for the money.” Also, war propaganda never portrays the other side as human. It hides the fact that we’re killing other human beings. Instead, we’re killing monsters; we’re killing cockroaches; we’re killing sub-humans. If we were naturally violent, our leaders could openly tell their people, “I’m going to give you a chance to kill people so that I can get richer, and I’ll even pay you!” But in reality, that would be a very ineffective form of propaganda. As more people learn the truth about war, peace, and human nature, we will make further progress on the road to peace.