War
War is the most destructive act man can undertake. It robs innocents of life. It divides those that might otherwise be friends. It decimates land and property. It extinguishes the fires of culture and tradition. It makes widows of wives and turns pride into sorrow. It transforms its survivors into amputees, suicides, and vengeance seekers.
How are wars most often carried out? Can it be said that today’s wars are carried out by the summation of each soldier’s own volition? Is it the consent of the financiers that allow wars to continue? Who truly finances wars? Must everyone agree, and in merely participating in the conversation be forced financiers of wars? Why must your neighbor be forced to fund the wars of your choosing or vice-versa?
Imagine for a moment that war was like any other service, such as paper delivery, premium television, or landscaping. How are these services financed? In most cases, they are paid for by individuals acting voluntarily. In imagining war to be similar to these services can any ideas be formed about how untenable war might be if it had to be paid for voluntarily?
Now imagine a different scenario. What if, in order to buy children’s cough medicine, you had to agree to a war surcharge? For every bottle of cough medicine you buy you are tacitly paying a percentage toward a bomb or mortar or rifle to be used in a war. Would you refuse to buy that medicine? Would you buy that medicine with the hopes that someday its manufacturer would change his mind? Would that medicine be as affordable as medicine from another manufacturer that did not redirect its income toward war?
Is war profitable? If it is, what makes it that way?
