Procrastinate for Peace!

[nancylebov]

If both sides can put off that "inevitable war" long enough, it might never happen at all.

tl, dr version of my previous post.

Comments

[andrewducker]

That's pretty much what's happening in Northern Ireland, as far as I can tell. Long may it continue!

[avram]

Vaporwar.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

I like this because it parallels some things I've been reflecting on the past few years.* Looking back, grand sweeping plans to change everything for the better usually don't work out because they either never get implemented or get implemented in some distorted and compromised way that gives you the worst of both worlds.

And a lot of the things that do change the world profoundly come in baby steps, as the bad things get slowly eroded away. Messy, slow, and never giving the proper sense of victory, but there is progress, sometimes.

I think the "never giving the proper sense of victory" is a big part of it, because it means that the other side never gets a proper sense of defeat.

Lots of times I see one group accused of doing some bad thing, and they strongly and steadfastly deny that it happened or could happen. But nonetheless they make changes that make it less likely to happen, while still insisting that it can't and doesn't happen already.

The joke is "I've never had the clap and I don't want it again!"


* Which means I like it, not that it is true. An important thing to remember.

SF geek reference: There is a good line about this in Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks when the general surprises the politicians by not being particularly pro-war regarding their current situation. Too lazy to dig it up, the big metaphor was you don't have to jump off a cliff, you can keep walking along it indefinitely.

[https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawna5c_SU6alPxvyuxNpqdt2z8ZsSzpPrgc (from livejournal.com)]

"Goodnight Wesley. I'll like as not kill you in the morning." -- from The Princess Bride. Wesley recounting what Dread Pirate Roberts told him each evening.

[redbird]

It worked for the United States and the Soviet Union.