Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Rezwan]

Very sorry to hear about your brother-in-law.

Also, apologies because I’m in a mood today and the following might come off as harsh.

About the rest of your post, I can’t 4th it because I don’t understand what you’re saying.

Phil’s Dad wrote: The sad truth is eliminating this source of conflict will achieve little in the way of reducing war.

You won’t know that ’til you’ve done it.

Other excuses will be found.
War is the natural state; peace needs constant vigilance and constant resourcefulness.

Trust is the natural state. I spend about 98% of my time getting along just fine with people. Conflicts arise, but get resolved amicably for the most part. Every now and then they don’t, and there may be some shouting. I haven’t beaten anyone recently. There are a few people, well OK, one, who aren’t talking to me (“cold wars”) but I’m extending diplomatic overtures. I’d say “war” is pretty rare.

Yes, conflict is ubiquitous, but there are many constructive ways to resolve conflict without letting it escalate to war. War is a failure of imagination. Pretending there’s nothing you can do about it is disingenuous and usually the refuge of people who are profiting from it.

In the mean time I would far rather focus on all the good we can do than preening ourselves over the harm done by the alternatives.

Not sure what “preening ourselves over the harm…” means. Looks to me like you’re preening as a movie critic here.

(and I’m sorry if this makes me unpopular but I include in that dreaming up holier than thou videos about oil spills on the drive to work)

It’s not about popularity here, but brainstorming. You said you want to focus on “all” the good we can do, but you’re already shooting down good suggestions, and not coming up with an alternative. Doesn’t seem like you’re pulling your weight.

If you don’t like this video idea, come up with – and execute – another one. Or are you opposed to videos in general?

Let’s please be the solution

A preening phrase if I ever heard one…

rather than letting this society be just another soldier twisting the knife.

A what? I don’t get this metaphor. I see why you don’t like the ready made mass appeal video idea. That quote seemed really “deep” in an obscure arthouse cinema way.

Ah! I crack myself up.