A Policed Crumbling World and the Future of the Earth and Mankind -By Jimi Bickersteth

‘I promise you that this will be the final war -the war to end all wars.’
-WOODROW WILSON, U.S. PRESIDENT (1913-21).

Historically, the purpose of armies has been to wage wars (or defend) against threats to sovereignty and territorial integrity, external enemies or terrorist groups within who took up arms against a government. In the contemporary world, however, the purpose in many countries has been to usurp political power or help to suppress dissent(s). And that patently, raises the question of whether civilisation will ever progress to the point where all nations deem their militaries superfluous and a waste of hard earned dollars enough to accordingly disband them.

This essay and deep moralising on the state of our world was inspired by the most recent infractions and territorial abuse using force and the army and armaments to launch attacks in the Russian-Ukraine fray by a structured Russia that was in itself not altogether a democracy in the real sense and ambience of the connotation.

The primitive, excessive use of crude force by ambitious military chiefs of state has led to a conjecture of a world without armies. Quite harebrained, and is understandable, but, contemporary political points point to that possibility. After all, of the 195 countries of the world, 36, do not have standing armies. Sure, they are all small countries.

In fact, several of those ‘armyless’ nations are so unfamiliar that the brightest geography student will have difficulty locating them on an Atlas map. Still, their examples point to global possibility of a world without armies. Liechtenstein, Panama, Costa Rica are some of the countries that have only police forces that maintain law and order and that protect their borders and territorial integrity. Of course, they are exceptions to the rule. But then, the kind of audacity exhibited by Putin’s Russian army is also increasingly an aberration that was keeping the world perpetually under stress, anxiety, and needless and avoidable tensions on the economic and social fronts.

Costa Rica today one of the most peaceful and prosperous country in Central and South America, competes with Europe, the US and Canada on indices of democracy such as press freedom and civil liberties. It channeled its resources to human development, and has become an oasis of tranquility in a turbulent region. Who would not love to live in a society where war was incomprehensible and repulsive! Everyone long for a world where even the word for war does not exist because warfare is unknown. War, like a modern performing art performed for a purpose and for an audience. A bloody duel that has a rhyme – a repetition of similar boom-boom sounds.

The quotes in the opening paragraph were high expectations of one world leader at the end of World War I, about 108 years ago. About 20 years after President Wilson made that rash promise, the second world war erupted. It caused much more death and destruction than its predecessor. Decades of technological advances had made mankind more adept at mass killing, even as the second world war came to an end, global leaders realized that the specter of wars and more war loomed larger than ever.

That global conflict that culminated in the world war II was so horrendous that the victors wanted-and needed- to believe that their many sacrifices would bring lasting benefits. But, today, several decades after, it has been seen for whatever it is worth, that human wars rarely solve problems, let alone eliminate the deep-rooted problem of war itself, but rather compounds it. Why? Basically, because society has grown more dynamic and the dynamics has come to fuel the wants and desires and greed of political leaders and those elements have become so insatiable in a world of physical and economic limitations.

The modern political elites have due to greed and the blind urge to flex their armament muscles, blatantly refused to abide by the 1945 proclamation by a U.S. General Douglas MacArthur: “We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon (the very word people associate with a nuclear cataclysm) will be at our door.”

The general sure knew what two atomic bombs had done to Nagasaki and Hiroshima during the final days of the second world war. The appalling destruction unleashed on those two Japanese cities led him to ascribe a new meaning to the word “Armageddon”-an all-out nuclear conflagration that could mean the end of civilisation on our planet. I saw one dictionary describes the principal meaning of the word this way: “The place of a great and final conflict between the forces of good and evil.” Will good ever conquer evil, or is such a battle the stuff of fantasy?

In any case, concerns about a possible nuclear Holocaust continue to plague the world. By the 1960’s, the world’s superpowers had devised a strategy of “mutually assured destruction.” Their goal was to have sufficient missiles or delivery systems to guarantee the destruction of 25 percent of the ‘enemy’s’ civilian population and 50 percent of the industrial capacity–regardless of which side started the conflict. It could be averred here that world leaders have from time immemorial always prepared for the world’s nunc dimittis, and, few people found much comfort in this strategy for conserving world peace.

Today, nuclear weapons proliferate and regional wars continue to cause untold numbers of deaths and complimentary destruction. The possibility of a nuclear conflagration still threatens mankind. Although people long to see an end to war, a few believe that a war or any other strategy could achieve this goal.

Nonetheless, in February 2022, some 68 years to the end of World War II, the world woke up to Russia toying with a ‘capsule’ warhead that could reportedly, snuff life out of every living things if launched. The world has remained compos mentis, sedated, and dazed since then.

As long as wicked people hold power, righteous people will not enjoy peace and security. Realistically, the world cannot divorce corruption and wickedness from the people who practice them. Thus, lasting peace and justice come at a price. On whose side should the world be on in this decisive conflict? Most of us automatically assume that we are aligned with the forces of good. But how can we be sure which, is it, NATO, UN, Russia or Ukraine. But one thing is sure as daylight, that, when that battle is over, people everywhere will view war as incomprehensible and repulsive.

With what was happening to our beautiful, but polluted planet, the earth may not survive. Indeed, today the earth is being ruined by the abuse of precious resources, such as water, forests, and the delicately balanced atmosphere. Some scientists warn that the earth and all life on it may be threatened by such things as a large meteorite, an exploding star, or the exhaustion of the Sun’s hydrogen fuel.

Scientists believe that the earth will gradually–perhaps over many billions of years–lose the ability to sustain human life. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes this as “the irreversible tendency toward disorder.” Without renewing power, the universe–including the solar system that it depended on for stability, light, and energy–would descend into total disorder and ultimate destruction.

If armed struggle around the world does not put paid to life on earth, in a little over a billion years, the earth is expected to become a baked, barren, powder-dry desert. It’s hard to imagine how multicellular life could survive,” says a recent issue of the magazine Sky & Telescope. Why? “A brightening Sun will boil the seas and bake the continents,” says Astronomy magazine, adding: “This apocalyptic scenario is more than an inconvenient truth–it’s our inevitable destiny.”

This should stirred the imagination of many people, like it did the 17th century mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, the discoverer of the law of universal gravitation and the inventor of the calculus. At the moment, the world’s experiencing nation rising against nation, great tsunamis, earthquakes, pestilence and food shortages. Not new in themselves. They have been happening since early in human history. The difference would be that they would all occur in one time period.

Ask yourself, are all this facets mentioned in the Gospel occurred in the same era?” Man has witnessed devastating world wars; great earthquakes with their tragic consequences, such as tsunamis; widespread deadly diseases such as malaria, flu, AIDS and covid19: millions of people wasting away for lack of food; a global climate of fear because of threats from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and “critical times” marked by rampant lawlessness, cruelty, and self-seeking aggressiveness have become rampant and have become evident globally. If we are convinced of these realities, then, knowledge of the facts should move the world to act.

A sign in a store window proclaims: “Last Days.” Its message is fairly, tacitly obvious. It can mean that a sale will be ending soon or that the store will be closing. But what if someone says, “We are living in the last days”? What does that mean? The term “the last days” have been in use for a long time. Over 2500 years ago, the Bible says, that the prophet Daniel was given visions of world powers and of the conflicts(of rights and wrongs, with all us totally right or totally wrong)that would take place between them up until “the time of the end.” Daniel here was referring to a finality–a dramatic Change that would affect people living on the globe.

Some people shudder at the thought of “the last days.” Sir Isaac Newton, for example, was convinced that the time of the end would result in a new era of global peace and prosperity under the Millennial Rule. He stated that the prophecy of Micah 4:3, as well as that of Isaiah 2:4, would be fulfilled at that time. The present time: “They will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

After all of the hardship, anxiety, and the prevailing atmosphere of fear, War, civil strife, crime, violence and hunger that plague humanity today and cause millions to live in fear and dread, the world must adopt a positive viewpoint to secure a sustainable future.

#JimiBickersteth
Jimi Bickersteth is a super blogger, public affairs commentator and writer.
He can be reached on Twitter
@BickerstethJimi
@alabaemanuel
@akannibickerstet
Emails:
jimi.bickersteth@yahoo.co.uk
jimi.bickersteth@gmail.com
jimibickersteth8@gmail.com