How wars get started

Seeing how people allow a grievance to fester, we can understand how wars get started.
“I’m right and you’re wrong. Admit it, or else I’ll…”
Next is the effort to get people on their side. With enough support, they launch an all out attack. Those attacked try to defend themselves and seek support. The innocents try to remain neutral, not wanting to take sides or engage in the battle. By remaining passive or silent, they are eventually attacked by either side to the conflict. When all is said and done, no one wins. A once thriving community, people living together in harmony, is either crippled or destroyed. What a waste.

Often overlooked are those who love controversy. They seem to thrive on it and instigate dissention. Then they sit back and watch the sparks fly, jumping in now and then to fan the flames. Wherever they go, the result is the same. If they don’t get their way or the result they seek, they threaten to leave. Instead of waving good-bye with a fare-thee-well, they are encouraged to stay. When they strike out at their new destination, they return and are welcomed back. The trouble starts anew. They may have a different face or a false identity, but they are the same spotted leopard. A fair weather friend is not a friend, but a convenience. True friendship is not shattered by controversy, and when the dust settles, they are still friends.

Well said, Abe. I think the dust will soon settle and we will be allowed to return to a state of peace. We are all the wiser for the conflict. We know who to trust, and who not to trust.

Good words, Abe. Sure sums up well the situation here.

My daughter summed it up one time, "Mom, do you want to win where someone always feels bad, or do you want peace?"

I like peace, but I will speak my mind. However, I qualify it usually as only my mind and no one else has to agree.

Carol

Diversity and discussion is good for any group, especially an online forum. Those who come to disrupt eventually show themselves as they are.

It's difficult. Close-minded people see a different reality, where right and wrong are polar opposites and the "right" must be upheld. Open-minded people are just that - open, so they do not wish to stifle or reject the opinions of others.

The question becomes, where and how do we draw the line? At the moment, we are dealing with a few who have clearly crossed the line. We have to address that, but I agree that it will settle down soon, and we will return to a relatively peaceful place where dissension can be accepted with mutual respect.

Ann

I think this (very circumspect) thread is missing the point. Combative individuals aren't the issue here. Mentally ill ones are.

I am not a psychiatrist, but I don't have to be to smell the crazy on someone. Your blogger's odor permeates a five-mile radius. His dissassociative identity disorder is currently in full flame. I wouldn't be surprised if the person who posts here truly believes he's not the person who writes the blog.

He has been tossed out of other writer boards for obvious reasons. Shelagh has allowed him to stick around here for "color," but the result is that the longevity has only served to aggravate his disorder. If he were banned, he'd search out another board and start again.

His main "friend" has her own mental issues, which have been displayed on and off. Their friendship will wax and wane as their meds are adjusted.

I'm not going to speculate on the health issues of these two "friends" but I do sympathise. I explained to another member of the board that I allow Chris on the boards because he likes nothing better than being banned so that he can come back onto the forum to prove that he can't really be banned. I didn't play his game so he joined under a different profile anyway, in the hope I would ban the second alias. That didn't work so he added another and another. He thinks I'll eventually lose my rag. I don't do that. The nearest I came was when I used the angry speech smiley and everyone added their own favourite expletive. All I was saying was sod off. Not exactly earth shattering is it?

Shelagh wrote:

I'm not going to speculate on the health issues of these two "friends" but I do sympathise. I explained to another member of the board that I allow Chris on the boards because he likes nothing better than being banned so that he can come back onto the forum to prove that he can't really be banned.

Well, but you're speculating right there. AW kicked him off pretty effectively. His "The Doctor" sock puppet was banned after about five posts. You can ban his IP. Sure, a proxy IP is harder, but he'll still show who he is soon enough.

It isn't my job to torment him. I know all about his IP addresses and his search for ever more anonymous ways of disguising his email and IP addresses. The fact he is doing that without me putting on any pressure means he's under enough pressure from himself. I get no comfort from trying to better him.

LC wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if the person who posts here truly believes he's not the person who writes the blog.

It doesn't really matter who is writing the blog. This comments are closed on this blog entry:

On Nominations

By a305w

On nominations

Guess what, kids? PublishedAuthors.org finished second in the Preditors
and Editors Reader’s Poll!
They have validation!
Right?
Right?
Wrong!
This is a web poll, which anybody can vote several bazillion times
for their favorite. This is not a validation of PublishedAuthors.org.
It’s validation of their abillity to send flying monkeys to stuff a
ballot box. While it’s cool they can get flying monkeys to do that, it
still means nothing.
Hmm… I nominated Published Authors and Writers Beat, both
finished in the top five.(And the Coven Of Leznazi Flying Monkey
Moderators at AbsoluteWrite were seventh. Moooo ha ha!
That quote would be from one Lin Robinson, who wouldn’t know a good
writing forum if it bit him in the ass. He, like the others on
PublishedAuthors.org, hates Absolute Write Forums. Why?
That’s because Absolute Write Forums won’t tolerate their personal
attacks and strange world view of publishing.

Tags: AbsoluteWrite, Lin

This entry was posted on February 3, 2010 at 7:41 pm and is
filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

The owner of the blog is upset that Published Authors finished second -- but it was the network, not the forum. The forum is part of the network and will not be closed even if the members here stop posting. It will just remain as a resource for members of the network. Like I said, he just doesn't get it. He should be attacking the Published Authors Network (spread across three websites: Ning, LinkedIn and Goodreads with a combined membership of over three thousand members). If he destroys all that, he can give himself a pat on the back.

Quote :

He should be attacking the Published Authors Network (spread across three websites: Ning, LinkedIn and Goodreads with a combined membership of over three thousand members). If he destroys all that, he can give himself a pat on the back.

Do all those people actively post on those sites?

Hey, they called MY name! I'm in the pantheon! Cool!

If you have a really intelligent child... you have to wonder if its intelligent would be for the good of itself and the good of society at large. Or if its intelligent would be put to harmful causes... like creating cunning invasion plans for government or scheming up crafty ways to accumulate wealth at the expense of its fellow citizens.

I have already started to re-think if this whole idea of whether being intelligent is necessarily a good thing for this world!!

Ahad,

I do think intelligence needs to be directed and channeled in the right direction.
Your children will probably follow your your good example.
I remember finding that hard to believe.
It did come to pass though.

The teen years were the most worrisome.

Alice, you are right of course.

Good examples have to be set by both parents and teachers alike. As well as older people when they are in the company of children and juniors.

There was a custom like this in Bangladesh when I was a lad. You would, for example, never smoke in front of your younger brothers and sisters and you would not do this in front of your elders either. You would show respect and decency and offer the older person the chair to sit on when they came to visit your place. You would never visit your relations and inlaws without taking some sweets for the kids and something equivalent for the adults.
Nowadays of course with the advent of "modern ways" things could well be rather different.

What has this all got to do with Abe's thread "How wars get started"? I have absolutley no idea ... but I believe some wars might be avoided if people did observe some basic courtesies...

Sometimes I think - getting back to Abe's OP, that the trouble begins when a society promotes science over art. The awesome technology that is developed tends to go into advanced weaponry rather than into enhancing life for the members of the society. The two elements get split off. The artist is repressed.

Repressed parts of ourselves always come to the surface eventually, often in negative ways. It's sad. If those elements had been encouraged and given free reign, there would be less need for wars.

When art and science are balanced, we sometimes get really good stuff, like The First Ark to Alpha Centauri, for instance

Just me.

Ann

alj wrote:

trouble begins when a society promotes science over art. The awesome technology that is developed tends to go into advanced weaponry rather than into enhancing life for the members of the society.
Ann

I think enhanced weaponry helps enhance life for members of society. It keeps the Mongols at bay.

How do wars get stopped?

They close the blog.

Good one Shelagh. Wouldn't it be great if government's could just pull the plug?

alice wrote:

How do wars get stopped?

Alice, this Joseph Campbell quote was on my homepage widget this morning:

Quote :

On our planet itself all dividing horizons have been shattered. We can no longer hold our loves at home and project our aggressions elsewhere; for on this spaceship Earth there is no elsewhere anymore. And no mythology that continues to speak or to teach of “elsewheres” and “outsiders” meets the requirement of this hour
Myths to Live By

Sounds good to me.

Ann