Despair is a coward’s part
I am writing at a dark moment, and it is impossible to know whether the human race will last long enough for what I write to be published, or if published, to be read. But as yet hope is possible, and while hope is possible, despair is a coward’s part
Not long ago, private disputes were often settled by duels, and those who upheld duelling maintained that its abolition would be contrary to human nature. If the world could live for a few generations without war, war could come to seem as absurd as duelling has come to seem to us
I shall ask the reader to forget, for the moment, the details of recent history and the political probabilities of the near future. I shall ask him to forget his likes and dislikes, his preferences and aversions, and moral convictions as to what is good or bad. I wish to consider here in a purely scientific and impartial manner, which conditions will have to be fulfilled if men are to continue to exist for a long time
It is undeniable that there are men and nations to whom violence is attractive. But individuals who have a taste for homicide are restrained by the criminal law, and most of us do not find life intolerable because we are not allowed to commit murders
Political contests in a civilized country often raise just the kind of issues that would lead to war if they were between different nations. Democratic politicians grow accustomed to the limitations imposed by law. The same would be true in international affairs if there were political machinery for settling disputes and if men had become accustomed to respecting it
A way of securing world peace would be a voluntary agreement among nations to pool their armed forces and submit to an agreed international authority: the WORLD GOVERNMENT
All nations would have to agree to reduce national armed forces to the level necessary for internal police action. No nation should be allowed to retain nuclear weapons or any other means of wholesale destruction
In a world where separate nations were disarmed, the military forces of the WG would not need to be very large. It would be necessary that any unit should be of mixed nationality. There should not be European contingents or Asian contingents or African contingents or American contingents. The higher commands should be given to men from small countries which could not entertain any hope of world dominion
Separate nations should preserve their autonomy in everything did not concern war or peace
If such an international authority is to be successful in diminishing motives towards warlike feelings, it will have to work to promote a continual approach toward economic equality in the standard of life of different parts of the world.
A continual attempt to move towards economic equality must, therefore, be part of the pursuit of secure and lasting peace.
(excerpts from “Has Man a future” by Bertrand Russell,1961)