Knowledge Shepherds Peace
By J. L. Young
Time is a fickle and fragile thing. If you were to go back in time to change something, however seemingly insignificant, it could cause catastrophic occurrences in the present or the future. This is a theory called the butterfly effect. Some suspect time will correct itself if an altering event were to occur, but we don’t rely on this assumption.
For example, if the German army wasn’t ordered to take Moscow during the winter of 1945 and kept the Russian army from penetrating as far in-country as Berlin, the wolf himself would not have committed suicide by gunshot and the war would have lasted longer. This would have led the Chancellor to issue orders leading to a possible Victory for the Third Reich. A simple stroke of Hitler’s pen and history would have irrevocably changed for the worst.
The United States’ Operation Paperclip would not have been enacted. This secret intelligence operation had taken over 1,600 Nazi German scientists, engineers, and technicians and brought them to the U.S. Some created powerful rockets. One such scientist, Warner Von Braun. Without his accomplishments and that of many others, humans would not have been able to reach the Moon in 1969.
Also, humanity would not be as beautifully diverse as it is today because of Hitler’s eugenics program.
You may see one of us and dismiss us without thought. You may fall in love with one of us and enjoy a lifetime connection. But we have only one end, to ensure humanity reaches Kardashev level III. To harness the knowledge to use the entire galaxy’s energy. To become galactic travelers and develop beyond our human biology. We cannot do that without our level zero ancestors. You.
Don’t simply strive for peace, achieve it, for it is entirely in your power to do so. We have learned that war is unnecessary for this end. Hate is superfluous. You can move beyond your differences and work together.
Some will disregard this out of stubbornness. But with enough time, they too could learn how working together for the betterment of man and the world can make this already beautiful place into a haven for all. How can we achieve such a seemingly insurmountable task? Education.
With education comes knowledge. With knowledge, we can achieve a more perfect future. But what do we teach?
To quote Georges Santayana, “If our world is ever going to make progress, it needs to remember what it’s learned from the past.” William Churchill paraphrased the quote, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
So, accurate history, without bias and nuance is crucial.
Carl Sagan, a noted scientist, and Science Fiction author, said, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”
Science in all its various disciplines is of equal import, as is maths.
“Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought.” -Albert Einstein
The arts, including music, are a necessity.
I’ll leave you with one more quote from Margaret Mead: “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
Give your children a future better than the one you were given. Give them knowledge and they will create what we could only dream of. They'll shepherd in peace with knowledge if they're given the shoulders to stand on. The byproduct will be progress.