The
Beyond War movement aimed to build consensus around the idea that war
is obsolete, that we end it or it ends us. This movement saw hope in
the idea that when a new idea arrives in a population a small
percentage is open and adopts it. This group they referred to as
early adapters. Market research established that if 5% of the
population adopts an idea it is embedded in the culture. When 20%
adopt it is unstoppable, it will spread of its own momentum. In
building consensus it is obvious, in this thinking, that the
appropriate target for persuasion is early adapters. Focusing on late
adapters, those who will resist, deny with tenacity to the very end
before, maybe, finally coming around would be a waste of energy.
Unfortunately
we are in a situation, at a critical moment in history, where late
adapters in the U.S. hold a crippling majority in the Senate and
fully occupy the White House. A fair election would decisively change
that arrangement but since this zealous minority has shown it will
create as many obstacles as possible to prevent fair elections, a
greater than usual effort needs to be funneled into the electoral
process.
The
major threat to our species, our civilization, in the 80s when Beyond
War was born, was nuclear war. That has not diminished, may have
gotten worse. Climate change must be now factored in as another major
threat, along with population. This latter has a particular role in
the covid-19 pandemic since expanding population relentlessly
encroaches on wilderness habitat, in various ways releasing or
transferring deadly stuff our way. The central faith of late adapters
seems to be in laissez faire capitalism, the very driver of climate
change, blind militarism and the need for desperate individuals to
encroach on wilderness. It is true that we end war or it ends us. It
is also true that we end laissez faire capitalism, unbridled
consumption and overpopulation or they will end us.
