4th Place - 6th Grade

Nathan Lane, Orlando, FL

Philosophy Contest Entry on War and Peace

War is inevitable. As long as there is human desire, there is always war. As long as man is aspiring for a great position in society, there will always be battles over who attains the higher spot. It is inhuman to not desire something greater, and it is just a part of human nature. In order to get to a higher spot in society, the spot must first be abandoned by its current holder. That can be done peacefully or wrongfully. If it is done wrongfully, it will probably end up in a war on a small scale or on a major scale. At the end of the war, when all is peaceful, people think that it will be that way forever as long as they get along. As time goes on, people forget what they thought and there are more wars. It is the sequence of war and peace. It is even worse if the person that is trying to get the position of higher authority has bad intent. That may end up in extremely long war and a short period of peace, not very good for the people of lower authority.

Another big effect in war and peace is the owning of material object, especially money. Some material items may end up being beneficial but most end up corrupting the minds of people and turning them against each other. This is triggered mostly by envy. When the good judgment of people goes awry and surrenders to envy, chaos is the only result. There may be small consequences over an object that has little significance in the events of the world, but there might also be dire consequences if the object has a very great influence on the world. When the object is great and has a big influence, the method of getting it might be brutal. If the owner of the object is eliminated and the owner was of good intent and was looked upon greatly by the people, the person who eliminated the owner might be frowned upon greatly by society. This might cause a war including the owner's supporters against the eliminator and his supporters, ending up again in the same sequence of war and peace.

War might end up becoming humankind's downfall. Even though there are some that have found enough peace of mind to live without war, everybody has to have the peace in order for the world to be rid of all war. If only one person is left that isn't peaceful enough, they might do something to knock the others of their balance of mind, causing a wave of corruption to spread across the world to start off back at the beginning. If by some chance all the people of the world were at peace, it still wouldn't work because the next generation might end up to be very insubordinate and to again spread the wave of terrible corruption. War is inevitable.

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