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Nakayama's avatar

Many different issues are touched in this article, and a lengthy statement to differ likely does not help with anything. I would like to emphasize that in thermodynamics, the world is going to maximal entropy -- maximal variations, disorder, etc. Human civilization, however, is built on ordering. Putting wood studs and rocks in proper order can build a house. Burning iron ore with coke can give us raw iron before further refinement. And iron is about the very basis of all things "modern". Then people build tribal structure, countries, then League of Nations, and UN.

But the world is still fundamentally an unordered place. Even inside the better organized, the cultivated garden, there are still disorder. See all the LGBTQ activities now overflows from many media channels. They even captured the Olympics. Ordering, comes from somebody forcefully arrange something. Luckily wood studs and stones do not complain. But if your kids come to mess up the specific order, then you have to rework and drive them away as they don't understand the ordering as yet. Now what if somebody wants to build a company by arranging people and dictate how things are done ? it is fine as long as people work for him on their own will.

But how about a government want to rearrange people's lives because they think looking from the top, they would get a better "ordering" ? This can be as small as city council mandates every house must have two flower pots at the front (as in some areas of Switzerland) or as big as government conscripts you son into army to fight in Vietnam for a cause you do not support. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen said that human rights do not come from God. Instead, people's right comes from fighting. Only when the peasants hit the nobleman into bleeding would he agree to a lighter tax. Kings have to get their heads cut off to realize that a parliament composed of elected representatives from the people. Kings certainly did not agree at first. Only when enough heads rolled, democracy started to flourish. Chinese Communist head Mao said "Political power comes from the barrels of the guns." it is simply more naked and brutal than what Dr. Sun had said, but it is essentially the same meaning.

The British would still have an American colony today if the Americans did not gang up and bought guns and shoot the British soldiers. And they got shot at and died too.

Before Hitler, there were already endless empires fighting each other, looting left and right, massacre at will. A single farmer could not do anything. Even if they gang up and build their own fortress, it usually did not work at the end. The salvation always come from somebody far away, outside of or at the fringe of the imperial power, able to organize an army with people who are not afraid to die, and sufficient replacement and armament, to start rebellion. That was how Mongolian empire and its various branch Khanates were gradually destroyed, from different rebellions, at different times. Eventually, the Mongolian Empire becomes only a legend in the books, and modern Mongolia is nowhere close.

Hitler was able to conquer most of the Europe, it eventually took two powers to defeat his regime: Russians o n the east and American/British on the west. Statistically speaking, it was the Red Army who broke the back of the German army. By the time Americans landed on the Normandy beach, four allied armies fought against two German armies, later three when Holland was included. The size of the conflict on the east is probably four times as big. So outside forces have to be counted on to help the defeated countries to get their houses back. In the ancient days, these defeated kings would have to pay heavily for the armed help they get. European countries pay by playing vassals for USA all the time up to now. And European politicians are still fighting for the US interests when their farmers are complaining about directives coming from Brussel (the EU).

If the League of Nations was too weak to be effective, then UN seemed to be more effective because of Korean War. But Korean War is really an American war with some side shows by other countries. The same UN played totally as servants when Israelis evict Palestinian families from their houses past midnight, losing their house, heir dates tree, their cows, their land. But UN has a tent and food waiting for them. It is really US playing the role to soften the harsh actions of the Israelis. The problems cited for the old UN are really rooted that UN was designed as a vehicle to serve US interests. Russian interests was sometimes served, as Russian delegates rarely veto anything unless it is directly related to Russian interests. UN does not appear to be powerful enough to solve the middle east conflict, frankly, because USA is not powerful enough to solve the middle east conflicts. In addition, the Arab world simply do not trust USA being sincere. They call USA the Great Satan for some good reasons.

People in China call Russians the people of fighting. Not because Russians like to invade other countries, including China, during the late Manchurian dynasty and the early days of the Republic of China. The admiration is about how Russians defended their countries in the last 200 years. Russian soldiers, even as they curse the Czar, still fought bravely and stubbornly until the Bolshevik Revolution. After fighting against USA for global hegemony, crashed in 1991, and now rebuilt by Putin, Russians show they still can fight (Ukraine war is considered a civil war in Russia, and I agree with them) If some Ukrainians really want to have their own country, then they have to fight. They did fight, but more importantly, they coerced people would be equally happy as Russians to fight for them while the Banderalists act as the black shirts and shoot those who fall back. For some Ukrainians who really believe they will be better off as part of Russia, they fight as well, as resistance behind enemy lines for Russian Forces. All those devastating long range attacks deep inside Ukraine territory is possible only because of these resistance fighters detect and report the location of important targets. Some attacks may require laser light markers shined onto the targets, etc.

Ordering things takes energy. Keep things in order also takes energy. Creating peace requires fighting. There is no such thing as permanent peace. When the old men die, their memory, lessons of a life time, are gone with them. In general, very little is passed down to the next generation. So every 80-90 years, people would have to relearn certain lessons. Our situation today is closer to WW1 eve than WW2 eve. Remember that most people in most countries were enthusiastic about the war. A new UN cannot resolve such problems. A more powerful UN would become just a super-sized EU, with more power, and more capable of creating havoc than bureaucrats of Brussel. 160+ countries. It is not realistic to have USA one vote, and Tonga one vote as well. Some order can be achieved by such global organization. But peace can be kept more through out regional alliance. The reason is people closer to a problem tend to have better understanding of the problems, and usually more skin in the game. At the UN level, most countries have no skin in the game when Japan invaded China in 1937. USA provided trade sanctions and diplomatic pressure. Finally Japan attacked Peral Harbor. The way to acquire peace ? Fighting all the way to the Tokyo Bay.

I studied wars since I was 11. I have never experienced one, but I think I can comprehend the trauma caused by war. Unfortunately there is no way out. Leave it to the nature, then all things will go maximal entropy (a measure on extent of variations) Keeping your garden in order is an everyday effort. Losing one day's work is enough to make a difference to the more careful eyes. For the earth with 7 billion people and without sufficient natural resources to keep all them properly fed, clothed, housed, and have meaningful lives no matter how much effort we put in. Mathematically there is no such resource, my lord. So war is inevitable. If you want to keep order, you need to dispense energy, and use energy wisely.

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