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Trey Ellis

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Could consumer economies just cause more war and make us grow farther from peace?

After looking at war in various novels/epics from the Iliad to Junger's War i have come to a conclusion that our consumer economy is distancing us from peace. Soldiers fight for what is back home, their possessions, family and freedom. The soldiers in the Iliad fought with shields which had designs on them representing their possessions back home. They were fighting to protect those possessions and to have peace in their society. But I do not believe that they were coming close to peace at all and neither are we in our society today.If you look at what peace is in eastern culture, "riding oneself of desires" and reaching the state of moksha. Peace in the united states will never be reached until we stop being a consumer economy. All the ads on T.V. create even more desires for things we do not need but feel we must protect through war.

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    Shelby See

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    Dec 17 2012: A smart man once said "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." That was Albert Einstien the man the created the super powers of today. Even he understood that his atom bomb of force was not going to bring peace forever. Another man I look highly up to is Milton Friedman he also said “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.” A consumer economy is alright as long as the government stays out of it, which would be a free market. Instead right now are government has so much power that we can go to war with out declaring it. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

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