The events exploding this week in Israel and the Gaza Strip deeply sadden, anger, and frustrate most rational-thinking people. Most people don't want to see violence and bloodshed anywhere. Most people want peace. Most people hate hate. However, almost no one knows how to get to a place where there is a lasting peace. And that, my friends, is the state of the world, particularly in the Middle East right now, but extends really to all corners of the Earth.
Can books end wars? Can we get peace through words and not weapons? So far, the answer is a resounding no. Too many people are invested in not wanting peace.
Who does not want peace?
Those who believe they benefit from war, who believe they are somehow better off by fighting, killing, and destroying others than calling upon any other alternative to resolve a dispute.
Some war mongers may simply be crazy and psychologically damaged. How sane could Hitler or Stalin have been?
Some who engage in war do it for financial gain. The military complex always wins in a war. As do those who rebuild destroyed buildings and infrastructures. So do politicians and leaders who line their pockets with lobby and bribe money intended to fight such wars. Death is a career volition for some.
Some politicians fight a war because they believe war thrusts them or their party into power or helps them retain control.
Some do it out of need -- seeking resources or land -- seeing a zero-sum proposition that only gets resolved by taking something from another.
Some feel they are on the side of right and must crush the other, that they are morally justified in taking up arms.
Some feel their ideology or religion gives them a justified cause to fight for. There is no room, for some, for co-existence when ideologies conflict.
Some fight out of ignorance, because they don't know any better, who don't know of other solutions to their problems.
Some fight because there is no judicial system to step in and say stop, stop killing one another.
Some fight because of revenge, Many seek payback for a real or perceived injustice.
As you can see, this incomplete list is already too long.
Do we just need a Noah-like flood or calamity to wipe the slate clean and to start humanity over?
Can we come up with a better way -- or just accept things as they are and muscle-up so that one can be on the winning side in a survival of the fittest?
Or, should we see the world as making progress, despite the repeated bloodshed?
One could argue that today is one of the better and safer times in the world in the past few hundred years. The vast majority of people on Earth are not in any way engaged in or impacted by actual fighting. The numbers support such a claim: World War I, World War II, slavery, civil wars, religious genocides, ethnic cleansings, and political purges across the global landscape wiped away hundreds of millions of people over the past two centuries. But until 2022, there was very little fighting in the world.
Then Ukraine happened.
Now Israel.
The world is a very dangerous place, but there is evidence that peace can be struck. The problem is it doesn't last. And as one hotspot cools down, another picks up.
What is going on in Israel is a tragedy. For Jews, it is an age-old crisis. It seems that anti-Semitism is a universal belief practiced by too many people. Modern Israel needs to exist because Jews have been persecuted everywhere. The homeland was to be a safe place after the trauma of the Holocaust -- and after a long history of being expelled by countries, enslaved, tortured, jailed, robbed, discriminated against, and beaten. Nazis. KKK. Spanish Inquisition. Russian Pogroms. Egyptian slavery.
Israel needs to exist.
And, since Israel was officially formed by the UN in 1948, there have been wars, terrorist attacks, and violent uprisings perpetrated against Israel.
Words always fail me in a time of crisis. Emotions run deep. Animal instincts take over. The human soul is at war with itself whenever there is violence in the world.
What is the solution to the violence? For the moment, it is more violence.
Israel has an obligation to defend itself and a right to secure safety for its residents. But once the campaign against the Hamas terror ends, for now, what next? What will prevent another attack and another and another from happening? How can a lasting peace be negotiated, not merely a cease-fire?
Can there be solutions to this chronic problem in our books, those already published or perhaps not-yet-written? I did a google search for books involving Israel and the Middle East, and noticed books going back decades and decades, each one hoping to move, inform, and even change the minds of people - -and yet, here we are. Back to nowhere.
Maybe AI has a solution, for humans thus far, have done a poor job at resolving the life and death issues plaguing the world. Perhaps a writer, somewhere, can pen a great book that helps us all to see a way to peace. Words fail all of us, for words so far have only led to bloodshed. They now must lead to peace.
Need
Book Marketing Help?
Brian Feinblum, the founder of this
award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available
to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He
has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in
all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!
Read
This!
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/you-are-writer.html
11
Steps To Getting A Novel Published
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/11-steps-to-getting-novel-published.html
The Book Marketing Solution Already
Exists
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-book-marketing-solution-already.html
How Can Authors Make Money From
Blogging?
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/10/how-can-authors-make-money-from-blogging.html
12 Book Marketing Assets That Don’t
Require Training, Money, Or Talent
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/12-book-marketing-assets-that-require.html
Hall-of-Fame
Speaker Gives Authors Speaking Tips
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/hall-of-fame-speaker-gives-authors.html
US
Needs An Icelandic Christmas Book Flood
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/us-needs-icelandic-christmas-book-flood.html
How
Does A Writer Succeed Today?
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/how-does-writer-succeed-today.html
The Secrets To Time Management For Authors
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-secrets-to-time-management-for.html
Book Fairs & Literary Festivals Bible For Authors
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/book-fairs-literary-festivals-bible-for.html
What’s
An Author’s First Step To Market A Book?
https://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/whats-authors-first-step-to-marketing.html
About Brian Feinblum
Brian Feinblum should be followed on LinkedIn. This is
copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2023. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now
resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue
dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The
Writer and IBPA’s The Independent. This
award-winning blog has generated over 3.4 million pageviews. With 4,600+ posts
over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by
BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018
as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by
www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades,
including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book
publicity firm, and two jobs at two independent presses, Brian has worked with
many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with
best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen,
Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard,
Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C.
Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He recently hosted a
panel on book publicity for Book Expo America, and has spoken at ASJA,
Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction
Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland)
Writers Association, APEX, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association.
His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News
(Westchester) and The Washington Post. He has been featured in The
Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald. For more information, please consult:
www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.