I feel overwhelmed. There's too much violence in the world.

[Critters2]

In the past two days, I visited the memorial to the Virden Mine War of 1898, an exhibit on the Springfield Race Riot of 1908, and the Lincoln Presidential Museum, with all of its Civil War and Lincoln assassination exhibits. I'm exhausted from all the violence, and all the reasons people find to justify it. And there are still people seriously discussing war with Iran, and we're still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does it never end?!!

I'm overwhelmed. Honestly.

[billyoc]

1. No, the Iran war was cancelled when they announced that they were privatizing their energy sector.

We're friends now, and we even have a little mini-embassy in Tehran now, for the first time in 30 years.

:hi:

[Critters2]

2. Well, there's that. Still, when the neo-cons need a new enemy,

I bet Iran will look mighty useful.

[billyoc]

3. Not once Halliburton has all of their equipment there, that stuff's expensive!

:hi:

[sammythecat]

4. I can relate to your current pessimism.

Sometimes it can seem like our destiny is just to one day finally manage to destroy everything.

Here's something that gives a reason for a little optimism, for the long term anyway. Unfortunately, it won't really help with any of the things you've mentioned. You might have seen this before, it's about a year and a half old. It's a short essay by Stephen Pinker and he gives a scientist's perspective on the history of violence. It's not a great big long thing, he's a good writer, and I think you'll find it interesting and relevant. Here's the link:
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html