Cravings vs. True Security


The war economy is built on our cravings

Human beings feel a variety of painful emotions, which seem to be the same across all cultures -- sadness, boredom, fear, frustration, embarrassment.

There is one painful emotion that a war economy depends on for its existence. This is what, in olden times, was called "greed" but in today's world we think of as "cravings" or "envy." It is the craving for more of something, or for financial or emotional security, that the war economy is built on.

I don't know that I have ever met a person completely free of cravings, and I have my share of them.

People with feelings of craving can be manipulated into putting their "desire for what they crave" ahead of any other consideration, such as sharing, generosity, cooperation, fairness, or making things right. We get manipulated all the time through advertising, TV, the press, political slogans, mis-used religion, peer pressure, the "mindset" of a profession, etc.

Right now our U.S. culture is extremely focused on "wanting more," and lots of us are wrapped up in "getting ours" in any way we can. It's a handy way to keep our attention away from interesting and worthwhile projects such as:

and other such places the War Society would rather we didn't go.


No cravings

We do have a glimpse of what a culture not built on cravings might look like. Anthropologists in the early 1900's found tribes and villages still remote and untouched by Western "civilization," where people did not seem to be driven by cravings. These peoples didn't have war, and their way of life was built on cooperation, fairness, and generosity.

In these places, babies were held in affectionate, skin-to-skin contact by an adult, around the clock, for most of their first year, only being put down when they asked. Several adults shared in the infant-holding so that it was not a burden on the mother.

It seems that a child who is held all the time through its first year ends up with a strong feeling of security, does not have the emotional distress that we experience as cravings, and cannot be sidetracked away from cooperation and sharing.


Let's do a great big experiment!

Given how widespread cravings are in the war economy, and how badly we need to shift towards a society of peace,

    it would be worth doing a well-set-up, well-funded, and widely reported-on experiment or demonstration project on the effects of "sufficient holding" of babies throughout their first year, on their sense-of-security and cravings as they grow up.

Folks who are interested in this road to peace can refer to The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedlof. Such an experiment should be fairly easy to set up and could be started within the next year or two.

Liedlof points out that meditation gets the brain onto the same peaceful wavelength as that of an infant held in arms. Thus adults, who cannot go back and fill the lack of holding in their past, can experience a similar sense of security by learning to meditate.