Olympic Truce.
Ok, I'll admit this right off: I would no longer be considered a young person by any but my parents and their peers. And as we all know, our parents are older than dirt... I heard a young (<20) person on NPR interviewed about the Olympics' symbolism for world peace, and the first thought in my head was “PAH! Kid, you have no idea. When you'd see the East Germans whipping the US swimmers, or the US/USSR hockey matches (1980 notwithstanding), that’s when you'd realize that the Olympics were the only peaceful venue for international competition.” Then I shut up.
True, I haven't watched an Olympics since... Uh... Diligently? Thoroughly? since 1972, and we all know how that went... So I might be out of touch... But I paused, because though I am not “young” anymore* I am not so far from it that I've forgotten the feeling that all the world's leaders are old. Profoundly old. And that added doubt: maybe this kid is right.
Perhaps we've foiled an opportunity by thinking “Well, we're out of the Cold War, everything's peachy...” And how “out” of the Cold War are we really? There exists one homogeneous and a heterogenous bunch of Nuclear Arsenals with a significant percentage on high alert. How not-Cold-War is that? I think in fact the US has most of its triad in the same state of readiness that it always has been, right? If that's all correct, then us grown-ups have severly fucked up. If not one portion of the US triad can be disarmed (the air force would surely be the one to go, and the one to fight it tooth and nail) then what's Pakistan or ISRAEL to do? Or France? Who ya gonna follow? So maybe this kid is right.
The players have changed, there's one bigger team and a lot of smaller ones represented on the playing field of violence, but in point of fact, we are no better off than we were pre-1989. Now doesn't that just suck. So maybe an Olympic Truce is not such a bad deal after all. Be tough to implement in the kind of quagmires our military has been sent into, but not impossible. Just keep remembering the Christmas truce in WW1. Just keep thinking about a tree, some carols and crossing no-man's land. Just keep trying to push it forward, every two years (winter/summer games) a little bit. This time, I was sold on it. Maybe I can sell you on it. Next time, we both sell two or more people. Just keep it creeping up, because the lunacy will never stop, the rationality must keep spreading itself by will. “Peace. Please.” —me
*I've officially left the “18-44” demographic that Homer Simpson belongs to when he grabs the can of “Nuts & Gum: Together at Last.”