What could replace War?

[Carlston]

I searched expecting to find something like this but actually couldn't.

As I read "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and rested after my 600m race (close 3rd place, second beat me by .2 of a second) I looked up from my reading about revolutionizing warfare and though "This could replace war, country with the fastest runner wins whatever debate the war is over." Then I went on to think that all the war fought over territory wouldn't work, and in the case of revolution the country could simply ignore the revolutionaries challenge. So my wonderful thinkers of the Escapist what do you think could replace war?

Many centuries ago... Chess was used as a honorable nobles way to settle disputes over land and the like. But they were held to honor and the rest of the nobles ganging up on one who broke the end result of the match.

Course that never stopped smoking, dancing girls, and the like distracting other players...

 

[captainkrunch]

how about we cut a chickens head off and let it run around on a big platform with countries names on it and where ever the chicken ends on gets to be the world power for a year

 

[whycantibelinus]

Football? It's nationalistic and violent enough.

That would turn into a riot in the stands every time though dude. Great television though. =-)

 

[Ultra_Caboose]

Gundam Fight! Ready.... GO!

Or card battle games. Those card battle anime shows always like to make every innocent game of cards a battle for the universe and the collective souls of humanity.

 

[nebtheslayer95]

family feud.

 

[Sewblon]

Nothing can really "replace" war, in anything like the UN or some competition like in G Gundam a country who ends up with the short end of the stick can simply choose not to participate without any real penalty. Nukes may be preventing Total War at the moment, but like every other weapon we ever made, we will eventually make something that renders them obsolete and be back at square one.

How about we make machines to fight each other, the side that runs out would have to give up.

War may become some approximation of this eventually, but I don't think that will happen in our lifetimes.

 

[Mikkaddo]

Gladitorial battle . . .

think of it like this, we sanction off a small island in the middle of the ocean, surround it completely by fencing, and each nation trains a warrior, several even so that if that one inevitably dies there's someone to replace him/her.

Whenever there's a conflict between powers each power sends their gladiator into the island, (cameras everywehre naturally) the battle is filmed, watched, and whichever nation's rep is victorious that nation has officially won the conflict.

True it might not work as well over territory, and a less rich nation wouldn't stand as good a chance, but really how much different is that from what we do now? Pakistan and Israel's religious groups have been fighting a territorial war for a few thousand years on basically the same financial level and there's been no end to it.

And as for a major world power going against a poor nation, true the poor nation would probably loose again, but if a world super power sends their billions of dollars worth of researched weaponry against a poor nation's say . . . hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and soldiers, who's more likely to win there?

so there you have it . . . gladitorial fights.

 

[Triple G]

Government leaders having duels with flintlock pistols

Or maybe Rock Paper Scissors, two out of three

A duel can't solve national disputes - would you rest everything on the performance of a single man? Would you give up your liberty, your home, your wealth just because one man lost a duel? It would be a case of "Fuck that, I could do better!", and cue warfare, lol.

Solving war would require a completely different culture, one that didn't seek profit and personal gain, perhaps one that saw the dissolution of boundaries between one culture/region/belief system and others, for if all are equal and everything shared there is far less impetus for conflict. Plus, with less power in single individuals, personal motivations (greed, revenge, whatever) loose sway to mass opinion, doing things that are in the interest of many rather than the few.

Huh... I wonder if that's what they were talking about... *goes off to find a copy of Communist manifesto*

Mass opinion is very easy to manipulate. People voted Hitler to power for example.

 

[0over0]

The alternative to war has always been sex.

Or, rather, reproduction. Typically life on earth competes by outreproducing its competitors--its no different for cultures (not necessarily nations, but cultures--some nations contain more than one). War is just a slight hiccup in the process--in the end, history is written by those whose ancestors reproduced the most.

So...why are you reading? Go do your duty!

 

[sagonas123]

I say: Extremely large-scale Battle of the Bands.
Get each countries' best musicians (Like best drummer *I'm voting for Neil Peirt*, best Bassist *Flea FTW*, best guitarist *Angus is still alive and kicking <.<*, and best... singer? Hell, Let's just get Rob Halford and be done with it.)

Or, have a really big Call of Duty match. On Hardcore mode. With no respawns or regeneration. That way it's like war. But not.

 

[Brad Shepard]

I'm in agreement with others in this thread. The world needs more giant Gundam fights anyway.

Gundam fights (thank you to whoever gets this)

Spoiler

thank you for getting this reference

 

[Dr.Sean]

The Olympics. Or just sports in general. What about video games? Those might work too.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

Technically, the Nuclear Bomb ended war. with it's creation and first time use, people were scared shitless. Sure, we've had conflicts in the past (Vietnam, Korea) but nothing that would classify as a full-scale war. So now instead of fighting, we created the UN to talk things out.

Well said good sir, well said indeed.

OT: What could replace war? I don't know, peace perhaps?

 

[RebelRising]

Virtual war, or just gaming in general. Imagine if somebody managed to get Hitler hooked on WoW or Total War. He'd never come out of his room.

 

[Bobtowna]

A giant robot battle...perhaps G Gundam style...only in this version America wins and not Japan.

Exept the robots would be based of where they're from. Gundams for Japan and Megas XLR for America.

 

[DarkRyter]

The Batman.

He solves things. That's what the batman does.

 

[joe the janitor]

Roshambo

 

[Biosophilogical]

Instead of using guns, they could use wooden sticks and spar. If you lose you get tagged as 'dead' and whoever has the last man standing (so to speak, as no-one actually dies) is the winner. It's death-free and if anyone cheats the USA can nuke them as part of the war agreement. (basically no-one would cheat)