The war to end all wars

[Mycroft Hollins]

Mycroft had to admit, he enjoyed listening to his students ideas on certain topics, a lot. They were such a creative and bright bunch, he felt as though they would be incredibly effective in figuring out the world's problems and solving them. Today he wanted to test this idea though, and so he waited patiently for his students to arrive in class before standing and walking to the podium at the head of the room.

"Greetings, I'm Mr. Hollins, though at this point in the year I'm sure you were probably aware of that. Today we're going to have a bit of a class discussion. Did you know, that since 1450 there have been roughly 340 European conflicts? That means I could teach you a new European conflict every day for an entire school year. Now, many of these conflicts have similar things in common. I'd like you to think of all the wars you've ever learned about in school, and I want you to think about what they have in common, and why even they occurred in the first place. I think you'll see some rather common problems reoccurring each time. Here's what today's discussion is about, if the world were to erupt into war one final time, the war to absolutely end all conflicts in the future, what do you believe would need to be solved? What would need to be changed or fixed to end all conflicts in the future. Remember, a conflict is not just two countries fighting each other, many of the conflicts in Europe were internal, people revolting against their government. Why did they do that? I'd like you all to think about it for a few minutes, write a response, and then one at a time I'd like you each to read your response." 

With the assignment given, Mycroft walked over to his desk and sat down, giving his students plenty of time to think and write their responses. As each of them gave a response, he jotted down short notes on points and ideas he wished to further discuss with the class once everyone had said at least something. 

Adonya van Rutherford
@anna
Cara-Jean Kitchi
Gretchen Holmes
Katja Eder
@anya
Rose Hoff
Tyler Reynolds

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara did her best to keep to herself as she walked down the hallways, trying to get from once class to another. Her temples seemed to be beating out their own tattoo, but she pushed the feeling to the back of her mind, just focusing on moving from one class to the other, taking the notes and then moving onto the next.

She walked into her social science classroom and bowed her head toward the teacher before she found her seat at the front of the room and began to set her desk up, still choosing to ignore the rest of the students who were also filling up the room. She put her glasses on and then turned her attention to dating the top of the page in her binder, her attention then shifted to the teacher as he started the class.

Human conflict was a pretty big concept to think about, even if only from one side of the world. Her eyebrows rose in horror when the man said they were to share what they thought. Her tongue showed between her lips as she picked up her black pen and titled the page "The War to end all Wars" and then swapped the black for blue and tapped the capped pen against her lips as she though about the question Mr Mycroft had asked. A frown marred her features as her thoughts deepened. Free-will She wrote down in her careful handwriting.

Even from the days of the Crusades, war has always started because one person, or a group of people, have thought that they knew better than everyone else, that their way of living was the only way. I can see that the only way to end all conflicts would be for people, us, to lose our free-will.

She read over what she had written a few more times, yet she remained silent.

[Katja Eder]

Katja left her last classroom and headed towards the next. She didn't quite understand the need for lockers, having never used them herself previously, but it allowed her a chance to get to class before the rest of her classmates, and for that she didn't mind the noisy things lining the halls.

As she entered the classroom, she nodded to the teacher, then settled into a desk in the front row, setting her backpack down and pulling out a notebook and fountain pen. The room filled up, but it didn't bother Katja, and she just waited for the teacher to start the class.

European conflicts... Yes, there had been many, too many some would say, but Europe was a continent with a lot of diversity, and that caused strife. As they were given their topics on which to focus, Katja listened, already thinking of a conflict that she knew very well, which she could use as a basis for her answers.

People revolt against their government for many reasons. Economic ones are certainly at the top of it, the poor wondering why the rich are rich. They can also look to protect what they have gained through the economics of a place, which the aristocracy is looking to take away from them.

There will not be a way to end conflict for good. She knew it wasn't the prompt they'd been given, but that was the truth, as she saw it. Humans are not capable of peace for long periods of time. Eventually, someone will ask why they are following another's orders, or disagree and decide that another could lead them better. Otherwise, they will eventually be unhappy with their lot, because some will always rise while others fall. She considered what she had written, knowing the logical conclusion to what she was saying... Which wasn't a solution at all, but it was the best she had.

When they were asked to share, she rose from her chair, "Conflicts happen because there is no way to ever make everyone happy. No matter who is in charge, or how even things are organized, even if only one percent disagrees, in a country, that's still a large population, enough to cause a conflict." She didn't say anything as to resolving conflict, as there was only one method of doing that to her mind, and took her seat once more, interested in hearing what others had to say.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Small classes weren't Blythe's favorite, because the teachers usually had a better overview of who had participated, and who hadn't, but there were its benefits as well, especially in the riding classes. So, as she walked into European History, she smiled at the teacher, then sat in the center of the classroom.

Only when class had started did she retrieve her notebook and pencil. She listened to the teacher, noting the basics of the discussion in her notebook, and then thinking about what she could volunteer to get the teacher off of her back. Of course, there were students that managed to get away with not saying anything, but Blythe knew better than to expect that she be counted among them. No, that never happened that way.

So, when her turn came to speak, Blythe smiled, leaning back in her seat, "Religion separates people. How to believe in God, if there is a God, what God is, that's where a lot of conflicts come from. The easiest way to remove that would be to implement one total religion, or abolish religion as a whole." Both of those ideas were impossible to complete, and she knew it. But then, it was an idea, and it certainly would remove one of the major conflict points.