Thank you for signing this petition, though hopefully, you are convinced that full world disarmament has to be. The news for the last few years has been full of the destruction of war and billions of people must be questioning the way world events are going under the Superpowers. 

Why is this petition not more popular? Many people think that disarmament is a good idea, but they know it will not happen. The Superpowers  and militaries around the world will always stop it. They seem right. Full World Disarmament is unthinkable and being fatalistic (as we call it) is just realistic. 

Yet there are three points. Perhaps peace is realistic and war is idealistic, ending in chaos, suffering and poverty. Many states live well in peace alongside one another, and war is too destructive to last long. Switzerland gave up most weapons in 1815 and has not had a war since. Within most nations weapons are forbidden and we live without wars without noticing it. Peace works. It is the basis for good economies and living together with blessing. In contrast, Weapons and War do failure on a massive scale. So, sometime soon, world disarmament will become very thinkable.

Second,  much of the time we discuss who is right or wrong, military strategies, defence, power politics and the problems of war. We lock in on the plight of one nation. It is right that we do so. Yet, we have a big worldwide problem of war and it needs a big solution of full world disarmament. It is not much good mending the tap if the problem is a drought. At times like this we need to think big.

Yet the Superpowers stand in the way. They run the show, sidelining the UN, declaring wars, selling weapons world-wide and generating enemies and military dictators. More than this, the politicians make sure that we ordinary people are passive. They rule through media empires, kill the opposition, vast amounts of propaganda and have vast systems of control often involving the military. We little people are expected to be passive, and usually are.

It need not be so. There is a practical and safe route through to full world disarmament. If we, the people of the world, support it through the UN, it can be done. Indeed, the superpowers say they want world disarmament, and we can lead them to do it. If it has world-wide popular support it can happen. Otherwise war and global warming will cripple the world.

So somehow we must move this and other petitions onto the world agenda. In 1931-2 tens of millions of signatures were collected by hand and World Disarmament nearly happened at the Geneva Conference. We need to multiply support. If you recruit one other, the petition doubles, and with five others it takes off . It needs to be a river flowing into international awareness. Once it reaches a million, it will be downhill all the way. You will have your own contribution. This is a request that you seek to multiply the petition into wider awareness through your personal contacts, social media and your specific insights or perspectives.

Thank you for sharing the peace.