Reading for critical understanding
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This document discusses the paradox of preparedness for peace. It argues that preparedness usually results in war, not peace, giving the example of two neighbors who both arm themselves in the name of protecting peace but end up provoking conflict. Similarly, nations that boast of military strength and readiness to fight under the guise of protecting peace actually have battleships in preparation for war and tend to provoke attacks from others due to their deterrence posture. The document concludes that just as an armed individual poses a threat to community peace, armed nations endanger world peace.
Reading for critical understanding
- 1. READING FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING JOHN MIGUEL F. MORALES GLARES T. NALUMEN
- 2. THE PARADOX OF PREPAREDNESS FOR PEACE That preparedness brings about peace is a false philosophy. On the contrary, it usually results in war. Take the case of two men who have just moved into a village. They live side by side. They introduce themselves to each other and start to become friends. One tells himself that for the sake of ensuring peace in the neighborhood, he should take care not to infringe on his neighbor's rights. But at the same time, he thinks of how he could protect himself and his family against him. He goes to a store, buys a gun, and tells himself that if his neighbor would interfere with him, he would not hesitate to kill him. Without his knowing it, his neighbor who also proclaims his love for peace, goes to town, obtains a gun, a better one, and gets himself ready to defend his rights, honor, family.
- 3. THE PARADOX OF PREPAREDNESS FOR PEACE The case of these two men is similar to the case of two nations who talk about their love for peace while boasting of their battleships and their readiness to fight. They do not get a battleship simply to boast of their acquisitions. They have it in preparation for war. They are as determined to protect themselves from any attack as a man who carries a gun. He has it for protection. However, experience tells us that a man who carries a gun tends to use it on slight provocation and tends to provoke its use by others. Preparedness provokes trouble. Hence, it does not preserve peace. We must conclude that as a man who carries a gun is a menace to the peace of a community, so the nation who keeps guns is a menace to the peace of the world.
- 4. • Reading an argumentative/persuasive discourse is an exercise in developing critical understanding. You identify the issue, weigh the arguments, and follow them in their logical conclusion. You become discriminating, checking out the facts, generalizing cautiouslyon the basis of what you know.