We must collectively dismantle the nuclear weapons that underline the consistency of human distrust in perpetuity. On July 1, 1968, approximately 191 countries signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), so why do countries still use these weapons to threaten other nations in order to further an agenda that few others agree with? To continue this brief history lesson in nuclear disarmament, we must acknowledge the United States of America and Russia, two nations obsessed with shirt-fronting and threatening any hope of global unity.

On April 8, 2010, just fourteen short years ago, they signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). The goal was exactly what many hoped it would be, mutual inspections of nuclear sites were arranged, and non-deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers were limited to 800 while the deployment of strategic nuclear warheads was capped at 1,150. So again we must ask: why are military parades broadcast on state television in Russia? What pride can be taken in the obliteration of other human beings that share identical DNA? Where is the love? What happened to us?

I am about to begin my Master’s degree in education for primary and secondary teaching, so provided that I achieve this two-year goal and attain certification in schooling every next generation, it begs the question, what should the youth be raised to understand of the human race? With objective observance, it can be rightly perceived that from day one of its origins, the human race has distrusted one another—this much is true.

We are currently a species lead by our fear, it is owed to our fears that we distrust one another—our insecurities in the western world have birthed a marketing system that raises money from lowering our self esteem and promoting the idea that some other body type or some finer clothing will help us find ourselves, shaping ideals that do not ring true for the soul of mankind. Something deep inside begs us, disarm the nuclear weaponry, disarm our driving subconscious fears, and let us breathe fresh air with less pollution, let us be seen as beautiful and perfect no matter what colour or creed we are, let us freely decide and regulate governing bodies that serve us all with no bias, corruption, or collusion to undo or redo what serves the people.

Why do so many nations have nuclear weapons to begin with? Where does the root of our distrust in other human beings stem from? Since the age of neanderthals, humans have sought a bigger club to deter others from thieving their food, threatening their loved ones, and stealing their territory. The rockets being launched by North Korea, which often fall off somewhere in the sea of Japan, continue to be launched by the aggressive dictator Kim Jong Un. Why? A show of strength is not needed if diplomacy is done successfully. It is disheartening to think that political talks break down so often when objectively the betterment of our planet and its people as a collective, united by their identical DNA is a goal that we are led to believe is out of reach in our lifetimes.

We highlight our differences and put them in the firing line. Our commonalities are thoughts which are left to freeze and starve in the shadows, for we are too timid as a world to usher into the light. Music, food, art, the list of things to be rejoiced over and united upon goes on and on. There is a saying that goes, ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant.’ Our exchange of dialogue has failed pitifully, a dialogue across cultures to better understand one another. Somewhere along the Earth’s timeline that sustains our lives, we have become timid and defensive. Where would we be today, as a species, without respect for variety and eclecticism? Would we need prayer if we achieved peace? Would we ever lack a need for one another? I have experienced love and respect from people who did not speak my language, been fed by abject strangers when I had nothing but some bags of rice for a month.

There are things I have seen and felt that tell me, in my soul—the same soul all people know and maintain with great difficulty in trying times—that we are one and the same, humanity will provide solutions only to maintain the ideology of differences and terrified armament which have never helped our species, only hurt our understanding.

As recently as September 15, 2021, Australia and the United Kingdom and the United States of America jointly signed the AUKUS Agreement, a plan that would see each of these allied nations follow one another into war no matter what the reason, a plan that would arm Australia with nuclear-powered submarines at a cost of approximately $368,000,000,000 AUD over the next several decades. This comes at a time when the cost of living in western countries is forcing people into abject poverty. When the federal reserve of any country calls for more unemployment, it can only be asked why diplomacy across the entire world has failed so badly that building more warships is the answer of politicians far removed from the common men, women, and children (also known as ‘constituents’ - political jargon that dehumanises the voter base) they represent.

Antagonising other nations for cultural differences is naive and outdated. There are more human-centric issues than which nation has the bigger club (weapon), a statistic that I continuously bring up in conversation is that 25% of the world (2.2 billion people) live without access to clean water. There is an imminent risk of a global water crisis and a concurrent cost-of-living crisis forcing people to choose monthly between heating their homes in winter or not eating food, yet as a species we continue to build weapons as if the threat of war is greater. It is not. Polarising political breakdowns in communication are the root cause of global dissatisfaction and insecurity over the future. Unification is pivotal to the survival of our species. Our priorities must be global and not nationalistic.