An Artist’s View of War

There's something I've realized about war, and it's something that I can't stop thinking about. You see, war doesn't start with weapons, it starts with how we see each other. Before even anyone decides to pick up a weapon, they've already stopped seeing the other person as human. And to me, that's the real danger because right now, we have more power than ever before. But we don't see each other any better. We've gotten better at destroying without getting better at understanding. And that gap between understanding and destroying is where war lives. But there's a way out of it. And it's not through more rules, not through more control, but through something that has existed inside of us this whole time. Our creativity. And not creativity as in talent, not as creativity as in something you might think only a few people have, but creativity as a way of being human. Because once you understand that, everything starts to change. You see, creativity isn't rare like most people think. It's not something a few people are born with. If that were true, humanity wouldn't have survived this long. Because creativity isn't just painting or music or invention. Creativity is problem solving. It's adaptation. It's the ability to look at what is and imagine what could be instead. Every human who has ever lived has used creativity to get through life. Even the way you're interpreting this moment right now, the meaning you're giving these words, that's an act of creation. And the idea that some people are creative isn't just wrong. It's actually dangerous. Because once creative people believe they're uncreative, they stop seeing themselves as someone who could shape the world. They default to reacting instead of creating. They follow instead of imagining. And when enough people live like that, the world stops evolving through intention and starts drifting toward whatever force is just strongest. But when someone realizes they are creative, something shifts. They stop asking, what am I allowed to do? And they start asking, what can I make possible? They stop seeing themselves as small pieces in a fixed system and start recognizing that systems themselves are created, which means they can be changed. And that realization isn't just empowering. It's important to bring peace. Right now, most people see life like a game. If I win, you lose. If I get more, you get less. That's how we think about money and power and resources. And from that mindset, conflict makes sense. But creativity doesn't work like that. When someone creates something, it doesn't take anything away from you. It adds something to the world. And if humanity shifted from thinking that some people are creative to realizing we all are, we wouldn't just change culture. We would change how the world works. And this would usher in what I call a global renaissance. Not about art, not about trends, but about how humans see, think, and live. A shift from consumers to creators, from competitors to contributors. And if that shift happens, I believe that four pivotal things will change. First, we stop thinking in scarcity. You see, most conflict comes from one belief that there's not enough. Not enough land, not enough money, not enough power. So people, they fight. But creativity changes that. A creative person doesn't just divide what exists, they create something new. Instead of asking, how do I get what you have? They ask, what can we build that didn't even exist before? And that's how new solutions are born. And when people start creating more, they fight less over what's already here. Second, we start seeing each other as human. War needs distance. Like you can't hurt someone deeply if you truly feel them. But creativity closes that distance. When you hear someone's story or see what they've made or feel how they think, they stop being other and they become real. It becomes harder to hate someone who feels real to you. The third thing is we stop thinking in extremes. War grows in simple thinking, like we're right, they're wrong. But creativity breaks that. A creative mind asks, what if there's more to this? It doesn't rush to pick sides. It looks deeper. And people who think like that are harder to control because they don't fall for simple stories. They see more. And when you see more, you act differently. The fourth thing is that we learn how to process pain. A lot of violence comes from pain. Pain that hasn't been dealt with. Pain passed down over time. And when people don't know how to handle it, they push it outward through anger, through harm, through war. But creativity gives pain somewhere to go. It turns pain into something instead of letting it turn into destruction. And in a world that knows how to process pain, that world doesn't need to release it through violence. So when you step back, you start to see the truth. War isn't just a anger problem, it's a creativity problem. A world that doesn't know how to create will fall back on destroying. But a world that remembers how to create becomes too focused on building to keep breaking things. And that's why this moment matters. Because people feel it. I know you do. You know, this tension, this pressure, it feels like something bad could happen. But it's also something else. It's a turning point. Because we can't keep going like this. We can't have this much power and still see each other this shallow. So we either need to grow or we will collapse. And growth looks like seeing deeper, thinking better, creating more. Because how we see decides how we act. So the real question isn't how do we stop war? It's what happens when people realize they aren't just living in the world, they are shaping it. Because creativity is not about making things. It's about seeing what could exist and bringing it to life. And if enough people lived like that, peace doesn't have to be forced. It just happens as the natural result of people who remember who they are, creators, and embracing that fact is at the heart of the global renaissance. Hey, by the way, so I forgot to mention, there's a handful of creators from all around the world, hundreds of us all mobilizing together to spark a global renaissance. And if that sounds like something you'll be interested in being a part of, I'd love to share the infrastructure with you and what we've been working on and building. It's beautiful. It's so beautiful. So if that message resonated with you, and you're an artist, a writer, painter, musician, filmmaker, a creator of any kind, you just want to live a more creative life, this message is for you. So tap the link below. I'll leave a link to the application. You'll see everything that's being built. I'll see you in there.