Waging Peace

I am just finishing rereading Finnish writer Mika Waltari's fascinating 1945 novel, The Egyptian, about ancient Egypt. Set more than 3,000 years ago, it chronicles the struggles of the all-powerful Pharoah Akhetaton, who decreed that Egypt would worship a peace-loving, monotheistic god, Aton. Pharoah pulled slaves from the mines, decreed universal literacy, refused to make war with his neighbors—in particular, aggressive Syria—and divided the wealth of the kingdom among rich and poor alike.
Disaster followed, with more bloodshed than ever. People starved, and civil war plagued the kingdom. There's a lesson here: a utopian society such as this won't work unless the people are already acculturated to the idea, and much careful groundwork needs to be in place before trying to institute sweeping reforms such as these.
Politicians promising earth and sky would do well to look to their history. It's not that easy, folks.