To achieve lasting world peace, what kind of power would you need, how would you use it?

TOLERANCE!

The powers of Mandrake the Magician .. the ability to cloud mens’ minds! Mwahahahaha!

@blueiiznh I like the theory, but I don’t have that much faith in people. I think the only way to achieve world peace would be to have the capacity to blow any misbehaviors off the face of the earth instantly.

A magic wand that I would use sparingly,if at all.

A cobalt bomb.

The power of the pen craftily used to stamp out ignorance and spread the concepts of constitutional representative democracy throughout the world.

I’d need wisdom.

A check book with a hefty bank balance and pay the SOB’s to STFU already!

You wouldn’t need any power at all. You’d need people to work together. We’d need people to learn who other people are all around the world. They’d need to eat meals together. Plant crops together. Do other work together.

The point would be to get people to come to know each other and other cultures and eventually to accept other cultures without feeling like they have to be changed.

Then some cooperation could happen, peace might start to break out in places that have not seen much of it up until now.

The power to create unlimited free energy. The Mr. Fusion reactor from “Back to the Future” would be a good start.
Use the energy to make clean water. Use the water to grow food. Use the funds previously spent on oil to educate the population. Teach and enforce replacement level birth control and rigorously enforce it. Pay people a fair wage to build housing, raise crops, build infrastructure.
Nobody gets something for nothing. No matter how disabled or elderly or uneducated -even if it is one hour per day – everyone must do something if they expect to collect a payment.

Mind Control or the ability to kill everyone

Messiah? A time of great peace will come, The Messianic Age.

I agree energy for everyone would really help.

@YoBob I think the internet, even facebook might be helping that along. I was going to write a question asking the collective if they though facebook might wind up having a strong influence regarding world peace. I still might.

I maybe wrong but I read that Reagan claimed he saw a UFO while on Air Force One on his way to see Gorbachev. He told the Russian later if an alien race declares war on Earth, they would have a common enemy that would unite them. Would something like that work for the entire world? Maybe.

@JLeslie – Unfortunately you have places like China who actively censor content that runs contrary to the party line.

@YoBob They must try to control all sorts of communication then. China does not seem to be a very closed society to me. There is a tremendous amount of business done with China, including tourism. Although the government seems to have a hand in everything, there is quite a bit of private business working along side with government. Their formula is very interesting. Not that I want to be China. I am afraid of many of their products, and am disgusted by some human rights issues. Their growth is impressive though.

As long as humans exist, there can be no peace.
The ability required is to wipe them off the face of the universe.

@JLeslie I have a lot of respect for China in several regards. Their growth is quite impressive and as far as socialist republics go they are far from the worst. OTOH, they did ban Google because Google refused to scrub content for them. (Hot stock tip BTW, the Chinese version of google, ticker symbol BIDU, has shown explosive growth since then)

You don’t need any special magical powers.

If everyone just dialed it down a bit and used logic, we’d all be allllllright.

@YoBob Thanks for the tip.

Subtitles that float in the air just below a person’s chin, that as they’re talking, says their true intentions.
(They would follow the typed words of any political statement around, and audibly follow each sentence in voice-only scenarios. Just so no one can cheat around them.)

It would be a bit more chaotic at first as all the liars and decievers were revealed, but everything would eventually calm down. Without the deception and the miscommunication, people will be able to see the manipulations from the honesty, and see that we really are all the same species. Then, the subtitles would fade away.

Of course, if we weren’t so superficial, and were atuned to each other’s energy like most other animals are, we wouldn’t need the CC crutch.

Empathy. It’s much harder to hate when you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes. I would make it a priority to teach empathy to children everywhere.

Also:
[mod says] This is our Question of the Day!

I don’t know about true peace, but if I had the power to make people do what I want through fear, I could force them to get along. Vlad the Impaler did it. Then he got murdered…hm.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

I’d need the power of some omnipotent being. I would then teach empathy ..to reach peace (as @augustlan stated).

I believe that peace can not be forced ..it is something that must be learned.