The ‘Peace’ Movement has failed. Why?
"The battle for the world is the battle for
definitions." -- Thomas Szasz
(1920-2012) Hungarian-American Professor of Psychiatry
Rotary
International made Peace its first mission during the RI Convention in
1921. There it adopted a resolution to
promote peace laying the groundwork for Rotary's ongoing commitment to
peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and prevention efforts worldwide. It incorporated into its constitution the
goal “to aid in the advancement of
international peace and goodwill through a fellowship of business and
professional men of all nations united in the Rotary ideal of service.” It has not changed in over 100 years. [This statement needs a change!]
The roots of the global peace movement goes back
centuries. It gained significant
momentum in the 19th and 20th centuries with movements like the anti-war
efforts during the Napoleonic Wars, the formation of peace societies in the
19th century, then widespread activism for peace during and after both World
Wars, the Vietnam war, the Cold war, and the Global War Against Terrorism. It’s likely the concept of advocating for
peace has existed throughout human history in various forms.
"For peace to reign on Earth, humans must
evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first." - Immanuel Kant
Many people have growing concerns that another World War is
feasible as reactionary, retaliatory, and escalating trends of violence are reported
with no cooling down in sight as superpower democracies and totalitarian
nations are picking sides. Each side is vying
for collaboration and access to dozens of other nonaligned states. Even with fragile underdeveloped nations.
Some with civil wars or nearing one.
Add to this, a rising tide of disinformation determined
to increase chaos within democracies already struggling. Some of our adversaries are using the truth about
our democracy’s disfunction hoping to recruit other countries into their axis. Meanwhile, most people are thinking about two
things. Governments can’t always be trusted. And things are only going to worsen. Even worse, few minds grasp the rapid evolution
of weaponry’s increasing power, speed, affordability, availability, and difficulty
in detecting or defending against it.
Plus the dilemma of AI’s acceleration of all of this. Advocating
for PEACE has failed and another approach is urgently needed. What people really want most is to survive and
thrive. That requires freedom and
security. Peace has not ensured
either.
“Poverty is the
worst form of Violence”. Mahatma Ghandhi
“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their
proper name.” ― Confucius
Humanity has always had the
answer. But those in power usually chose
other options. And ‘we the people’ have yet
to unite and insist that government apply the fundamental principles needed to prevent
violence. Like ‘a child should not die
before their parent(s)’. Humanity eradicated smallpox which killed more
people in 70 years of the last century than all the wars, revolutions, and genocides
combined during that same entire century! We’ve held dozens Olympic games with every
nationality, race, religion, and gender competing, and only once was there
violence, and it was from an outside source. Wealthy nations have engineered technologies that
put humans on the moon and returned them safely. Collectively we have the means
to educate every person consistently and cheaply on earth - if governments
allow it. We also have the capacity to meet
all other basic needs within hours, using sustainable delivery systems with humanities
unprecedent global wealth. Why don’t we? What causes this stubborn and dangerous global
disconnect between meeting the basic needs of every man, woman, and child - and
the increasingly unstable and increasingly lethal conditions that our species,
and many other species, now appear trapped in?
What the world most needs at this moment is a means of
convincing human beings to embrace the whole of the species as their moral
community. For this we need to develop an utterly nonsectarian way of talking
about the full spectrum of human experience and human aspiration." - Sam
Harris
The answer is quite simple,
affordable, and ignored. Unfortunately,
most minds resist change. Why won’t people
use universally defined words to form and express their personal or political beliefs
that could avoid violence. Why do most
minds fail to distinguish between ambiguous and unambiguous words? Why does our mind’s capacity to believe
anything lead to violently defending a belief?
The minds of scientists and engineers appear to work differently. They usually use their minds for finding and
solving problems, not creating them. Sadly,
they make amazing things like cellphones or nuclear weapons yet rarely make decisions
on how they are used. Song writers,
poets, politicians, and preachers freely use words anyway they like. Some inspire and motivate people to do great
things. Others to commit genocide. Yet the
fundamental principle underlying every religion - the Golden rule – is rarely
practiced. But now this is urgently
needed to make wise use of science and every technology. What will it take to bind the hearts and
minds of all humanity to do what is possible, affordable, and in everyone’s
best interest? Scientists and engineers
rely on the “Laws of Nature.” The
signers of the Declaration of Independence also cited the laws of “Nature’s
God” in that profound universal appeal. Catastrophically
they failed to use both sets of fundamental laws in framing the
Constitution. That resulted in more
American deaths than all the wars our nation has fought in since then,
combined!
The sustainable freedoms and
security of humanity into the future is possible. But only if we prioritize taking care of
nature and each other. This is what
Thomas Paine advocated in his pamphlet Common Sense. He didn’t see earth as a spaceship. But common-sense dictates that it is. With nature as our basic life support
system. The origins of Earth, nature,
and humans (God, evolution, or both) does not matter. What does is the agency that ‘We the people’
have always had to ensure our healthy and sustainable future.
‘The Declaration of Independence is our Apple of
Gold. The Constitution is its frame of
silver.’ Abraham Lincoln
“Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word
spoken in right circumstances.” Proverbs
25:11 New American Standard Bible
Memorize the following 11 words.
‘Everything is connected,
interdependent, and vulnerable. We need a global effort.’ Define “everything”? It actually defines itself. That is what ‘autological’ words do. And each of these 11 words are
autological. This phrase above is the
fundamental law of the universe yet unknown to most minds. We believe we and other things are
independent. But independence is just a
word or concept that we invented. It exists
nowhere in the known universe except as an dumb idea in our minds and applied
foolishly to almost everything as a cherished principle.
"The
action of even the tiniest creature leads to changes in the entire
Universe." Nikola Tesla
"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are
but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All
things are bound together. All things connect." - Chief Seattle, Duwamish
“A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the
effect of government. It had its origin in the principles of society and the
natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if
the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal
interest which man has upon man, and all parts of a civilized community upon
each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The
landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and
every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and
from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their laws;
and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws
of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government. – Thomas
Paine, Rights of Man [1791]
"A
human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in
time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something
separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This
delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and
affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this
completely, but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the
liberation, and a foundation for inner security." -Albert
Einstein. As quoted in Quantum Reality,
Beyond the New Physics, p. 250.
“Before you finish
eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half of the
world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated
quality. We aren't going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic
fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
********************
Peace has many
definitions. How’s that working out for
us? Democracy has many also.
“There is a natural obstacle to progress in abstract
thought, which has often delayed rational inquiry; an erroneous concept or
theory may be expressed in terms which embody the error, so that thinking is
blocked until the misleading words are discarded from the given context.” Isabel Paterson
Freedom is real! We are free to do anything we want but we (and
everything around us) will not be free of the consequences. Those consequences can be helpful or harmful to
everything’s health or security. The
possibility of it being helpful increases with the virtue of the action. And vice versa. In
summary, do your best to help nature and each other. Or prepare for the harmful consequences.
“You cannot get through a single day
without having an impact on the world around you. Whatever you do makes a
difference. You have to decide what kind
of difference you want to make” Jane
Goodall.
The essential solution for
solving our problems is establishing consistent working definitions of words and
phrases used for engineering anything and everything that humanity needs and wants
for sustainability. Then we can still leave
all words for poets, pastors, song writers, and conspiracy theorists for
expressing themselves as they feel the need.
"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert
the plain Meaning of Words!" – Samuel Adams, letter to John Pitts [January
21, 1776]
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also
corrupt thought.’ – George Orwell
“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to
mean—neither more nor less.”
Humpty Dumpty,
Through the Looking Glass.
"That's not a lie, it's a terminological
inexactitude." -- Alexander Haig
"Political language -- and with variations this
is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is
designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an
appearance of solidity to pure wind."
George Orwell [Eric Arthur
Blair] British author
"False words are not
only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil." — Socrates
“The word ‘Democracy’ is a chimera in our politics. It
means whatever the speaker says it does.”
Pericles, Athenian Statesman.
"We recognize the force of the argument
that the effects of war under modern conditions may be felt in the economy for
years and years, and that if the war power can be used in days of peace to
treat all the wounds which war inflicts on our society, it may not only swallow
up all other powers of Congress but largely obliterate the Ninth and the Tenth
Amendments as well." -- Justice
William O. Douglas
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who
could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the
silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it
possible for evil to triumph": Haile Selassie
Alternative word(s) to
replace “Peace” or “Democracy”?
The Rule of Law! Make Law
not War!. No Justice...no peace. No
peace with poverty. Peace does not ensure freedom or
security. It is just the period of time that allows each side to rearm.
Community Peace quotes:
"Peace is not
merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that
goal." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have
to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." - Nelson
Mandela
"The first peace, which is the most important, is
that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their
relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they
realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that
this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us." - Black Elk
"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole
world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi
"If we have no peace, it is because we have
forgotten that we belong to each other." - Mother Teresa
Peace is a
biblical concept that means more than the absence of war or conflict. It is
derived from the Hebrew word shalom, which means "to be complete" or
"to be sound". Peace implies a condition of freedom from disturbance,
both outwardly and inwardly, and a state of well-being in relation to both man
and God. Peace is a gift from God and a fruit of the Spirit.
"We do not
want a PAX Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the
peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine
peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that
enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for
their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and
women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time." - John F.
Kennedy (1963)
To maintain peace throughout the world, the grounds for conflict
should be reduced as much as possible. The first step in this direction must be
to respect and protect private property throughout the world. The ideal would
also include complete freedom of trade and freedom of movement. Political
boundaries would no longer be determined under threat of military conquest or
aggressive economic nationalism, but rather by legal plebiscite, i.e., by vote
of the individuals concerned. In such a world, the national sovereignty under
which one lived or worked would be relatively immaterial. – Bettina
Bien Greaves, The Freeman
[September 1979]
“Peace is the natural state of man, war the temporary repeal of
reason and virtue.” – Hans F. Sennholz
ChatGPT4 definitions of three areas of Peace
1. **Inner Peace:** A
state of mental and emotional tranquility, where an individual experiences a
sense of calmness, balance, and harmony within oneself, often achieved through
self-reflection and mindfulness practices.
2. **Community Peace:**
The harmony and well-being within a local or societal group, involving positive
relationships, cooperation, and a lack of conflict among its members,
contributing to a stable and thriving community.
3. **Global Peace:** The
absence of conflict and violence on a global scale, characterized by diplomatic
resolutions, cooperation among nations, and the promotion of justice and
equality to foster a secure and harmonious world.
Other areas of peace could
include environmental peace, referring to the balance and sustainability in the
natural world, and technological peace, emphasizing ethical and responsible use
of technology to prevent harm and conflicts.
My Summary: The idea that peace can only be achieved by taking care
of nature and each other is rooted in the recognition of interconnectedness and
interdependence. However, achieving this vision requires a collective shift in
mindset and behavior, as well as systemic changes at various levels of society.
Our challenge is that short-term and special interests
often take precedence over long-term sustainability and well-being of people
and nature. Successfully addressing
complex issues such as environmental degradation, social inequality, and
conflict resolution needs multifaceted approaches and collaboration across
different sectors and stakeholders. Thus,
the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Moreover, there are competing priorities and interests
that can hinder progress, including economic considerations, political power
dynamics, and cultural differences. Overcoming these obstacles necessitates
sustained efforts to promote awareness, foster empathy, and enact policies that
prioritize the well-being of both people and the planet.
Ultimately, achieving peace through the care of nature
and each other requires a fundamental shift in values, priorities, and actions,
as well as a commitment to building a more just, equitable, and sustainable
world for present and future generations.
“The only
thing this visionary publication is missing is the formula to make Congress
politically functional with the capacity to achieve what is scientifically
possible and desperately needed.” Origins,
Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology
2023-2032’. A report by the U.S. National Academy of Science
If you would like the
text of these quotes, please send an email to ‘chuck@igc.org
