Peace: What it is and how not to achieve it
Created | Updated Mar 11, 2004
Peace is the state of being peaceful. That is to say, being without conflict, violence, and free from strife. To not be at peace is to be in conflict, or war.
Peace is a very hard thing to achieve. This is because most people see the solution to any problem is to sort it out by arguing, fighting, and generally causing a big conflict that will hopefully get rid of the smaller one that you are trying to fix. This idea and practice follows a certain kind of logic that doesn't make any sense if you really think about it. In fact, it is illogical. Oddly enough, the concept seems to make some kind of sense to a lot of people.
Take, for example, virginity. Virginity is a state of being. To not be a virgin, is to have had sex. It was said by someone (I don't know who, although his/her name might have been Anonymous) that fighting for peace was like having sex for virginity.
Fighting for peace is like having sex for virginity!
Doesn't make any sense, you say? Well you're absolutely correct. It doesn't make sense to have sex for the sake of virginity, just as it doesn't make sense to fight for the sake of peace. If one wants to be a virgin, one must simply not ever have sex. If one wants to be at peace, one must not be violent, cause conflict or impose violence and conflict on others.
It's really not all that complicated once simple logic is followed. The situation remains that human beings have often been thought of (by themselves, mind you) as being rational, intelligent things that are very sensical and logical. It seems strange that such a group of beings have used fighting as their number one solution to their problems and to gain peace, when obviously, it doesn't make a shred of a fragment of a fraction of logical sense to do so.
Now you might ask, "If fighting for peace is such a silly thing to do, then why have we been doing it for thousands of years? And still doing it?" Well, I might reply, it's because we're all a bunch of greedy, selfish, illogical ignoramuces. But it may also be because peace is such a hard thing to accomplish. We overlook the simplest way of solving conflicts: not fighting. Calm, respectful discussion can go a long way when given the chance. It may not be the easy way; it may involve compromises, listening, trying to understand complicated things, and most difficult of all, getting along with others, but it is definately more logical than the other method we've been trying.
Peace is a very hard thing to achieve. This is because most people see the solution to any problem is to sort it out by arguing, fighting, and generally causing a big conflict that will hopefully get rid of the smaller one that you are trying to fix. This idea and practice follows a certain kind of logic that doesn't make any sense if you really think about it. In fact, it is illogical. Oddly enough, the concept seems to make some kind of sense to a lot of people.
Take, for example, virginity. Virginity is a state of being. To not be a virgin, is to have had sex. It was said by someone (I don't know who, although his/her name might have been Anonymous) that fighting for peace was like having sex for virginity.
Fighting for peace is like having sex for virginity!
Doesn't make any sense, you say? Well you're absolutely correct. It doesn't make sense to have sex for the sake of virginity, just as it doesn't make sense to fight for the sake of peace. If one wants to be a virgin, one must simply not ever have sex. If one wants to be at peace, one must not be violent, cause conflict or impose violence and conflict on others.
It's really not all that complicated once simple logic is followed. The situation remains that human beings have often been thought of (by themselves, mind you) as being rational, intelligent things that are very sensical and logical. It seems strange that such a group of beings have used fighting as their number one solution to their problems and to gain peace, when obviously, it doesn't make a shred of a fragment of a fraction of logical sense to do so.
Now you might ask, "If fighting for peace is such a silly thing to do, then why have we been doing it for thousands of years? And still doing it?" Well, I might reply, it's because we're all a bunch of greedy, selfish, illogical ignoramuces. But it may also be because peace is such a hard thing to accomplish. We overlook the simplest way of solving conflicts: not fighting. Calm, respectful discussion can go a long way when given the chance. It may not be the easy way; it may involve compromises, listening, trying to understand complicated things, and most difficult of all, getting along with others, but it is definately more logical than the other method we've been trying.
