Thoughts on Peace: Why Bother? (Part I)

While it will come into view again before you know it, the Christmas holiday season is definitely in the rear view mirror now. So it’s a great time to explore the subject of Peace… World Peace… or Peace on Earth. Can you think of a practical reason to have peace beyond “it feels good?” The question is worth giving serious thought to.

Perhaps we should think about why we don’t have peace. Let’s look at conflict in various parts of the world. It’s a pretty good guess that any conflict that breaks out anywhere in the world began because someone got pissed off, for whatever reason, and elected to retaliate in kind. Isn’t that the basic gist of the Cain and Abel story?

Gee… I just took a look at the Cain and Abel story, and that is a universe of thought unto itself! For example, that Cain and Abel were able to communicate directly with God, and the idea that God may have favored one over the other (not implied but possibly assumed by Cain), and the suggestion that Cain himself may simply have been “of a wicked one, and his works were evil (1 John 3:12).

Of course, in kind retaliation is rarely that. The retaliatory act is often an escalated reply to the original, for two reasons:

The first reason is to inflict the anger, pain, destruction, loss, or intent, back to the originator.
The second reason is to dissuade or eliminate the likelihood of further unwanted experiences, be they reprisals, competition, humiliation, etc.

The Cain and Abel story is certainly an example of escalated reaction. Though it has been practiced ever since — and I suspect even before C&A — this strategy rarely works.

The Japanese surrender at the end of World War II is one example of a culture that truly made a paradigm shift, making a sweeping change from a military-dominated, imperialistic strategy to a commerce and economy driven one. The latter approach has done well in the past generation for the country, its people, and the world at large. As a child growing up in Chicago, I remember when the term, “Made in Japan,” was almost laughable, as it meant cheaply made. Such is not the case today.

Japan is a major player in world affairs, far beyond its size in population or geography. Is it possible that a commitment to peaceful method might have something to do with it?

It’s a shame they had to subject themselves to such destruction in order to make that fundamental shift, but they’ve done it, and have profited as a result.

Then there are the “victors”… (oh boy). That’s an oxymoron, to say the least; for there are no real winners in war, not even my beloved country. There is no territory, without terra. When my country destroys, disrupts, and destabilizes terra — the very Earth itself — it jeopardizes all territories. When we set a destructive example for other despotic “wannabees,” the dawn of peace defers to a few more hours of darkness.

While we’re well versed in the profits of war, can we even fathom the profits of peace? Of not being on “Alert” status, of varying degree and hue? Of not looking over our back, because we know that our friends and neighbors have it covered.

I’m going to continue this in serial form, and it’ll take me wherever it takes me. I have some thoughts that will take some time to unfold, and will go to some unexpected places, so if this subject interests you, please stay tuned…

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