Peace must be obtained through mutual understanding, not through force. This means that a peace created through strict control cannot be called true peace, and neither can a peace that people have been tricked into or forced to want.
One of the most common and feasible ways to achieve peace is to eliminate all of one’s rivals to avoid armed conflict. This is however not resolving disputes between multiple parties, it is avoiding them altogether and enforcing your own will on others. This is selfish and inefficient. Unless conflicts are resolved peacefully and logically, then such issues will only come back to cause more conflicts. An example is when revolutionary forces try to overthrow an oppressive government. This is usually done since the government abuses it’s power and tries to maintain peace through control and oppression, not allowing people to start conflicts. If one side is doing something wrong and does not listen to reason, then it is sometimes justified for others to force them to stop. This will naturally result in a war, however this should only be done if the oppressors will not stop unless forced to.
As a result of this war, the oppressive government will try to eliminate it’s opposition to ensure peace and control. If they succeed in doing this, they will have attained peace, but it is not true peace and will only result in more rebellions. If the rebels however win, then it allows them a chance to establish a more open minded government which can lead to true peace.
Another less common way of attaining peace is by tricking people. This can range from the Nazi policies of brainwashing their youth and populace into believing lies to promote the government’s control, or in the future, by consolidating people’s wishes and thoughts to conform to an arbitrary idea that does not allow people to fight. Forcing others to think in a certain way or to not think at all will stop them from fighting and create peace, but it completely disrespects their freedom, individuality, thoughts, and intelligence. This is not true peace, it is one of the worst possible outcomes for humanity.
Living peacefully is not worth it if no one can live freely. Freedom, in both a political sense and the freedom to think and act without external forces changing or liming you, is equally as important as living in peace. Those who live in war will often yearn for peace so much that they will neglect freedom, and those who lack freedom will often neglect the notion of peace for what they consider is a greater good. These are the actions of extremist acting on misguided emotions or ignorant logic. While either peace or freedom might sometimes be more important in certain situations, and while one or the other might need to be temporarily and partially sacrificed, the only valid form of civilisation is one with both peace and freedom.
True peace is where multiple parties can discuss issues and come to resolutions without having to resort to war or control. Naturally when more than one party is involved there will be different opinions and goals. This does not mean that to attain peace one should eliminate the other parties, or combine all parties into one. Mankind must learn to co-exist with the great diversity we have. We must accept and encourage our diversity, not try to eliminate it. Diversity grants us strength, the open minded will learn from one another and be able to come to more sound and justified conclusions than those who disrespect each other.
Through education, not force or brainwashing, we can solve the world’s problems by working together and understanding each other. It is only one a global framework of understanding and empathy has been established that future generations will reject immorality, selfishness, abuse of power, control, superiority, and war. If you think this is naïve and inefficient, then consider that forcing peace is similarly inefficient. Do not be so cynical that you dismiss mankind as being inherently incapable of being good, or unable to change their ways. While there have been countless wars in the bloodstained history of the Earth, consider also the reasons for these wars and who fought them. The vast majority of humankind has not taken part in a war. Few people unless directly threatened and justifiably defended themselves, or brainwashed by the lies of their leaders, have ever fought in a war. The average person does not want to kill and does not want to fight. This is not out of cowardice or inability, this is because they are not made to fight. Animals do not fight either, they hunt when needed as dictated by their instinct. One could then assume that humans fight because our intelligence allows us to attain our goals through more clever means such as war, but this is a lie that one would tell themselves to justify their cynicism. Wars are started by those who are selfish and lack empathy, those who are close minded and refuse to be logical. Wars have been decreasing in recent history, and areas of the world have not seen armed conflict in decades if not centuries, and some civilisations have never had wars.
This all leads to one conclusion: that fighting is not a part of human nature. At the very least, war is not a part of human nature. War is an illogical consequence of close minded, selfish people, and them alone. While an open minded and selfless person may start a war, the majority of the blame lies with those who perpetrate crimes against humanity and force good men to start wars.
By educating everyone in the world, at least starting with some countries, to understand, empathise, and work and discuss issues with each other, true world peace is attainable. Once that has been attained. we can make even greater progress to solve the rest of the world’s problems by working together. This will be a long process that will show little progress until a whole generation of people have been taught the foolishness of war. Hopefully we can even teach the current generations to be understanding.
Humanity, and the world, must change. My greatest hope, my life’s goal is true world peace. This is not due to any selfish or misguided reasons, it is not a consequence merely of being exposed to these ideas or having them been glorified. This is not the misguided conclusion as a result of a traumatic experience, or a hasty decision made for some naïve reason.
My greatest hope is that everyone will live together happily, of their own will. I want to make this happen.
