Peace in humanity is regarded by most as a holy grail, spoken of as though it is the highest order goal, illusive, a rare treasure, virtually impossible to achieve. And yes we should have reverence for peace, it is a treasure, especially for those embroiled in conflict, it can literally be a life raft, the difference between living or dying. But is it as illusive as we’ve been led to believe, only achieved through battle with winners and losers? Is that even peace?
We talk of peace, wish for peace, praise peace, pray for peace, protest for peace, legislate and sing, write and of course fight for peace.
Fight for peace? Fight?
We have, as long as history has been written, spilled blood, tortured, murdered, pillaged, destroyed each other, our histories, cities, monuments, economies, institutions and the very planet we occupy in the name of peace.
We’ve allowed others to determine our path the peace; governments, international bodies, bodies of law, politicians, big business. So the pursuit peace naturally became a blood sport.
What is force to one side is justice to another. What is oppression to one side is justice to the other. What is conflict to one side is necessary intervention to the other. But what if there isn’t an ‘other’ at all?
Conflict, in any form is a crude and simple answer to the most complex human conditions. Regardless of whether it’s in the school yard, board room or battle field, conflict, by nature of its design and energy can never bring the purity of peace. It’s the greatest betrayal of ourselves, a universal oxymoron to think peace which is imbued with love can come from conflict which is imbued with fear and hate. It is wholly impossible yet at this very moment parts of this planet are bent on destruction of another.
When we review the world wars and other global conflicts, we are led to believe that bombing and stripping countries and all that inhabits it down to ground zero brought about peace. Ensuing conflicts, especially those that have persisted for generations, would argue otherwise.
The relentless and visceral pounding of a country and its people will weaken and break, bring fear and loathing, exhaust and destroy so yes they may in fact acquiesce. Acquiescence is not peace, it’s I give up, I’m tired, you win, for now. It breeds hatred, generations deep, breeds militarization, breeds armies, breeds rebellion, breeds us vs them. It ensures the cycle of conflict will always win over the very peace we say we want.
War and conflict are heralded as agents of innovation, think atomic energy, aviation, manufacturing. We talk of economic boom via militarization, it hides the real cost, the true impact, the root cause. We must fight, we have to take a stand and we’ll be better off after. It’s all propaganda.
The truth is we’ve been manipulated, lulled, cajoled, taught that that conflict and war, have meaning. The fact that most conflict and war have been fought over arbitrary lines on maps drawn centuries ago by white men and ‘their’ countries who over the course of history, heralded that they ‘discovered’ a part of the world previously unknown to them and now they ‘own it’ and want more because well who doesn’t is absurd. Own?? I don’t even own the land my home is on. Please, we are being fooled once again by his-story.
Peace comes from love guided by a deep understanding that we are not the ‘owners’, we are not the most worthy, we are not entitled to anything. We are here to learn, to remember, to connect with each other, to our planet, to our purpose. We need to breathe into a shared remembrance, a shared mission as one humanity free of boundaries, borders and barriers. If we can hold each other in the space of universal love, we would free ourselves, embody peace, heal 1000 year old festering wounds, release tensions and energies meant to restrict our collective light We have the answers within our beings to foster peace, heal humanity, heal our planet and ensure generations can flourish as we’ve been designed to do. If enough of us say enough of this, we will finally get to live in the gift of the peace we seek, lord knows it’s more than time.
Peggy Taillon Founder and President HERA Mission www.heramission.org @heramission 613-769-5499