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Seven Reasons Why World Peace is Possible

Introduction

The 21st of September will be International Day of Peace. It may seem a little premature to declare that world peace is due to break out by the end this month. I do not deny that the amount of killing and death and war and torture and death and coercion and abuse and death all over everywhere can be overwhelming. Nor do I deny that considering this it is a natural assumption to believe people are sinners, destined for extinction. However, I do argue that compassion is as much a part of human nature as cruelty.

There is evidence that humankind did not always live violent lives. In fact, I assume most people reading this article are not habitually violent, and do not desire to watch someone suffer. All animals have the capacity to enrich the lives of others. We have the capacity to be both selfish and kind. What matters is which quality we chose to focus on; bringing that quality into focus within ourselves, the world, and our children.

Here I have collected an array of research demonstrating that there is a positive potential within each social group and person. I argue that humans can learn to build societies which are not founded on the expectation of organised violence. Here are seven reasons why world peace is possible. You won’t believe your own strength of belief: There is at least some hope.


National Peace Academy’s Peace Spheres

Experimental prototypes

Following World War I citizens in the USA successfully campaigned for a pact which renounced the use of war as an instrument of national policy. It remains on the statutes and was signed by several other countries. This commitment may not have lasted, but inspiration can be found elsewhere. For example, the states of Costa Rica and Panama have no official armies and the town of Marinaleda, Spain, has no police.

Dennis Morgan of The Centre for Global Nonkilling comments that smaller pockets of resistance to killing narratives exist in organic farming or permaculture communities (PDF), which, when linked up ‘can represent a nucleus of a non-killing world.’ Dieter Duhm of Tamera similarly believes intentional communities can act as models for a ‘Future without War.’ Such places have become mainstream, for example The Global Ecovillage Network, Findhorn Foundation and Auroville have all worked with the UN, and Transition Towns have attracted academic attention.


The Institute for Economics and Peace’s Peace Pillars

Our animal nature

The motivation to organise rests on the belief that we can cooperate. In 1989 UNESCO demonstrated this with the adoption of the Seville Statement, which announced an understanding of the potential of human nature to adapt and flourish with peaceful nurturing from society and through childhood.

Charles Darwin too believed animals such as humans have a natural capacity to feel empathy, behave altruistically and experience a pleasurable and meaningful existence. Whether or not we express the capacity is influenced by external factors. Cultural change could open us to becoming more peaceful still.

Our changing culture

Our surroundings are beginning to change for the better; the United Nations General Assembly, has also adopted annual resolutions in support of a ‘culture of peace’ since 1997. One cultural change is the number of countries abolishing state-sponsored execution, which has doubled, from 48 in 1991 to 97 today.

It has been found that a major shift may be occurring in the basis of human thought and discourse. On an individual level for example, around 20% of Europeans have been found to deeply care about "ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, self-actualization, spirituality and self-expression". It has even been said that there is an "explosion in empathetic behaviour." A symptom of the change may be seen in the growing appetite for plant based diets; around 10% of the population of Israel, Sweden, Italy, and Germany, are now vegetarian or vegan.


The Metta Centre’s Peace Roadmap

Our peaceful past

Will Tuttle explains in World Peace Diet how peace among humans is influenced by peaceful behaviour towards nonhuman animals. Farms did not always exist in their present form, and indeed did not always exist at all. Changed farming systems is given as one factor which normalised institutional killing in a human species which had previously lived predominantly without killing.

The Centre for Global Nonkilling has produced several books which explain how it is possible to bring about a world without war. In ‘Nonkillng Futures’ (PDF), Dennis Morgan finds that it is now common among academics to believe human civilisations have existed which did not demonstrate signs of organised violence. Evidence suggests the likelihood that there was no organised violence among humans between at least 5000 and 7000 years ago, or even longer. In more recent history, Georgia Kelly from the Praxis Peace Institute explains (PDF) that the city state of Dubrovnik, Croatia, was consciously created in the 1200s to be a state which would not engage in warfare. It accomplished the span of its six hundred year existence in peace.

Peaceful societies

Hunter-gatherer societies rarely engage in war. The website Peaceful Societies describes highly peaceful societies which exist around the world, some hunter-gatherer and others not. The populations range in number from hundreds to thousands. While their characteristics vary, the societies tend not to glorify leadership or individualism, and all have convictions in nonviolence. It has also been found that more equal societies have less homicide. Our society could become more peaceful if resources are distributed more equally, and children are not raised to believe that war in inevitable.

Changing societies

We live in an era of social upheaval which can be seen as an opportunity for transformative change, according to Riane Eisler from the Centre for Partnership Studies, toward the kinds of cultures that support a more equitable, caring, and sustainable way of life. Eisler developed this theory of Cultural Transformation after years of researching the causes of violence in society. A Partnership Society is described as:

Morgan adds that it is "only when humans learn to live in harmony with their environment and each other that the principles of nonviolence can be activated in a very real way. In such an environment, killing becomes unthinkable."

Peaceful people

In the Metta Centre report Michael Nagler identifies (PDF) souls such as Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and King as ‘beacons of what is to come’, since they demonstrate to us that it is possible to settle conflicts amicably, and to expand our consciousness to cherish all beings. However, nonviolent conflicts do not need to have charismatic leaders, as demonstrated by the democracy movement in Serbia. Where there are leaders these are supported by the persistence of other activists, such as in Bashah Khan’s 100,000 nonviolent soldiers and countless other people we usually have not even heard of. Peace is made between non famous individuals on a daily basis. Beyond Right and Wrong and The Forgiveness Toolbox document moving stories from people who found strength in justice and forgiveness.


Wise words from the Metta Centre

Conclusion

The references here suggest that different expressions of violence are related. For example, acceptance of interpersonal relationship violence relates to state sanctioned violence, such as militarisation and corporal punishment. Untangling such a complex web will not be easy, and can only be approached from all sides. This means that different types of contributions are all useful, and, as the evidence also shows us, people power has achieved a lot already.

The idea that violence is inevitable is normalised through childhood socialisation and depressing media narratives, which teach us to accept coercion, competition and authority. On the other hand, listening to uplifting stories inspires positive action, and reminds you that you are not struggling alone, Permaculture News is a good place to find such stories. It is isolating and disempowering to believe that humans are bad for one another and the planet. We are interconnected. Nature is neither negative nor positive. It is not dualistic or linear. It does not progress, but evolve.

Uplifting events:

14 Comments

  1. A key to our fully realizing this potential will be to end the global use of money and the concept of exchange in order to eliminate the perverse incentives that interfere with human relations with each other and other life forms and the physical environment, which are the real ‘currency’ of our lives. It’s not necessary, because peace is ultimately in our minds, but it will make it much more achievable for all of us.

  2. The drums of war are pounding loudly here in the United States right now. The Vice President has recently said we (not me) are going to follow our enemies to the gates of hell. I’m sorry..

  3. Dear Helen, if only this could come about! But I fear not. There may be / have been isolated communities and periods of peace, however in the longer history of our kind, there has always been greed, killing and war, for selfish, personal gain. There has never been a single human civilisation that was not based on the oppression and tyranny of certain groups of other people, if not their own people.
    These couple of videos here illustrate the wickedness of a few people, who have become the most powerful people in our world today, and who think of nothing but oppression and slavery (for want of a better word) for those who will not allow them to get what they want. Yes, we are ruled, and perhaps mostly have been, by psychopaths. I wish for the optimism you display, but I cannot find it in my heart.

    Tariq

  4. Agree with you Steve. There’s a brilliant book called Ubuntu Contributionism by Michael Tellinger just sets forth blueprint of doing away with money. Very simple, practical and achievable!

  5. Agriculture was the beginning of the end for us. Ability to realize surplus for oneself, family or community is inherently violent as it will always exclude someone else. Hence the drive for security and comfort inevitably ends in selfish anti social and violent behavior. Corporatist capitalism is the ultimate expression of this and we now observe the descent into deeply state and corporate controlled and militarised markets that are the culmination of around 10000 years of stockpiling and exchanging resources in the form of currency.

  6. World peace is definitely possible, but in order to achieve it, we must first find peace in our own backyard. All the shootings, kidnappings, and robberies must come to an end. If they don’t, we will never find true peace.

  7. World peace forever is not possible because it violates human nature. It would be wonderful if it were possible but even if all the leaders of the world today agreed to it, their successors would not necessarily honor it. Countries usually look out for themselves first and if they know they’re stronger than their neighbors–and their neighbors have things they want–they will invade. It’s a sad commentary on human nature but there it is. At least 2 wars have been absolutely necessary; The American Civil War to eradicate slavery and World War II to eradicate Nazism. There are other examples. Too many wars have been just rash foolish mistakes so any effort to eliminate war is worthwhile. At least it may reduce them.

  8. I appreciate the extensive research you have done. I would like to also say that I love the concept. However, in my own experience as a soldier with combat tours to other countries, I can tell you that the desire to get along is not and has not ever existed. Most of our large conflicts have spiritual overtones.

  9. Sounds good in principle, but as others here have said, lasting peace is incompatible with human nature. Even in wealthy, relatively secure countries like the USA, individuals are eager to exploit and hurt others. When those individuals gain enough power–police, lawyers, judges, politicians, global corporation leaders…–they can hurt others just about with impunity. And neither religions nor humanistic doctrines offer a reliable sanctuary from destructive human impulses. The very fact that we can treat other living beings that clearly feel pain and express terror the way we do by the billions every year despite truly viable less noxious alternatives shows that it’s a part of human nature to care far more about our own pleasures than even the most dire suffering of others that result from our doing what makes us feel good. Maybe not every time, but often enough. Aggression is a natural part of human nature. Sure, we can try to control it, but it doesn’t seem we’ve ever been able to eliminate it–either from the individual (over the entire lifespan) or the community/state. Suggesting otherwise might even put people eager to believe in that perspective at grave danger since there will always be social predators among us hunting for easy targets.

  10. Dear give me detail of this topic that is world peace is possible if yes than how tell me outlines, reason, hurdles, solutions and conclusion

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