You Don’t Want World Peace, Do You?

World peace. The ultimate answer, right? The end goal. The only possible chance this world and its inhabitants have. If we all just saw each other as equals and got along, all of our problems would fade away.

Yes, in the face of any amount of destruction, terror, and catastrophe, we can simply say, “If only there was world peace” as if it were as simple as flipping a switch. Well, easier said than done.

And ain’t that the way we look at most things? We chalk it all up to a beautiful end goal and would rather focus on the glory than what it actually takes to get there. And on top of that, we also like to think about what needs to mold around us to turn these fantasies into realities rather than the part WE play because, hey, we aren’t doing anything wrong.

This pertains particularly well to our visions of world peace. The world has so many problems that we, the individual, aren’t part of. We wish we could live in world peace. We’re ready, but the rest of the world needs to start fucking cooperating first. It requires a societal effort. And that’s true, but because of how grand of a task that is, it’s easy to feel we can’t really do anything about it. And thus begins my little list as to why you (yes, you) might be pushing world peace farther away.

Number one boils down to our lack of trust. The vast majority of us don’t trust the world to start said fucking cooperating. Any why would we? Our hunger, and more importantly, our advocacy for drama has resulted in stories of tragedy being streamlined to us all day every day. It’s easy to forget that an extremely small percentage of the population is responsible for the largest displays of horror, so we’re bound make suspects out of undeserving people. This causes friction for you as the accuser and for them as the wrongfully accused and boom, peace is instantly at risk. So you keep a close watch over yourself as well as those closest to you. You raise your children to be hyper aware of things that are yet to happen, so now they aren’t raised in peace, and of course they’re the future so if they aren’t being raised in peace then maybe the next generation will. But let’s be honest…not really. Why? Because the cycle continues. And the toughest part is that it’s a perfectly healthy cycle — wanting to keep loved ones safe and aware. Even the fact that we’ve driven the news to report nothing but massacre is in part a reflection of our concern for others. So it’s a sensible pattern of thought, but sensible ain’t paying the bills, baby. Our first priority, no matter how deeply buried underneath acts of enormous charity, is to look out for ourselves. Which brings me to number two: human nature.

It’s human nature to look after ourselves, the individual. Since the dawn of time, all beings have been aware of and had methods of protecting themselves from threat. So gauging oncoming threat, whether we’re right or wrong about it, has been disrupting peace since the dawn of time. But I basically just said that a moment ago, didn’t I? So how else does human nature play a part?

Well, when envisioning world peace, a big part of that vision is unity; not only because it makes sense, but because there’s so much divide in our world right now, and most people think that world peace requires a complete upheaval of a lot of current “obstructions” I’ll call them. But being completely unified and having everyone on the same playing field counteracts a lot of our innate instincts. We love our individuality, and too much unity threatens it. We like feeling special in our roles. We like serving as an alpha or a beta. We like being the hunter or the caretaker.

Not buying that? Go ahead and type in “dominance” or “submission” on your friendly neighborhood porn site for some more colorful examples.

In addition to our societal roles, we also must not forget the emotions brought about by human nature. Needless to say, not all of these emotions are considered flowery and conducive to world peace. The general consensus on world peace typically does not consist of feelings like greed, anger, temptation, and vengeance. In fact, many see these as exactly what’s in the way of obtaining world peace.

But there’s just one teeny tiny problem with that.

To vilify these emotions is to vilify humans. These emotions are a part of life, and even though they exist to different degrees within different people, to resist or reject their presence is to not be at peace. And it is that very mentality that leads me to my third and final thought bubble: the false idea of peace.

We say that peace could start now if we all got our acts together, but this is a blatant contradiction to the true essence of peace and the primary building block that’s necessary to attain it. “Getting our acts together” deems right and wrong, good and bad. It’s not reflective of acceptance. It’s kind of like when we plan our futures. We say things like, “Everything will be better when I’m doing X, and Y is happening and Z is no longer in my life”. That sound familiar? It’s the same thing when scouting the potential of world peace. It skips to a result and doesn’t address what’s here and now. Peace and progress starts with accepting things as they are. Accepting war. Accepting famine. Accepting hatred.

Note that acceptance and support are not the same thing. No one’s saying that you have to be excited by these things. But you make peace with the world the same way you make peace with a person. Attacking their shortcomings will only perpetuate the problem. Accepting them as they are and making an effort to understand their shortcomings is when things start to go right. Simply put, resistance starts with resistance, and peace starts with peace.

So where are you REALLY in all this mess, hmm? Are you more a part of the problem than you might’ve thought? Are you taking initiative or are you sheltering yourself until the rest of the world comes around? Are you really willing to be fully at peace with others, even if that means sacrificing your anxieties, judgments, battles and even parts of your identity? These are the things to consider when we sit and think about why the world just can’t get it right and why pure and simple peace has to be so damn complicated.