Peace is said to be the absence of war: when we don’t have war, we have peace. Entirely wrong. When we don’t have war, we could still be far from having peace—we could be full of conflict, frustration, aggression, and repressed or overt violence. We just don’t have the organized kind of violence that states produce on command of their governments.
War is a consequence of lack-of-peace, and it’s meant to be a way to overcome it—resolving the conflicts, aggression and violence that beset our world. It’s the wrong way. War is no longer an option. In the past, it may have been, though it was never a good and wise option. In the past societies, whether they were tribes and villages, classical empires, or modern nation-states, had their own resource-base within a given territory. They could wage war to extend their territory and enlarge their resource base. They could also wage war as a kind of collective self-aggrandizement, subjugating other people to show their superior power, superior belief system, or plain superiority.
Today the conditions that made war an option—even if a poor option—have disappeared. We no longer have populations with their own local resource base. We share the resources of the whole planet. We can no longer engage in the self-aggrandizement of proving our superiority, because we don’t have locally limited powers—our resources as well as our skills and activities transcend all local borders. If we try to vanquish another people we vanquish part of ourselves—part of our globally extended resource-and production-base.
There is still another factor. With the organized violence of warfare, we destroy the already weakened balances of nature and inject large, and possibly critical amounts of heat into the atmosphere. We risk an ecological catastrophe that’s not just local, for it cannot be contained. It’s local and global. A bomb doesn’t “only” destroy the enemy: it destroys the very environment on which we, too, depend. We are all part of the crew of spaceship Earth, and damaging any part of that spaceship is damaging our own life. War is a danger for our collective survival.
The new conditions in which we find ourselves call for new thinking. New thinking in regard to war is to recognize that war is not an option—under any circumstances. There are no longer good justifications for war, no more “just wars.” Our patriotism is not proven by waging war. It’s proven by eliminating war. As patriots of planet Earth, it’s our moral duty to refrain from attacking others, because, when attacking others, we are attacking ourselves. By destroying the environment of others, we are destroying our environment. By killing others, we are killing ourselves. We cannot have “contained” warfare. We live in a global village where everything we do affects everything and everybody.
Eliminating war is not enough if we are then left with the condition of warless no-peace: the condition of conflict, aggression, and overt or hidden violence. We need to go deeper: down to the roots of war. War is the wrong way to try to resolve the condition of no-peace. What’s a better way? The better way is to recognize our changed condition on the planet and act accordingly. Pursuing our own interests as if they were separate from the interests of others is a mistake. Acting on the basis of our personal ego is a mistake. Acting on the basis of our national or cultural ego is the same mistake. They all separate us from others and make us play “zero-sum games”: games where my win is your loss, and if you win, I lose. Because “you” are not me—you are separate from me and you and I have contrary interests. A tragic mistake. If we must have an ego, it can only be the ego of all life on the planet. The Gaia-ego. Then we won’t compete against each other, but if we need to compete, we will compete to live better with each other and with nature.
In today’s world there are no longer self-contained groups and communities with local resources and autonomy. All people and communities have become part of each other. We have become a global family whether we know it or not. But if we don’t know it we won’t live up to its implications and requirements, and thus do we endanger ourselves and everyone else. We must become conscious of who we really are.
What are the new lessons of our global condition? They are the same as the old lessons, but in the global context. Look around you, and recognize what you are. Know that you are a part of the human family, and the human family is part of the web of life on Earth. Destroy any part of that family and that web, and you destroy and diminish your life. War is not an option, but lack-of peace in the absence of war is not an option either. We need real peace, which means peace within ourselves, within our family and community, within our nation and culture—within the whole human family.
Is this too much to ask—too big a challenge to meet? That would be too bad. Because then we wouldn’t have a reasonable chance of surviving on this planet. I am more optimistic than that: we could wake up. We could outlaw war, declare that it’s illegal and unconstitutional under any and all circumstances, for all states and peoples without exceptions. We could abolish the cancerously grown military machines with their cancerously grown budgets, and place their considerable skills, resources, and discipline at the service of peace. At the service of peace among people who share their ego-identity with all life on Earth.
We can do all this if we want to. And we will want to if, but perhaps only if, we recognize that it’s truly necessary. Believe me, it is. It’s necessary if we want to survive. Today, it’s either real peace or no future. The choice is that stark—and that simple.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
War is also the ultimate failure of politics, politicians, opinion formers, decision makers, — in short, the class which the deferential masses in the Victorian Age used to call “our betters”.
From this follows that societal justice demands a function able to identify the causes of colossal failures that lead to war.
Dear Dr. Laszlo:
I have read your writings for many years, I have published some of your magnificent texts in my humble blog, spiritually and politically, and it has been a very pleasant surprise to know your wonderful blog, I will continue from now, your wise words are more needed than ever in this time of global systemic crisis,
congratulations on your blog,
received fraternal greetings,
Christopher Cervantes
http://espiritualidadypolitica.blogspot.com/
Dear Dr. Laszlo,
I am completely with you on this subject. The main issue to over-come is the age old problem of war = money!
Corporations make immense amounts of money from munitions alone, let alone the gains made from rebuilding contracts! The global situations of today could be removed immediately once we embrace a new system, free from the monetary system that seams to be at the root of all of the worlds problems. For what? The gain of possessions, resources, fine food, ownership of land, the finer things of life! I think not, for things separate us from each other. They reinforce the illusion of separation, by feeding the ego with a false sense of power. Pleasure gained from such things is short term, and delusional. Things need to be guarded, protected from others, private property KEEP OUT!
True happiness is found in peace, for there we find connection, and a true expansion of being. In peace we can release control, and embrace the powers that are accessible for every being, unleashing our creativity, and becoming one with the earth and each other!
The more people have the more they want, and will fight to gain more and hang onto it! complex indeed, but stimulating to seek the answers towards thinking a new way to be in the world!
Ultimately its about power and what we give value too. Perhaps if we put power into holism, unity, harmony and peace; and learnt to place value on attaining and maintaining such states of being, we would find a potential solution.
Thank you for stimulating such thoughts with such a great blog!
Paul
Dear Dr. Laszlo,
This is really a beautiful site…how wonderful to include the photos. And thanks for your invitation. I give thanks every day for the internet and the opportunities which it affords us. Back in the sixties I was reading everything I could get my hands on by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin…he talked so much about the ‘noosphere’…and how our thoughts create that…for better or worse…I see the internet as a very big part of the noosphere…making a major stash every moment into the Grand Akashic.
I have begun to play with some blogs of my own…thinking that perhaps I can store there in cyberspace some of my own writings (tucked away here and there over the years as I always had to ‘get on to the next thing’…the day job you know) so they won’t just disappear into the landfill when I decide to shuffle off ‘this mortal coil.’ Here below is a poem which I wrote a long time ago (1983 I think) … the last lines of which are haunting me lately, so I try to spend some time each day with my ‘archive.’ So, Dear Dr. Laszlo…continue to let your words ‘fall full golden…’
Also, I want to tell you that my husband has been hard at work, meditating and reading from so many books I can hardly find him sometimes amid the stacks, hard at work on a new book about the Akash. I believe that his conversation with you re-enforced that whole endeavor.
I will begin now to spend time with your endeavor here…and perhaps I can add something to the ongoing conversation. Again, thank you for letting me know about your site…I will also connect it up to my facebook page…and twitter…oh yes…I am learning, slowly, how to use the techie stuff!
The poem:
TO A YOUNG POET
For dragon’s teeth upon the altar
You are received
Into the great hall
Where the words of poets echo
And whisper from chamber to chamber,
Hang from the horn of a stag,
Ripple in the red pouring of wine…
They lie liquid upon the stone,
Gleam in the glance of a sword,
Hide in the curve of a gown,
And dance out into the green
Green dalliance of spring,
Stirring wild in the woods.
Let your words fall full golden
Into the body of the world,
Then tread Truthfully in the furrowed field
Until the song of the ruby in the marrow
Shall call even the stones from slumber.
–Barbara Smith Stoff
http://www.thesoulwillout.blogspot.com
Barbara, thank you for a wonderful comment.
I too am very fond of Teilhard, and the Internet is indeed giving rise to his noosphere, and the noosphere is definitely in the continuum of Akasha. I call the noosphere the Global Self, produced by the Geocortex just as our neocortex gives rise to us as selves. The Global Self is barely conscious at this point, and a mortal danger to itself, but inevitably it will awaken to the reality within which it is embedded, which it is creating, and it will then realize its life is in danger, and that it must quickly change if it is to survive.
Your poem is deeply moving. If anyone can manifest it, I believe it is Ervin Laszlo, and now is the time. Your voice is much more than welcome to the song…
-Carl Carpenter
Carl…Thank you for your profound response…words to be pondered long. And thanks too for appreciating the poem….and to Ervin and all who may read and participate here:
I wake this morning and go back to re-reading about the question of war or life, and I think…yes, here we are at the edge. I remember a tv program back around 1981 about nuclear war. Families and friends were urged to gather around their tv sets to watch this program together so that absorption of the message and discussion could be optimized. After the program, depicting incredible destruction of society as we know it, there was a panel–I remember McNamara, and Sagan were there…the discussion seemed to find no solution for bettering the prognosis. I remember thinking then that without a mindshift…a la “the hundredth monkey phenomenon” (Lyle Watson in LIFETIDE) there is no hope…simply dismantling weapons will not suffice. So here we are oh so many years later and the works of such as Montagu, Erikson, Fromm seem to be forgotton. And here we are at the edge…that ‘decision window’…Jonas Salk said to me once that when even one person decides for forgiveness over revenge, for cooperation over competition…and so on…the WHOLE RACE moves forward by that much.
It’s that existential personal decision window of which Tillich and Niebuhr spoke that can come into play…a few more hundredth monkeys to reach the point of ‘critical mass’ I suppose.
I wrote my heart out about that back when Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” was required reading in high schools and colleges…wanting so much to offer something to dissipate that dark cloud. And now, just a few months ago, I happened to be standing at the counter of a small bookstore, which reaches out to schools and teachers. There on that counter were flyers urging the study of that book. Some teachers are still making it required reading. I stood there just feeling a bit sick. I remember reading about baby condors, when rescued by nature conservancy, and are being reared in captivity before being released back into the wild…their cages are placed before tv sets showing condors flying … flying…so that these caged birds will have that pattern in their brains and learn to fly upon release. A lesson there!
And so I continue to ponder those such as Sheldrake…I look at the long time and currently ongoing work of David Chamberlain … http://www.birthpsychology.com …. and I have hope that more schools will turn toward the flying condor model. ….Fromm’s “The Forgotten Language”…Erikson’s “Childhood and Society” were especially important for me…I could go on and on…but I have been a studier for a long time now…getting on in years as they say…but I still hold out my sou with hope.
Barbara, what perspective you have, a deep wisdom tempered by the realization that we have not much progressed, despite the fountains of wisdom that have gone before. We have fallen yet further and stand now ever more perilously close to the edge. I just read today a new UN report claiming Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, the tipping points seem to multiply and increase in gravity… Ervin has been pointing out for some time now that we’re in a global emergency. The argument was perhaps a little easier to make prior to AGW’s recent fall from grace, but it’s still blatantly obvious to all with an eye to see. We’re going to be posting a series on global emergency very soon. I hope you’ll join in the dialogue. Thank you again for sharing, -Carl
Inspiration, by definition, reveals itself within us, but originates from without. We seek the source in the yearnings of our hearts, reaching out to..what? To life, or to death? Timeless creations of profoundly beautiful art can only be inspired by the source of life, and are expressions of our joy, our love and our hopes. We, who do not possess the attributes necessary to create these inspiring masterpieces, are nevertheless swept away in them, and given a brief glimpse of the majesty of their origin. Beneath this realm lies the vicious and profane mind of death, ever seeking to reveal itself in the perversity of war. From this degenerate source, the hatreds and the weapons of genocide are made manifest. Seek your source while you can, for both inspirations are at their crescendo.