Why peace?
After having finished my operative work at InterFace AG late in 2014, I wanted to give my remaining time, my talents and my network to causes that I find truly desirable. For PEACE. Because ever since my childhood, PEACE has been the most important issue for me.
There is a lot I have learned since then.
It now slowly dawns on me how hard it is to realize PEACE. Not because PEACE as such is impossible. Instead, it is because we, our socialization and our social systems are basically non-peaceful. And because you cannot gain PEACE by through non-peaceful lives, concepts, tools methods….
Why is PEACE so important for me?
PEACE is the central and highest value. This is something I have believed ever since I was quite young. Living in PEACE is the most important and necessary requirement for individual and collective happiness. Consequently, I started the “Project PEACE”. I will report on it regularly in this blog.
I am surprised how much I learned during just a few months into this project and how my judgement of the procedure changed. After all, what I originally wanted was to build a strong organization that has a strong voice and, for instance, realizes visible events for PEACE.
What was the plan?
I used to believe that, basically, you had to do everything you also learned as an entrepreneur, as it is probably also the latest state of the art:
You create a logo, write good and short pitches, come up with a manifesto (I was going to take the “agile manifesto“ as my model), design a statute, write a business plan, create a system of values, generate constructive rules of cooperation and formulate a precise mission. Then you look for a few like-minded persons, initiate a project and work on it together.
Based on this idea, I was going to find a lot of people who support the project PEACE. And there were lots of ideas what the organization for PEACE thus developed could do. For instance, there was the idea to also recruit artists, all sorts of multipliers and many persons of good intentions as “comrades in arms” (along with their creativity and strength) for the project.
And there was, for example, also the idea of making a superb film about PEACE. And/or to draft “social media projects”, for instance in snapchat, with friends. The idea looked so simple. Let us wake up and involve people through many great activities. And let us make use of all their ideas and creativity. In order to make the world understand that you need not justify why you are absolutely in favour of the idea of PEACE.
In order to finance these activities, there was the idea of founding a supporting enterprise the main purpose of which it would have been to raise money for the PEACE project activities. Most non-profit agencies use these kinds of “money suppliers” that provide them with cash – with quite a substantial bonus for the suppliers. Mostly, they raise money using classical methods, such as begging letters, personal addresses, TV advertisements, etc. Naturally, following the trend of modern times, it had been my intention to use the internet, because I was sure this was the most efficient and economical way to do it.
Thus, I thought we were going to build up a snow-ball system, illuminating many small PEACE fires that eventually would merge and become an all-encompassing PEACE fire.
Why is that the wrong approach?
After many discussions with friends, in particular with Jolly, Carmen and Gudrun – and after intense phases of contemplation – I understood that this is not really how it can be done. Because non-peacefulness is deeply rooted in the system we live in. A system that socialized us and pushed our concepts in non-peaceful directions. And I understand better and better – incidentally, this is quite logical – how (almost) all the dimensions of our social life are counter-productive for a peaceful (co)existence. Our everyday life is not peaceful, enmity is rooted deeply within us, just as all our stories, sagas, and fairy tales are not peaceful.
So if we want PEACE, the only thing we can do is start with a good example and change ourselves. Perhaps we will be more of a success if we cooperate than as individuals. Perhaps there are more persons out there whom we might “infect” with this need of ours. And if there are enough of us willing and capable of living in PEACE, then we might perhaps develop the strength of the swarm that the system has to follow.
Through the classical means of actually existing systems, however, we will not manage PEACE. Just as the old proverb says: “you cannot replace one evil with another”.
You could say that, from early childhood, we have been coded to want NON-PEACE, and it still continues. The (success) patterns we generally live and use are exactly what causes and promotes partisanship and enemy concepts. It is easy for fear, envy and hatred, and eventually war, to develop in this atmosphere. However, we cannot generate peace with war-like behaviour.
ust like I believe you cannot force tolerance through intolerance.
Consequently, PEACE cannot be a project, because the very term “project” is based on a mental concept that is not at all peaceful – let me remind you of terms such as plan, goal, deadline, resources and budget. PEACE is a very special commodity. It cannot be gained with the traditional western-European/American way of thinking.
I want to live!
And I personally do not want to continue with the classical patterns that formed and controlled me almost all my life, either. I no longer want to fight for something. Also, I no longer feel like convincing people to do something, making plans, building up structures, initiating tools, controlling organizations, suffering under the resulting systemic bureaucracy, subjugating honesty in words and activities under political goals, justifying any means because they serve a good purpose, having endless meetings, writing endless minutes and discussing what is actually meant.
I no longer want to “manage things“!
No, I am fed up with fighting for consensus and dubious compromises in groups until all my strength is used up and trying to get different personalities to come to terms with each other again and again. Also, I do not wish to sacrifice myself for PEACE, among other things because I consider martyrdom non-peaceful and a totally wrong concept.
The approach I used to believe in – even if it was extremely well-meant – will not bing us a single step closer to PEACE. Simply because we live in the wrong system and cannot achieve the right things by using the wrong methods of this system. Just like real life cannot exist in wrongness.
Consequently, I now believe we can only get PEACE if it is given space to develop by itself. And in order to achieve this, I have to start with myself. If I am perceptive, I keep discovering how non-peaceful I still am. All the time. That is something I wish to change.
However, the idea of PEACE has not died inside me. On the contrary. I also wish to keep promoting and supporting individual projects. For instance, I would really like to do a “superb film” on PEACE.
Maybe it will help?
Here is how I think today:
We have to find a way for PEACE to develop quasi by itself in our world. To be sure, such a thing might seem rather utopian at the moment, yet I want to seek it and build a beautiful utopia.
Perhaps humans together will find the path towards PEACE through beautiful utopias. But, just as with all innovative things, we have to liberate ourselves from the jail of our way of thinking in which – so it seems to me – we have been held prisoner for thousands of years.
Innovation is always also creative destruction. Consequently, the path towards PEACE will mean that we have to give up much and that we will lose much that has grown inside us and that we consider loved, precious and indispensable. On the way, we will have to break many patterns that seem to be part of our being! And that can really hurt. Yet it will probably be worth it. As far as I am concerned, I absolutely want to try it.
Conclusion:
To me, the following things seem utterly true:
We will not make any progress with thinking in the classical way. We want something new and therefore must find new ways. Thus, I will not give up, but instead will continue looking for a path towards PEACE.
What we need is a path towards PEACE that gives us pleasure and that we actually want to use ourselves.
These ideas gave birth to a new idea. Maybe the following metaphor can help when looking for the new way:
Let us become healthy, strong and peaceful birds that live in PEACE as part of a swarm. And let us become strong enough to move the world towards PEACE.
I am sure that we will find lots of friends. Perhaps this is the basis or the point of origin for a new utopia PEACE – and thus part of the solution to the riddle that lies ahead.
Jolly says:
You cannot fight for PEACE – you have to live in peace.
Living in PEACE – that is what we really need to practice, otherwise we cannot succeed. Consequently, in the future, I will not speak about a Project PEACE, but about living in PEACE. And I will continue with my attempts at finding other persons who, like me, are looking for PEACE.
Many thanks to the readers of this extremely important article!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
Loading ...