Why do we resist peace?
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Video Text: Peace as a slogan is easy to embrace. Everyone is for
peace. It means nothing. It's an empty slogan. But if you really
analyze, philosophically, or in any critically reflective way, peace is
difficult. For example, as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi and
others have told us, there is no peace without justice. So, if peace
actually involves the way we really live in this world, it means that we
have to change our values. We have to resist all those forces that are
responsible for injustice, exploitation, war, oppression, sexism,
racism, and destruction of the environment. So, if we're real
peace-makers, it's an activist position. It's not just
inner-peace--that's part of it--but it means how do I relate to other
human beings? How do I relate to family, community--how do I relate to
Iraqis? How do I relate to people throughout the world? How do I relate
to nature, how do I relate to other animal life? This is difficult. Am I
complicit with violence, with injustice, either because I profit from it
or because I don't resist it? I simply allow the status quo to be
perpetuated.
So, to be a real peace-maker means a tremendous commitment in terms of
values, in terms of priorities, and I understand why people often don't
want to take on that responsibility. But to me, if you do not commit
yourself to peace in a full sense, then you really destroy much of your
humanity, much of your human potential, to develop fully and to live a
meaningful life.
