Creating peace (part 1)

Creating peace (part 1)

To date, so many people have made strenuous efforts wishing for a peaceful world; yet the world of truly everlasting peace hasn’t be realized.

Why is that?

In my opinion, this is because a surprisingly simple thing has been left unnoticed due to some serious oversights.

Let me explain it in plain terms.

Suppose you are at Nagoya Station, on the bullet train platform now. You are waiting for a train to go to Kyoto. The train comes and you get on the first car.

After the train starts moving, you notice you have jumped on a train bound for Tokyo, in the opposite direction, by mistake.

Do you powerwalk toward the last car of the train to head in the right direction, toward Kyoto?

This does not allow you to approach Kyoto at all. Rather, it makes you advance rapidly toward Tokyo, despite all your efforts.

Likewise, no matter how hard we oppose war, we cannot realize a world of truly everlasting peace if we leave a breeding ground for war.

In order to achieve a world of truly everlasting peace, we need to eradicate the breeding ground for war itself and create a breeding ground for peace.

Calls for opposition to war may have the symptomatic effect of temporarily stopping movements toward war, and are necessary in that sense, of course.

Forces for war, however, turn out to view opposing movements as a threat, which unfortunately creates more powerful reactionary movements. Don’t you think conflicts between the two sides would escalate readily in this manner?

Even if you desire peace from your heart and eagerly express opposition to war while ignoring its breeding ground, that alone will not contribute to the ultimate impoverishment of the breeding ground itself because it partly contains an opposing element.

Herein, the breeding ground for war refers to the state of society based on a sense of separation. The breeding ground for peace refers to the state of society based on a sense of inseparability.

We should still promote campaigns against war as a symptomatic treatment to stop (even if only slightly) the present movements toward war. In addition, in order to realize a world of truly everlasting peace by eradicating the breeding ground for war and creating a breeding ground for peace, we should also strongly and seriously promote non-opposing peace movements by treating the issue fundamentally.

It should be noted that if the non-opposing peace movements are merely self-satisfying, by simply praying for peace for example, it fails to help in eliminating the breeding ground for war and creating a breeding ground for peace.

Fortunately, the key to creating a truly everlasting peaceful world is right in your hands.

It would be much appreciated if you could thoroughly read my book Beyond National Egoism for details.