What Peace Isn't (Part II)

▼The 8 Pillars of Pragmatic Peace▼

 Excerpted from the unfinished manuscript of my project: 
“dignitatis humanae”...chapter:

Searching For Peace In Broken Glass

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Peace is not a wordy wish that dwells amidst the façade of politically, socially, personally, or religiously choreographed harmony. Apprehension of the human condition is paramount.

Underlying and overlying Peace, is an attitude of sustained accountability tapped from beneath the deepest aquifers of spiritual and sound moral bases assiduously watered by vigilant practitioners of Peace—be they at the United Nations, at sea, in the corps, on some desert, on the streets, or in the slums.

Peace comes from the dignified conviction that good can and must, for the
betterment of  the human condition, always overcome evil—costly duplicity and human error included.

Peace is its own antithesis and a misnomer in that like the natural wonder of waterfalls and yet unlike meditation, its efficacy depends on ceaseless positive action rather than passivity. And realization of that perception, if accurate, is a minor victory over indifference and injustice anywhere, for happiness albeit interlinked with peace, is not relative.

Happiness is peace correctly understood. And the powerfully pragmatic and survivalist character such understanding instills is Nature’s best: heightened dignity and unwavering hope.

Never entrust Peace and its furtherance to the lazy, the anti-intellect; certainly not the incompassionate for in the words of Susan Jacoby, "Rampant ignorance and a positive contempt for evidence exists” today, even in our wired world.

If compassion is truly the best idea humanity has ever had, then entrust Peace to those who have apprehended the essence of that thing we call  the human condition. Those willing to do more than merely signing The Charter for Compassion, merely donating, merely adopting (infants and children abroad), or merely showing up at church services or charity events to feel good.

Peace needs enthusiastic partners and foot soldiers seeking to cherish the Globe. Not the aloof peace offerings of inexperienced, pretentious, or privileged theorists, well-meaning, albeit self-centered. Peace therefore, is not a word of convenience evoked for selfish ends, but the embodiment and substance of proof.

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PEACE

TT