(Yes, I am that pretentious.)
The question of the day is this: is peace the absence of conflict, or does conflict arise from the absence of peace?
It was Baruch Spinoza who said that "Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice". And I think I probably agree with him.
The way I see it, peace was the "default setting" for humanity when we came into existence. Initially, there was no conflict. Then someone came up with the idea of the hierarchy, and people were inflamed with the desire to rule over their fellow man.
This was aggravated when we statrted to separate into different territorial claims. Someone though "my territory isn't big enough! give me some of yours!" and person two was like "uh, NO!". And so fighting ensued.
The point is that I don't agree with the assessment that conflict and the desire to dominate is a natural part of the human make-up. As such, I also disagree with both it's possible conclusions: "we will always fight over stuff," or "we need to develop to a higher level of sentience in order to stop fighting".
The default is peace. Peace is a virtue we are all born with, then it becomes eclipsed by the conflict that is already so well-established in the human world now.
Most hippie-drippy-artsy-lifecoach people agree that if you want inner peace, the answer is to let go of the unnecessary. This, in my opinion is bang on.
Don't start fighting with other people over the unnecessary and/or unattainable. Focus on what really matters. Then you will start to return to the peaceful state you started in.
The question of the day is this: is peace the absence of conflict, or does conflict arise from the absence of peace?
It was Baruch Spinoza who said that "Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice". And I think I probably agree with him.
The way I see it, peace was the "default setting" for humanity when we came into existence. Initially, there was no conflict. Then someone came up with the idea of the hierarchy, and people were inflamed with the desire to rule over their fellow man.
This was aggravated when we statrted to separate into different territorial claims. Someone though "my territory isn't big enough! give me some of yours!" and person two was like "uh, NO!". And so fighting ensued.
The point is that I don't agree with the assessment that conflict and the desire to dominate is a natural part of the human make-up. As such, I also disagree with both it's possible conclusions: "we will always fight over stuff," or "we need to develop to a higher level of sentience in order to stop fighting".
The default is peace. Peace is a virtue we are all born with, then it becomes eclipsed by the conflict that is already so well-established in the human world now.
Most hippie-drippy-artsy-lifecoach people agree that if you want inner peace, the answer is to let go of the unnecessary. This, in my opinion is bang on.
Don't start fighting with other people over the unnecessary and/or unattainable. Focus on what really matters. Then you will start to return to the peaceful state you started in.
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