Peace

People like to talk about peace. People like to drink to peace. Some people like to pray for peace. And some people even work for peace. But what is peace? Is peace the same for everybody? Are all these people talking about the same peace?

To some, peace means the absence of war. To some, peace means the absence of conflict of any kind. To some, peace means that everyons is happy cooperating and living joyfully. But is peace really possible? Are any of these definitions of peace achievable?

It seems that as long as man has been on earth there has not been peace. Oh, of course here have been periods of peace. And there have been places where peace has always reigned. But these are rare. And it seems there has always been some kind of conflict going on somewhere. It seems that the times we thought were so peaceful only seemed so because we were unaware of what was going on in most of the world. But now with TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and the Internet we are almost instantly aware of what is going on everywhere, so we can see that peace is not reigning supreme everywhere. And even in the places where it seems that we have peace, it is only one kind of peace; it is the absence of war. But true peace on an interpersonal level is not what is going on.

Everywhere, even in the places where there is no all out warfare going on, there is conflict. There is no peace. Even in the lands of plenty, there is no peace. Those who have, want more. Those who have not, want some. Those in power oppress the others. There is no peace. There is very little justice anywhere. And if you truly want peace you must have justice. But we live in an unjust world. Some go to bed overfed and many, many more go to bed hungry. This is not just. This does not lead to peace. But those who have plenty want more, not less. They don't want to give up what they have. They don't want to share more than the smallest crumbs. Can this lead to peace? No. It cannot. So if we want peace we must work for justice. We must redistribute the wealth. We can have no peace as long as 80% of the world's wealth is held by 10% of the population. But this will never happen. Those who have much are not even at peace with themselves.

Every day people do so much violence to thenmselves that there can nev er be peace in the world. People are at war with themselves so they will not work for peace in the world.

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