Illusions of Global Peace

The world seems to have learnt to live with certain constants: the customary expressions of collective insecurity under the garb of wariness of American "hegemony", the equally customary "committments" to the exploration of "alternate" world orders by the wary (and varying) "friends" of the said hegemon, the cyclic waves of good-will and animosity between mutually distrustful neighbours, and the periodic (and one could almost say methodical) condemnations of "zionist conspiracies" to destabilize what one is expected to imagine to be an ocean of peace in the middle of an arc of inarable and inhospitable land known as the middle east. That in a world of shifting realities there are atleast such small mercies that can reliably be looked forward to is indeed remarkable; however, that the said small mercies show up to be protracting disputes in human relations is rather disheartening. Add to this the increasingly internecine doses of identity-based violence, inurement to which has become an unsurprising facet of daily life, and one is tempted to ask of oneself the question, "Is this the end of the road for the global peace honeymoon?". But, then, perhaps the more pertinent question to ask is, "Does it even exist?"

There are those who would have us believe that the last century, indeed the last decade, has been a period of exponential growth in the scale of such conflict, acceptance of the same as an economically saleable commodity and indifference to the nature of human suffering such conflict must inevitably involve. There are those who attribute such "metamorphism" of the human psyche to increasing materialistic thought, declining religious faith and "moral decadence". And then there are those who warn that an unchecked spiral of human conflict will eventually lead to comprehensive mutual extermination. Doomsday indeed.

The subtle yet compulsive penetration of socialist intellectualism is now so complete that it is has become a fashion statement to declare oneself as being aligned with the doves of "peace" rather than the perceived demons of practicality. To express support for arguably righteous instances of physical action is to invite the wrath of being labelled a "war-mongerer", not to mention the all-too-liberal use of superlatives such as "extremist" and "fundamentalist". Strident voices of "public opinion" seem increasingly capable of, and willing to, holding initiative subservient to inaction, and righteousness to otiosity. "Make peace", we hear, is the mantra for the "educated". And sometimes governments listen. And flounder.

They flounder in the face of agressive nations, of renegade "leaders", and of militant ideologies. They flounder because their doctrine of compulsive "peace" has left them uneducated in the principles of realism, because their craving for "peace" has transported them to illusory paradise. They flounder because they fail to grasp the machinations of human psychology. And, worst of all, they flounder because they fail to realize ignorance is not always bliss.

New age goebbelsian propaganda would have us believe that conflict is only a manifestation of human greed, that its resolution must lie in a dialogue of “mutual respect”, and that munificence is incumbent on the high and mighty. It would seem to matter no whit to the propagandists that certain essentials of human existence imply the inevitability of conflict, that "mutual respect" can not be imposed and can only be self-earned, and that graceful munificence to the undeserving can only be interpreted as foolish extravagance.

Rightenousness is not a passcode to be uttered in the hushed undertones of ones private life, it is a concept to be lived by and demonstrated. And collective rightenousness does exist, and it is this that makes it incumbent upon soceity to acknowledge its boundaries and ensure defensive enforcement of the same. To fail to understand this is ineptitude, to fail to act on it is negligence.

That the natural development of race, culture and language must lead to identity-based alienation is inevitable, as is the desire to defend the same from unsavory external influences. That war and peace are both natural states of man is fact, for without peace war would be unsustainable, and without war peace would be unattainable.