Enlightened humanism is about peace and good will

Careering toward Christmas we encounter, almost every day, adages urging us to behave for the betterment of others or in some other uplifting sense for the good of all.

One adage argues that we seek “peace on earth and good will toward men”.
Such intent is honourable and might have some cumulative impact if said often enough, but it is fleeting and unlikely to have any lasting impact.


Enlightened humanism will
bring peace and good
will, and enhance democracy.

That wish has theistic roots, but in its secular sense does not apply to any “ism” and so being free of any ideological constraints, it is a plea we should take up with enthusiasm.
Sadly, such enthusiasm has been lacking, although some argue we are in the midst of a “long-peace”, a claim supported by unquestionable statistics.
Civilization, the idea that life has an intrinsic value and that existence is enhanced when we bond with and support each other as opposed to exploitation, is edging forward to become deeper, broader and stronger.
The de-civilizing events of life are becoming rarer, although the 24-hour news cycle that encircles the globe would have us believe otherwise.
Not many decades ago a quarrel in some remote place that cost 100 lives went unnoticed, but today it is in our newspapers and frequently leads television news, not to mention references on many internet websites.
Although the barrage of deathly news sometimes seems overwhelming, in an historical and statistical sense it is measurably significantly less than what humans once endured.
The peace that you and I now take for granted, was once absent from the daily lives of all and the idea of “peace and good will” was an urgent need that challenged the norm in which most anyone, anytime, could be assaulted, robbed, murdered, declared a witch or had their personality assassinated by the application and implications of some perverse superstition.
Christmas is the high point of a superstition we can live without, but within it are the seeds of “peace on earth and good will toward men”, but whether or not we have the skill to divorce myth from reality is, considering humanity’s history, a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
However, we should not be disheartened for happily saddled with enlightened humanism there are many who value peace and the profit it brings to all people ahead of the pointless costs of conflict.
The arrival of circumstances and conditions about which we know little, such as burgeoning populations, energy scarcity, a dysfunctional economy and changes to our climate, will test adherence to principles allowing continuation of the present “long-peace” or, the collapse of morals prompting an incomprehensible collision of humans.
In the name of “peace on earth and good will toward men”, I long for the former.