Many governments had profited by and strengthened their hold
on power through the creation of fear.
Fear is the foundation of violence and it appears an
eccentric behavioural contradiction to claim your intent is peace, but which you
seek through fear, laying the footings for violence.
Peace is not simply the absence of war or violence rather,
it is a concept foreign to humanity and so something we have to yet invent.
 |
| Wim Wenders and Mary Zournazi's have written about "Inventing Peace". |
War and violence have a strange pathos and it appears unable
to meet or sate the human need for such anguish and bleakness, but from which
spills a perverted heroism, bravery and honour, all of which are misunderstood
and misplaced.
Early this century the U.S. Government initiated a “war on
terror” and along with killing many people and causing untold damage, it did
little except militarize and psychologically wound its own people and alienate
millions in countries around the world.
Violence simply begets more violence and now Australia, in
the thrall of a similar rhetoric and ideology that led the U.S. to its “war”,
is reacting similarly with the “Team Australia” chant and a confected fear of terrorism.
Obviously there is a core of people who have earned the
epithet of “terrorist”, but many who assemble behind them are little more than
ordinary disaffected and disillusioned people who feel excluded from their
society.
Governments, whatever their persuasion, must create an
inclusive environment in which social equality is the rock upon which individuals
and communities specifically and society generally rests.
With an increasing number of young Australians finding it difficult,
if not impossible to secure a foothold in our complex modern society, we are
creating fertile grounds for oranizations to recruit youths to stand with them as
they prosecute their “blood on the streets” causes.
Rather than spending millions of dollars combatting
perceived terrorism, we should be looking at from whence it comes – largely people
who are disillusioned by and excluded from our society.
Peace does not produce heroes in the traditional
war-embodied sense, rather it produces heroes who are quiet, unassuming, and
respectful and who know clearly, that violence begets violence and that we
don’t need entrepreneurs who thrive and benefit from confrontation, but what we
do need are people who understand and profit from peace.
Instead of spending to protect our borders we should be
working at understanding how we welcome, embrace and make these people a part
of our society; instead of spending to frustrate home-grown terrorists, we
should be building an inclusive and collaborative society of which they are an
integral part; instead of spending billions on our military forces, we should
be using that cash to both understand and invent a world first – peace!
