Embracing Peace to Further Advance

HISTORY

Homo sapiens have been conducting war for thousands of years. But for the majority of that time, approx. 360,000 of its 370,000 years, it was all about territorial conflicts, food for survival, and disputes over women. As the strengths of Homo Sapiens grew and competition with other species vanished away, competition with other tribes grew. The strength to win against the much stronger Lions, Hyena, Gorillas, and Wildebeest showed us we could win literally against all animals. With the advancement of weapons, we use them not only to hunt but also to steal, kill, and create an advantage over others. Even though this is not exactly an intelligent way to progress, we are still in the infant stage of our intellectual and social development. Possessing something was more important than advancing our capabilities. Unfortunately, this belief has not changed, mainly because there is no debate about whether one or the other is more important.

Focus on wealth blocks advancement

I didn’t think of this conflict either. Only through seeking answers to the question: What is the value of peace, other than the obvious? It dawned on me that progress was always our biggest asset and our most fascinating capability. Moreover, progress has even accelerated over time. Needless to say, today we know better than we did just a century ago. Yet, we still have not learned to leverage one of the top cognitive abilities: collaboration. Even though collaboration was one ability that helped survive, it’s not really understood how important that ability is. Our primal brain, basal ganglia, is the oldest and deepest part of our brain. It’s responsible for our most basic survival functions, including aggression, dominance, territoriality, and instinctual behaviors. If there is any danger or perceived danger, it kicks in. This is how I came to the conclusion “War is the surrender of the intellect”.

Still today, people choose monetary value over progress. When we look at what advanced us the most, we see collaboration, creativity, curiosity, and other cognitive abilities.

Embracing Peace to Further Advance.

Without this surrender, we continue to innovate. Innovation unfolds the best in times of peace, as we have learned in the past 250 years. One day in the future, we know that our innovative ability is the only way to help biological life sustain the lifespan of our planet. Homo Sapiens, or the next branch of it, is nature’s best bet to transform the relatively dead Universe into a lively place. And since peace is a prerequisite for advancement, advancement is the reason for embracing peace.

Embracing Peace to Further Advance

Note from the Author: The book ART OF PEACE took me forty years to get to the current stage. By far, the biggest challenge was to find a reason for peace other than “having no war” or “not losing lives.” Today, I invite you to comment and share your thoughts. Help make this also a book of and for peace-embracing people. We need to grow up together and reach the state of an adult species – leaving the puberty of humanity behind us. Our childhood of about 270,000 years was a very cool and nature-embedded time. The past 12,000 years were times of awareness of our powers and differences. Now it’s time to realize who we are and what we can achieve. The next couple hundred thousand years will be marked by advancements that we cannot imagine today. And those who don’t care beyond the time of their own lives and maybe their children and grandchildren are no less important in the process of embracing peace for the generations to come. 🙂

COLLABORATION

If you have any suggestions for this book, its content, its tonality, or its way of looking at peace, please raise your voice. Please be so kind as to do not to accuse any nation or any person. This would not help embrace peace, and you most likely don’t know why people do and do what they do. We are not here to judge others for actions we never understand in their full context. And if one does not care because it doesn’t fit in that person’s “culture,” they are equal aggressors to those who embrace war as a way to solve a conflict. We look into a future of embracing peace and the need to leave things behind – however hard it may have been.

Having a reason is only the beginning – but a significant step forward .

Embracing Peace to Further Advance