I was thinking today about peace. I think all of us want it, no one will deny that. If someone didn’t want peace, then they would favor fighting, war, and death over it. To me, this is inhumane. What human in the world wants to see and feel suffering?
But the response to this makes me feel differently. It is grounded in our human conditions that we enjoy the suffering of others. It is not our intention, but it is a devilish thing which we cannot control. Now, I’m sure you are reading this and thinking, “I would never want to see other people suffer.”
I’m sure that’s exactly how the Nazis felt before they got their orders to hurt those below them.
It is something that is put upon us and a dark, human parasite within us takes over. It feels the enjoyment from power. Power corrupts- it corrupts our insides, our human hearts, and our perception of the world.
I realized what we have to accomplish to achieve peace. We have to create a united perception of everything in the world. Let me show you how.
Okay, let’s say that a global peace treaty was sent all around the world and everyone in the world was required to sign it. The treaty’s terms are as follows:
1. I will not fight with others.
2. I will be peaceful.
3. I will spread the message of peace.
But it won’t work. There is no way that this treaty could work- you and I both know that. Because the day after you sign it, your neighbor just won the lottery. With this money, your friend buys just about everything you ever wanted- a new phone, a new computer, and he even builds a new mansion beside your house. Now, you’ve been friends and neighbors for many years. You’ve always been there for him through his tough times. But he doesn’t give you any of the money in return.
Hell, you even suggested that he should start to play the lottery. You’ve played for years, and you never got any money.
Though this a stupid and selfish move on your part, you start to envy him and despise him for not showing you some reimbursion. The seeds are now planted. This plant grows with a thick stem, and you can’t cut it down. The hateful feelings and jealousy grow, and they soon show themselves in conversations and confrontations with your friend. It could just be a debate over who should bring cherry cobbler and who should bring lime jello ring to the neighborhood block party. It could just be a debate on who owns the hedges between your houses.
He has a mansion now, so that doesn’t even matter to you. You know this- you are just picking a fight. He can see that something is wrong with you.
And so, the peace begins to break, and this knowledge of a world without peace is already rupturing at an international level. These two people, you and your friend, are a lot like fighting nations.
Let’s look at it a little differently, though. A new, abstract artist has just moved into your town. He is having a gallery opening and you are invited.
So you go. You enjoy the pieces mildly, and then find yourself at his masterpiece near the end of his exhibit. The hours are winding down, and now the only people left in the gallery are you, another man or woman, and the artist himself.
The artwork is merely a canvas with thick and bold black and white stripes.
You step forward and say: “I don’t get it, it is only a white canvas that you drew black stripes on.”
The person beside you says: “No it is not, it is only a black-painted canvas that you drew white stripes on.”
Then the artist boldy steps forward and says: “It is neither.”
Both of you ask: “Then what is it?”
He smiles proudly, and then says, “It is orange.”
Perception changes everything. The way you look at something or interpret it makes it what is in your mind. It’s the same for anyone else, so if they see something different with their perception, you will both disagree on what is. And when you disagree on what is, you find yourself and the first crack in the theoretical peace around you. There can’t be peace because we all percieve everything differently. The point of the artist’s masterpiece is this principal- it is the age-old zebra stripes question:
Are they white with black stripes or are they black with white stripes?
This artist knew that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the principal of perception. He knew people would look at it different ways, and he specifically looked at it a completely unique way. Not to say he is colorblind, but in his head, he saw orange. Orange because of his knowledge of perception.
Now let’s look at it on a larger and more universal scale.
Let’s use religion as our example. Everyone has different religions and everyone percieves their religions and beliefs different ways. So let us say that religion is an apple. Bear with me, an apple is one of the simplest things I could think of.
So relgion is an apple and it is on a pedestal.
There about seven billion plus people in the world. So now we position all of the people in the world, all seven billion, around that apple. Everyone is looking in on that apple.
But everyone isn’t looking in from the same place. No- they are positioned all around the apple. Some people are on the west side of the apple looking down. Some people are on the east side looking up. Some people are looking directly down at the apple. For the sake of this example, let us get rid of the pedestal altogether, and now the apple is floating in mid-air. Some people are looking directly up at the apple.
So it can be confirmed that everyone has their own unique perceptions on anything. It would be impossible to agree completely on something when you have different beliefs. Now granted, you can live in harmony with someone who has different beliefs, but not everyone has that ability, and eventually those different beliefs will spread you apart.
So we’ve come this far to theoretical thinking. If we could get every one of those seven billion people positioned in the same place, they would all see the apple in the same light and perception. With this united perception, comes complete efficiency, knowledge, agreement, and peace.
Perhaps, when you think a deeper way, we would have a complete understanding of what is actually happening in our universe.
But that’s just how I see the apple.
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