Peace begins with a commitment to resolve problems rather that trying to solve differences through killing. The Vocabulary of Peace are words and concepts that people use to bring people together and unite people and to humanize people as individuals. It is a vocabulary that gives respect to individuals and recognizes the intrinsic value of the individual. The Vocabulary of Peace forms the basis of a culture of peace.
The Vocabulary of Peace is a use of words and phrases that describe humanity as a single community that everyone in the world is a member of. It recognizes that we have subcultures of people with different and often conflicting ideas and values that lead to tensions between groups, but that these differences can be resolved by setting an example of mutual respect and putting out the effort to understand the other side enough to find a way to get along. The Vocabulary of Peace is the vocabulary that asks what we have in common and how we can build on that. It is a language that describes others as people who are like us and speaks of our commonality as fellow members of our planet.
The Vocabulary of Peace undermines the Vocabulary of War in that it describes the world as a community of people and everyone is an "us" rather than a "them". The Vocabulary of Peace sees problems as solvable and seeks solutions that are "win/win" rather than "win/lose" or "lose/lose". We use language that shows Respect for them as people and we recognize their Intrinsic Value as members of the human community. Our philosophy is that when we use the Vocabulary of Peace and treat people with respect that it causes then to speak the Vocabulary of Peace and respect us. This creates an environment where social evolution takes place and groups with conflicting values learn to get along and resolve their differences in a healthy and productive manner. In contrast, the Vocabulary of War leads to violence and killing and no matter who wins, it leaves behind a hatred and a need for vengeance that creates a new Vocabulary of War creating the environment for more killing.
Wars often last for thousands of years. Even if the conflicts are shorter the unresolved issues keep causing the same people to fight over and over and it continues until the underlying issue is resolved. When one is choosing between war and peace one has to realize that wars are never really won and that eventually you have to get to peace in order to achieve victory. So the real question becomes how many people need to be killed for how many centuries until people do the hard work and figure out how to end it and live together.
Jews, Muslims, and Christians have been at war for thousands of years killing each other over religious hatred over and over and over again. However not all Jews, Muslims, and Christians kill each other. In some cultures like San Francisco where the culture speaks the Vocabulary of Peace you will find a community of mutual respect where Jews and Palestinians join together to protest the war in Iraq. In the Middle East however these religions speak the Vocabulary of War where they not only slaughter each other, but Muslims slaughter Muslims and Jews slaughter Jews.
The Church of Reality envisions a future of world peace and that in order to achieve world peace we need to break the cycle of war. Reality is best explored in a peaceful environment rather than an environment of war. It is therefore one of our challenges to solve the problem of war and come up with a plan to put an end to centuries of slaughter. Why should we wait thousands of years more when we can solve the problem in this generation? |
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