Peace: What Price Peace?

In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, President Obama called upon President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton to help raise funds for the United States humanitarian effort.

One of the avenues they chose was to write a joint op-ed piece in the New York Times encouraging citizens of the United States to contribute to the humanitarian effort. I have no doubt that this appeal by the two former presidents helped to further loosen the purse strings of many Americans who so have contributed millions of dollars to the aid agencies and charities who are on the ground in Haiti bringing relief to those who need it.

But it raised in my mind a question that first occurred to me a few weeks before. I had just listened to a radio public service announcement for a charity that wished to raise $30,000 to eradicate one of our many human scourges (I wish I remembered what it was). I thought, “If the people would willingly contribute $30,000 to wage war against this scourge I wonder if they would contribute that same amount of money to make the fundamental changes in human thought that would make such appeals unnecessary?”

The fact that the question has never been raised says quite a bit about how we view ourselves. Our thought leaders do not believe that this is a central issue so I think it is unlikely that the man on the street would consider it to be important. But this is our only hope. At least, that is what I think.

Peace: Unexpected Lessons to be Learned from Global Disasters

The last year of the first decade of the twenty-first century arrived without much fanfare at my house – I don’t think I watched coverage of the dropping of the ball at Times Square – but it did bring with it news that the unemployment rate in the United States was still over ten percent. I have been mulling over this because the commentators seem to think that the future of this rate could have serious implications for the presidency of President Obama.

I was finalizing my ideas for a blog that would link this situation with the broader concerns for world peace when the radio announcer intruded into my thoughts with news of the devastating earthquake that brought disaster to already impoverished Haiti. This was not the way I had hoped to end the first decade of the twenty-first century, but the more I thought about these three ideas the more I saw a link among them, and the lessons we can learn from our reaction to tragedy.

No one was elated by news of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Port-au-Prince. The immediate reaction was automatic. Everyone who received news of this catastrophe wanted to help. Not everyone could help but everyone wanted to help. More importantly, we were moved because they were humans, not because they were Haitian or in Haiti.

This reaction occurs every time a natural disaster takes place somewhere on the globe. It can teach us a great lesson in our search for peace and tranquility because it illustrates the idea that humanity is an organism, not an organization. Our immediate reaction to tragedy is no different from what happens within each of us when something goes wrong in our bodies.

Several years ago I slipped on ice outside my home the day before I left on an overseas trip. The pain that shot through my body told me that I had done some serious damage to my leg. When I returned to the US one week later X-rays revealed a fracture in my left leg near my ankle. The physician prescribed a removable cast. Over the next few weeks the body continued a self-healing process that had commenced the very moment the fracture occurred when I slipped on the ice. I did not realize it at the time but at that moment my leg became the most important part of my body, not just a broken leg.

Instructions went out from by body’s DNA for the immune system to begin the process of healing by growing new bone over the fracture. All the needed channels were in place to efficiently deliver to my fractured leg everything it needed in order to heal. The process continued uninterrupted until sufficient bone had been grown and then as suddenly as it began it stopped. My leg was healed.
None of this may seem relevant until we remind ourselves that the human race is an organism.

After the initial reaction that we experience when we get news of disaster or tragedy our actions do not follow the pattern we see in the way that the body deals with attacks on its health, even though both our actions and the actions of our cells are under the control of DNA. As we have seen in the Haiti experience, many do not follow through on their initial reaction to tragedy, resorting to various degrees of negativity. It is almost as if it is a liability among humans to have the ability to think and contemplate.

Why are humans unable to do what every other organism does so naturally? Ironically, the explanation lies in the very agency that has enabled humans to make such great strides through the centuries. It is here that the challenge of the unemployment rate becomes significant.

How does one reduce the unemployment rate in a country? You may think that the answer lies in creating new jobs. In fact, the answer actually lies in the unemployed finding jobs.

Anyone who have been in the job market knows that in order to gain employment one must be able to convince those hiring that he/she can meet the need s of the organization doing the hiring. Our education system is designed to prepare us to meet the needs of particular organizations. This is why we have to select majors in college.

What this reveals is the fact that humans do not now exist to ensure the survival of the species but the survival of organizations. It is not that they do not desire the survival of the species. The assumption is that the future of the species resides in the future of the organization. The results of this type of education and thinking are obvious and predictable.