In an open and highly vulnerable world, we need to address issues of violence, war and peace, human rights and social justice. Today is the best time to somehow step back for a look at what we as individuals and as collective nations need to do to get on the right path.
It has long been accepted a fact that there can be no meaningful peace without justice on a global scale. Those who are somehow doing well in life cannot pretend to be working for peace unless they also are working for a more just and equitable distribution of the world's resources. The anti-war or better yet called peace movement, therefore, must also be a movement focused on the inequalities in a somewhat-predatory corporate capitalist system. In a world where more than half the population is poor, it's clear that the global economy is itself a form of war. One may blurt out that we live in a profoundly unjust world, that armed conflict is inevitable because there always will be resistance to inequality. Powerful states will respond militarily to any threat, real or perceived, to their dominance. Read: No justice, no peace.
People from all walks of life must recognize that there can be no justice over the long term without sustainability, and creating a sustainable world will require not only radical change in systems and structures of power but also a radical change in the way we live. It's time to recognize that if we are serious about the values of equality and justice and peace, we must scale back the level at which we live. Eloquent calls for peace are easy to make. Moving beyond that to a demand for meaningful justice gets us closer to the goal.
It has long been accepted a fact that there can be no meaningful peace without justice on a global scale. Those who are somehow doing well in life cannot pretend to be working for peace unless they also are working for a more just and equitable distribution of the world's resources. The anti-war or better yet called peace movement, therefore, must also be a movement focused on the inequalities in a somewhat-predatory corporate capitalist system. In a world where more than half the population is poor, it's clear that the global economy is itself a form of war. One may blurt out that we live in a profoundly unjust world, that armed conflict is inevitable because there always will be resistance to inequality. Powerful states will respond militarily to any threat, real or perceived, to their dominance. Read: No justice, no peace.
People from all walks of life must recognize that there can be no justice over the long term without sustainability, and creating a sustainable world will require not only radical change in systems and structures of power but also a radical change in the way we live. It's time to recognize that if we are serious about the values of equality and justice and peace, we must scale back the level at which we live. Eloquent calls for peace are easy to make. Moving beyond that to a demand for meaningful justice gets us closer to the goal.
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