give peace a chance

In legend, the civilisation known as the Lemurians are said to have detested violence. They couldn’t face it. And they died out because they denied it. They became extinct because they weren’t dynamically non-violent. But the idea of non-violence didn’t die with them. It survived. And it is gaining prominence today if only because it is so badly needed in a world that is moving towards post holocaust, post atomic bomb, post factory farm and post animal experimentation. It suggests that we should give peace a chance.
Are we ready for it? Isn’t the world too violent for such ideals to survive, let alone grow strong? Maybe we should go the other way? We’ll never get our point across unless we hit people hard with it? It’s rather like a constant tussle between two personalities within us. The hard versus the soft. We know we have to survive in this harsh world, we have to make money somehow, we have to go shopping and buy things for our daily existence, we have to be a bit rough with the kids or they’ll take advantage of our kindness. The ideal gives way to pragmatism. We start to consider flirting with a little violence. A little corporal punishment might keep the kids from running riot. A few harsh words to our next door neighbour might quieten their noisy music! If others don’t like it, too bad! But, our ability to turn to violence is something we don’t like about ourselves and yet we don’t know how to do without it to achieve the results we want.
Violence is a close cousin of panic. When we are cornered, we search through the mad box for ways of making violence work for us, even without being fully conscious that that is what we are doing. It’s our safety valve and yet we don’t acknowledge it as such. We make a friend out of "double-think". Relief at last!! It’s like the unloved spouse we got married to, who we get stuck with, and there’s violence in our heart because we have to live alongside something unacceptable. We have to live with it as best we can. just so we can breath, so that our personality can justify itself. It might be ugly, it might be madness, but with a little mental gymnastics we achieve safety by forgetting about being the peace-maker and flirting with danger - the danger of double-think.