A Plan for World Peace
My plan for world peace has not been tested, so its merits exist primarily in my own imagination. More important to me than the essentials of the plan, however, are the things I learned during the research phase. I learned that many forces are arrayed against the pursuit of peace, and that resistance is deeply embedded in our society and government.
These obstructions range from inappropriate laws such as the Logan Act passed by Congress in 1799, empty posturing by the federal government that supports purely decorative peace organizations at public expense, and government bureaucracies that hold that they are already pursuing peace when, in fact, it is the last thing they would ever be interested in doing. There are layers upon layers of posturing, pretense, and cynicism that stand in the way of organized peacemaking.
In his excellent book Blessed Unrest Paul Hawken estimates that there are millions of organizations laboring for the wellbeing of people, societies, and the planet. He may be right, but the bad news is there is little, if any, synergy or coordination among them. I applaud Mr. Hawken for launching Wiser Earth to do that very thing, but it is in its early stages of development at the present time. The forces for good are mostly scattered and uncoordinated.
I think the global forces that foment war are waxing, not waning. The growing challenges that seem to surround us on all sides continue to grab our attention far more than distant abstractions such as world peace. I think world peace is being upstaged by these many crises we seem bent upon creating and intensifying. Until we choose to adopt a more modest, reverent attitude toward the planet we live on, we will continue to create a competition for resources that will tend to foment violence.
I present my plan for anyone who is interested. You can open the file in portable document format (pdf) from this page and save it to your hard drive if you like.
Thanks to Bruce Bowditch for suggesting to me that I offer it to the public.
As they say in church, peace be with you.
Click on the icon to open the plan in pdf format.
Dan Wilson
