Violence, World Peace, and Social Evolution

With President Obama recently trying his hand at peace in the middle east, I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s even possible. This led to wondering about our relations with the middle east and the rest of the world. But is the idea of world peace simply a fleeting  ideal, or could it actually happen? According to the Baha’i, it is not only possible, but inevitable. I was thinking about this today, and while I’m not a huge fan of everybody on Earth holding hands and swaying side to side in unison, the hippie culture, or even Michael Jackson’s “We are the World” for that matter, I came to the conclusion that world peace is possible, but first requires something that I refer to as the next step in our social evolution. We take pride in how we are so much more intelligent and better than animals, but at our current stage of this social evolution, we’re really simply savage beasts with opposable thumbs and the ability to do incredible things, but lack the sense to solve our problems without violence. [The image, modified to incorporate all forms of tolerance, is a variation of one from the Coexist Foundation, which promotes religious tolerance between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. It was either that or a stock image of a black and white hand shaking in front of a globe. But seriously, check out their website, they're definitely doing good things.]

If you do a search on YouTube for just about any city in Hawaii, the city name followed by “fights” is suggested in almost every single one.  While this is not something unique to just Hawaii by any means, I don’t think I’ve ever lived in a place where people are so willing and eager to fight. I notice this moreso on the westside of the island, but I think in the almost four years I’ve been here it’s gotten more prevalent in areas like Honolulu, including Waikiki. Even just driving or walking around I’ve noticed that everyone seems to scowl and stare at you like you insulted their mother or something.

I’m not sure why this is – or why every local male here in Hawaii thinks he’s some sort of UFC fighter (watch some of those fight videos and you’ll see that they’re NOT) – but it’s retarded. Like I said though, this problem isn’t unique to Hawaii, as there’s plenty of fight videos out there, but take a look at everything else around: gang violence, domestic violence, random street violence – and that’s just in the US. Worldwide, we’re currently engaged in what is basically war with many other countries.  The middle east countries have been at war with each other for thousands of years, North Korea seems to hate everybody – basically, we’re living in a violent world. A much too violent world.

It’s easy to just sit back and roll your eyes and shake your head at the mid-east problems between the Muslims and the Jews, or just write Kim Jong-Il off as a crazy person, but if you really get down to it, here we are, human beings, the most intelligent creature possibly in all the Universe, and we’re giving the stink eye to each other as we pass on the sidewalk. We have walked on the moon, sent objects into outer space, explored all but the deepest oceans of our world, discovered the basic building blocks of life, created machines so intelligent they can nearly think for themselves, have cured countless diseases, made near-instant communication possible with satellites and the internet – and we put videos of ourselves fighting each other on YouTube.

We’ve made so many advances in the field of technology and science that our capabilities in these areas grow so quickly it’s exponential. Yet on the social front, we’re still the idiotic, barbaric-thinking animals of ancient times. We’ve made so many achievements as a humankind, but still look to solve many problems with archaic violence and brawn rather than using what tool we have that has allowed us so many amazing achievements – the tool given to us naturally that separates us from animals – our brain.

When I see these fights, these wars, these people puffing up their chest, trying to provoke a fight, all I can think is how, after thousands of years and millions of incredible things we’ve done we still act as uncivilized as wild dogs when it comes to solving problems between us. Sure, I live in a country at the forefront of these achievements, and can see why less fortunate and developed countries still rely on physical violence and wars to solve things, but we shouldn’t. I believe that humans have the capability to evolve socially beyond all of this, and be able to rationally think out, discuss, and solve, nonviolently, the problems that plague us. Many of these other countries haven’t changed much in the last couple thousand years, but many of the world’s countries have. It’s up to us to force that social evolution, to encourage acceptance, nonviolence, and rational thought, while discouraging hate, bigotry, and the immediate putting up of the proverbial dukes.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from history, it’s that we haven’t learned from history.” I forget who originally said this, but it’s all too true. Even Homer was on the right track in Ancient Greece when he wrote of Odysseus in The Odyssey – a mortal hero who, though physically capable, relied more on his intelligence and wit to overcome the most demanding obstacles and eventually get back home to his wife. And yet, over two thousand years later, I can’t enjoy a quiet evening at my place in the city without hearing arguments and scuffles, followed by sirens, break out on the street below.

I was discussing all the hype about the 2012 Apocalypse as well as many different ways the Earth could be destroyed with a coworker recently. And when she asked me how I thought it would end, I told her that I didn’t think humans would be around to see it because we’ll all kill each other off first. We’re in the Nuclear Age, yet when it comes to our interpersonal relationships, be it person to person or country to country, we’ve seemed to stall at the Neolithic Age. There are currently enough nuclear weapons on our planet to destroy it four times over, with countries pushing every day to make their own. We’ve no doubt been researching and experimenting with viruses that could easily kill hundreds of millions of people if they were ever released. Israel and Palestine have been giving each other the silent treatment like a couple of gradeschool siblings for generations now, yet won’t hesitate to kill each other if given the opportunity. It’s sad, it’s pathetic, and it could very well be what leads to the destruction of humankind.

This idealistic idea of “just talk it out” isn’t quite so simple, I’m afraid. I will admit that there is a time and place for violence, but in most cases it can, and should be avoided at all costs. Even if the U.S, an arguably less violent country than many middle-eastern countries (though no role model by any means), realized that intelligence, not violence, is the key to a more productive and successful society, there would, sadly, still be wars. This is because violence is largely associated with things like culture, socio-economic class and type and quality of education. In order to get world peace, everybody (or at least the world leaders, for starters) would have to become educated in conflict resolution through nonviolent means. This would inevitably involve putting everything on the table that they’re not happy about with other countries and solve it or simply just move on – a social relations reset, if you will, once and for all. This, though it would be the largest and most meaningful arbitration session in mankind’s history, would, if successful, only be the beginning.

This would then have to trickle down to all of the citizens of the world. However, this wouldn’t be as easy as simply increasing penalties for violence or creating more legislation to enforce it – it would involve education of everybody in order to get them to realize the rationale behind it, and make them want to be non-violent. Again, this would be a huge undertaking, but perhaps government-mandated nonviolent conflict-resolution education could be a starting point. Start with the children, in gradeschools, to teach them non-violent conflict resolution strategies and coping skills in order to get them to advance to the next level of social evolution. Prove to them through education and example that not only is non-violent conflict resolution a better way of handling things, that things like fighting, wars, etc. are an animalistic, outdated, unintelligent, savage, archaic, and barbaric way of dealing with problems, with the hopes that as they get older and become adults, our lawmakers and government representatives they will explore all other options before resorting to violence, be it in dealing with the drunk in the bar on a Friday night or on issues as big as international relations.

I feel that while this would certainly be a start, there are other countries that simply couldn’t accept this at first, as violence is so ingrained in their culture and history. It is in these countries that it would be needed the most, and where educating the children there from an early age would probably show the most promise. It would absolutely take generations to advance to this next stage in social evolution and interpersonal relations, in both our country and others, but it’s something that needs to happen before we all just end up killing each other.

Finally, the main aspect of all of this that I will only briefly discuss is acceptance. Our planet remains the same size, but the population is growing exponentially. This means more people, less space, and a greater need for peaceful coexistence. For this to happen, acceptance, or at a minimum, tolerance, is a necessity. Tolerance, or simply “putting up with” these different opinions and views could work too, but ideally acceptance, or recognizing the fact that people simply have different views, opinions, cultures, lifestyles, etc. and being able to appreciate them for that, would need to be a core idea in everybody. In many ways, this acceptance is the crux of the entire idea, and while I’m only briefly touching on it here, it is the very first necessity in creating a less violent society and world. Without people simply accepting each other, all of the rest of these ideas will certainly, absolutely fail.

While I’d hate for this to be dismissed as simply another idealistic view of a worldwide hippie utopia that could never happen, think about it. World peace isn’t everyone holding hands, or singing “We are the World” in perfect harmony, because there will always be problems and conflict. It’s how we solve these problems and conflicts and learn from our history that will really make the difference, truly set us apart from the animal kingdom, and prove that we are worthy of the assumptions we make about ourselves as humans.

After all, when the greatest scientific minds in history ran into problems with formulas or mechanics, they didn’t just punch their desk or kick their failed prototype; they worked harder, smarter, and tried everything they knew until they found the solution.