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Peace
"It is possible to live in peace."
- Mahatma Gandhi
The word peace originated with the ancient Roman word pax, which means absentia belli, the absence of war. Peace is often talked about as the absence  of war between state-organized armies. But, the concept of peace also applies to the state of things within geopolitical entities, such as: civil war, state-sponsored genocide, terrorism, and other violence. Wars among states have become less common since World War II, while violent internal conflicts have become a more central concern. Sudan, for example, is the site of widespread suffering and violence, despite its not being officially engaged in war with another sovereign state. In present-day Sudan, the concept of peace is understood as the absence of violence among groups.
Views vary widely about whether or not violence and war are ever necessary, or justifiable. From Mahatma Gandhi's conception of peace, not as an end, but as a means: "There is no way to peace; peace is the way," to other traditional non-violent doctrines, such as the Judeo-Christians, who bluntly declare, "Thou shalt not kill", but have somehow seen fit to compromise on this statement many times over the centuries. Pacifists, such as Christian anarchists, perceive any incarnation of violence as self-perpetuating. Other groups that proclaim non-violence take a wide variety of stances, many maintaining a Just War theory - that there are cases in which violence and war is the morally right thing to do.
The concept of peace as merely the absence of overt violence, is challenged by some as incomplete. Peace researcher, Johan Galtung, calls this form of peace "negative peace", stating that underlying points of conflict must themselves be resolved in order for true peace to exist.Mahatma Gandhi said that an oppressive society is not peaceful just because it lacks violence, because the oppression itself is injust. In Gandhi's vision of peace, justice is an inherent and necessary aspect. Galtung described this kind of peace with justice, as "positive peace," because hostility and further violence could not flourish in such an environment. When some criticized the activists in the American Civil Rights Movement for "disturbing the peace", Martin Luther King responded that, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." Galtung coined the term structural violence to refer to such situations, which, though not violent on the surface, harbor systematic oppression and injustice.
Many environmentalists believe that protecting the environment is a form of peacemaking. Destroying natural habitats, and disturbing long-standing equilibrium among living things is a form of violence. This view regards peace as relative to all living creatures, and not exclusive to human beings.
Some "peace thinkers" have abandoned any single and all-encompassing definition of peace. Instead, they promote the idea of many peaces. They argue that since no singular, correct definition of peace can exist, peace should be perceived as a plurality. For example, in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the word for peace is kindoki, which refers to a harmonious balance between human beings, the rest of the natural world, and the cosmos. This is a much broader vision of peace than the "absence of war", or even the presence of justice. These thinkers also critique the idea of peace as something to be hoped for in the future. They contend that peace exists in the present, and that we can create and expand it in small ways in our everyday lives.
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UNITE FOR PEACE
One Minute Can Change the World
The shift begins
at 07.07.07 at 11.11
and culminates
on 11.11.11. at 11:11
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