How To Create World Peace

Fear and peace cannot live in the same heart.

I don't think there has been a truer statement.

Mandi, if fear and peace are mutually exclusive, it occurs to me that peace may be an emotion. We may call it tranquility or serenity, but it's all peace when the semantics are stripped away.
If fear is learned, as it is, then peace should also be learned. Anything worthwhile that can be learned must be taught.
The only instincts we are born with are sucking and complaining about not getting what we want.
By the same token, fear, as a learned emotion, can be controlled by proper teaching, just as we expect that we should control others of our emotions.
Let the debate begin.

I like this article. I'm not so sure I agree that inward peace is ultimately a product of teaching; but I get the drift of the article. Interesting and well-written, Bill.

Thanks, Edward. Inward peace, I think you mean, is something we create within ourselves. Yet we can't do that unless we are taught what it is.
As babies, we are naturally inclined toward aggression more than we are toward peace. Unless the way to peace and its benefits, both personal and societal, are taught, few will learn it.
Peace is a product of human development, of civilization, which means that it must be taught.

Bill I heard an interview on the radio about teaching peace, in school....midway through so I am not who was talking and where. I wrote a comment today to this effect. We are a war culture like others. We build weapon, sell them to friends who become foe and then wonder what happened. Do you find that the economics and the politics are geared toward confrontation versus cooperation because we have a strong military and an attitude of "I am a superpower do not mess with me?"
Aside from that, the culture, the media do they seem all infected with the same bug? Tv show geared toward police show, criminals ,drug,sex mixed in to allure and all this trash that has to do with the worse in human nature.
The mind set needs to change, turn 180 degrees, and find ways to solve problems peacefully, with diplomacy.
It all starts in the mind.
The point you made about teaching is valuable for the future but what about now?

Bill, as always, a well-written, thought-provoking article. I agree that inner peace is the key to world peace, and also that inner peace can be learned. However, I don't believe inner peace must be learned because I know some people are born that way. I was, as was one of my daughters. I've seen too many families where one child is aggressive and the other peaceful, although raised in the same atmosphere, to believe it is possible that all babies are born inclined toward aggression.

Bill, as Sandy and others have suggested, we are (all, I would say) born with that inner peace as it is our soul being. It is just that we come into a society that quickly programs it right out of us. Lucky or fortunate are those that can regain it back, even if being taught is what does it for them. But you can neither teach nor learn what does not already exist within, and that is our inherent potential to go any direction, we just have to prioritize the direction.

That's an interesting problem, Sandy. Non-aggressive is not necessarily peaceful though.
Birth order, chemistry of the mother's body during pregnancy (including what she ate and drank), whether the mother got sufficient sleep during pregnancy and many other factors help to determine whether a child is non-aggressive or aggressive (boistrous or calm).
After a great deal of study on the subject (and having raised two of my own), I believe that parental teaching in the early years is the potential overriding factor.

Thanks, Jerry. Your opinion is appreciated. It goes against most of the study evidence, but we need all sides of a story to be aired in order to reach an individual conclusion that suits us.
Your point of view is certainly one that most of us would hope was true. Nature, however, tells us differently.

I'm stalling here, trying to figure out how to reply to Lea concisely. She wrote such a great reply!

Lea, could we talk? Maybe have coffee one evening? You have raised an enourmous subject.
Docendo disco (Latin for 'by teaching I learn' so someone told me)
In order to teach a child well and throughly, in the process we adopt the positions that we teach. They firm up in our own minds. Thus teaching peace to all children causes us to think peace ourselves.
When children learn values at school (such as peace, in several good lessons), they carry the lessons home. Sometimes they embarrass of shame their parents into following the positions they learned in school. Smoking and recycling of waste are two good examples. They do this because they believe that what they were taught is right.
So teach the young and they will teach the older generation. IN less time than you could imagine.
As to the attitude of confrontation in the US (this from the point of view of a Canadian who studies this stuff), the neo-conservatives have cultivated that belief as necesssary since the troubled times of the 1960s, when "the liberal way of making everyone equal and peaceful failed."
Once the conservatives bought up most of the available media outlets in the US, they began a relentless campaign to develop an "US" and "Them" dichotomy. But outside the country, so that inside the US its people would find one united cause to put their efforts behind.
Considering that the US has more people in prison than any other country in the world, per capita, and violence is a daily event in most larger cities, that approach seems to have failed. But--believe this or not--the conservatives keep preaching it and enough Americans keep believing it that the Reagans and the Bushes keep being elected.
The television programs merely speak to the need of people to find the boundaries of acceptability for their culture. When nobody speaks out against the milder stuff, they ramp up the shock until somebody complains.
When someone complains, they take advantage of that to further promote their product.
The people who understand the principles of sociology (of socialization) best are advertising agencies, religious leaders, political leaders and (oh, I hoped never to have to put this in print) the leaders of militaristic cults (read: purveyors of "terror").
(Shoot! Now I will be on the No Fly list for sure.)
So don't worry about what the bad guys do. Be more concerned about putting out the message that you want all children and adults to believe. Crying about the bad guys does no good, and sometimes it works against what you want.
Teach right. Teach good. Teach peace.
You are correct about the midset needing to change. That is the primary objective of my book, 'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems.' It gives background, an assessment of how pervasive the problems are today, an insight into the halls of legislation, a program to turn around all of the problems that people want changed, plus an implementation plan that is absurdly cheap and easy to make happen. And it's even easier to read than this reply.
We just need more people to know about the book and the plan and to join our group. We have people from six continents in the group now.
It's the place to start, for teachers, for parents and for good people who care about doing something more than complaining.
See http://billallin.com

So, Lea, who buys the first coffee?

Bill, I will visit one day or you come here..I make great coffee..I grind the beans first. I will check your site.