First let me preface this by saying I am a big fan of the work being done by Steve Killelea, a fellow Australian, who is the person behind the Global Peace Index, seriously the work he has financed should have been funded by governments, but I am glad that somebody has seen the merit of this in depth study. You can view the global peace index at http://visionofhumanity.org/indexes/global-peace-index/
I did not have the time to read the entire document, my time lately has been occupied with doing job applications. But I have briefly skimmed through it. The title stated “The world has become more peaceful in the last year.” Numbers may be able to come to that conclusion, but my sentiment and instincts tell me that is not the case. Ever since President Trump has been elected, I have often woken to read some disturbing arrogant tweet by the president of the worlds largest military superpower.
The report mentions that 93 countries have become more peaceful and 68 countries have become less peaceful. But seriously you could have 100 countries become more peaceful, and only 3 countries become less peaceful, but if those three less peaceful countries were nuclear superpowers like the USA, China and Russia, then in my opinion the world is a vastly more dangerous place.
When I look at what is happening in Syria, the conflict in interests between USA and Russia, when I look at the nine dash disputed territory and China building artificial military reefs in what clearly belongs to other neighbouring countries, when I look at conflicting interests between China and USA over Taiwan, and the escalating tensions between the USA and North Korea, it doesn’t natter what statistics may say, my feeling is the world is becoming a far more dangerous place.
For me the real threat is nuclear, the magnitude of destruction is just so much greater, not just in the actual destruction, but even more so from the nuclear fallout which winds would inevitably spread across many other countries. Yes the old movie “On the beach” is still chilling, as they moved to Melbourne Australia to escape fallout from San Francisco USA. So in order for the index to be more accurate, I think each country needs to be weighted based on their nuclear capability for destruction.
And while I think it is important to understand and quantify the correlation between Peace and Economics, I don’t think it can be argued as a selling point for making the world a more peaceful place. Lets face it, those countries and people that seek to kill each other are just plane insane, I don’t really think they could care less about economics or prosperity. It also fails to explain that yes it may lead to economic prosperity for a country as a whole to be more peaceful, there is absolutely no doubt in that, but it does not address the issue that war is infinitely more profitable for a very small sector of the population who are yielding incredible profits and wealth from the defence industry. And these corporations do fund and have strong political influence over politicians. Politicians, most of them seem motivated in their own self interest and glorification, not all, but most. I would definitely consider Bernie Sanders as an exception to that statement and I am sure there are other good men in politics, but I would say the majority are just playing some game to get in power and serve their own self interests. Change will come from the people, not from governments.
If one is serious about peace, I think rather than producing some sterile report that appeals to governments and the elite intellectuals, I think the gloves need to be taken off and the problem needs to be exposed for what it is. Countries are continuing to fight just through sheer ignorance and delusion. People live their lives thinking they will live forever. If they were not completely brainwashed since birth, they would be able to see the complete insanity of war and killing each other. Religion for the most part is rubbish. Like Voltaire said, if you can convince somebody to believe an absurdity, you can convince them to commit an atrocity. Just to be clear, some people consider Buddhism a religion, I think of it more of a philosophy or a way of life. I spent most of my life searching for truth, and while I am not buddhist, and was not influenced by Buddhism in any way, having recently watched an Indian series on Buddha, I would say many of the conclusions I came to were similar. I believe everybody should go on their own personal search for truth and not blindly follow whatever their childhood conditioning is.
If I was in the position to do something on a grand scale like the world peace index and the charitable foundation, I would not scatter my energy so widely. This may sound cruel, and I am probably wrong, and I know all lives matter, but I think world peace is something that needs a more focused laser like attention. What is the consequences to humanity if some people experience a lower standard of living compared to what is accustomed to in the west? Compare that to what the consequences would be if there is ever a World War 3, which as Einstein said would relegate us all to the level where a World War 4 would be fought with sticks and stones.
If I had money like that, I would buy a property in Australia in a rural area. I would allow people to apply to just live there for several months, whatever a visa would allow. I would provide their accomodation and daily food, so they could just focus their day to just working with other like minded individuals to just brainstorm, debate, and create peace initiatives. Media and film is one area that will make a difference to humanity. Just as there are missionaries of Charity, these people would be unpaid missionaries for peace, spending their days meditating and discussing and working for peace. At the end of the day, it is not something that you can pay a person to work on, their motivation must come from deep within and be non financial and not attached to any reward. The whole concept of philanthropy needs to switch from just being associated with feeding poor people to being more heavily associated with any effort designed to improve the world without any financial benefit in return. If I ever one day have the means to do something like that, that is what I would do.