Are we really on a quest for peace?

A curiosity that needs revisiting

Wait! Just Listen is a weekly Sunday newsletter on living a purposeful and meaningful life, in a digitised world of opinion polarisation, gratuitous commentary and click-bait.

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Peace and Love - by Laura Barbosa

As senseless brutality and destruction continue to unabatedly transpire in parts of the world, mainstream public discussion has expectedly assumed a rather distinctive slant, appealing for the re-emergence of world peace - a passionate plea for order, stability and a reinstatement of human civility at the very least.

Peace has over the course of modern history become an overarching remedy for a complex ecosystem of issues including violence, freedom, safety, justice, morality, and human rights. While it is undeniably the most favourable solution in times of virulent atrocity, it falls short of addressing the everyday struggles, fear and perceived differences between both individuals and institutions - intangible chasms that continue to widen over time.

Since the birth of modern civilisation, historically festered tensions have burbled even in the most peaceful of times, amidst the photo-friendly handshakes and declarations of national allegiances, threatening to combust at the slightest hint of perceived belligerence.

Contemporary notions of peace seem tenuously held together by a string of conditional clauses with appropriately placed asterisks, in a world trending towards perilous artificiality.

Is this really what peace is about - an uneasy truce and an arrangement through gritted teeth for the sake of convenience?