Peace Culture list.

A method that one could use to guage the level of peace in a person's life is by seeing how many direct links to peace they can make in a variety of catagories. I'm not entirely sure about the factuality of that method, as simply knowing about war and practicing it are different things, likewise, knowing about peace and practicing peace are very, very different things.

However, I digress, here is the list I made:


1. .Name a movie about peace. Any number of Disney fairy tales.
2. .Picture a peace uniform. The uniform of the RCMP.
3. .Name a high-school course that studies peace (okay, okay, I know!!) THIS ONE! XP And Social Studies 11 I believe.
4. .Picture a peace painting. The painting of St.Fancis of Aussisi.(I forget the painter... )
5. .Name a television show about peace. Phineas and Ferb. (how much more peaceful than summer vacation can you get? ^^!
6. .Name a peace hero. Mother Theresa
7. .Name a video game based on peace. Animal Crossing
8. .Picture or name a peace toy. (What qualifies as a "peace toy"?????)
9. .Picture or name a peace memorial or monument. I suppose the old Giant penny would count... Though I'm sure I know a better one. >.<#
10. .Name a poem, book, or story about peace. "Drummer Boy" by Ted Dekker

Surprisingly (for myself), I had an almost equal number of items on the above list and the matching list for violence/war. Although, as I said before, that could mean I'm simply knowledgeable about both sides, I practice both sides (somehow), or I know about one side and practice the other, it's very hard to say for a objective person looking at only the results...

At any rate, I do actually believe that the amount of items on the 'violence' list does effect our culture, perhaps more than we readily admit. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Oh no! Don't say that! Knowing about war so much means it's common and that is BAD!" *evil glares*

Quite right, but there is also the fact that we aren't simply pretending that the wars aren't happening. They may be overglorified at times, but ignorance is only bliss until the war spreds to somewhere you can't ignore it anymore. Knowing about how war works, the mechanics of it, the people who start and end them- those are all key resources for people trying to predict and diffuse violent and hateful situations from which wars escalate. Perhaps more emphasis needs to be placed on peace, but the fact that war is very real is not something that should be ignored.

On a side note, could it be that we are naturally a very violent people? Are we drawn towards violence in media and art because we secretly long to be actively involved in such atrocities? My answer to this may be a little harsh, but I believe it to be true. We are a naturally violent society. Humanity has long praised itself for not being held back, being able to exceed their limits and bring themselves to levels of power that would seem to be impossible. And it is this aspiration- this desire to be more- that is active in both our greatest triumphs of art and peace, and in the atrocities of war and hatred. Unfortunately, we very rarely view our options and end up in the midst of hatred more often than not, and loving it for the power we feel it gives us.

In conclusion, there is war in the world that we can't ignore, but we also cannot make it greater than the unending pain and tradgedy that it is. We need to use our desire to exceed our limits to treat people, not how they 'deserve' to be treated, but as we would want them to treat us if our roles were reversed.