“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Revenge is a topic on which Shakespeare has written many of his plays, and all of them ended in tragedies. If we hold on to grudges and return it to the person with interest then peace as a word will be shred to pieces. Peace is a one-syllable word but it units the world in harmony. When there is no hostility or violence, peace prevails but as simple as it sounds, the attainment of peace is not at all that easy.
In today’s world where we are attacked by noises from all corners, we search for a corner of peace and tranquility. In the same way, the world is marred with hostility and the earth needs a moment of peace and quiet.
Ever imagined a world where there were no humans?
Nature would have dominated the scene and a pleasant hush would have prevailed. When humans entered the scene they discovered they could speak and voice their opinion and they also realized that every individual can have a different opinion. This difference, if we look at the positive side, gives birth to new ideas; but on the negative side, the difference in opinion has the potential to cause unrest.
As the human population thrived, the possibilities of being at loggerhead with one another also thrived. Humans in a sense are greedy; they desire what they have set their eyes on, and when someone or something blocks the view, they tend to retaliate. Treachery, arson, murder, killings, all of these have existed maybe from the time humans started the use of weapons but nobody knew about the dangerous waters we were treading on.
Then came the year 1914, the world witnessed something it never had witnessed before. The First World War officially began on 28th July 1914 and lasted for four long years. Humans had fought battles in the past but this kind of war was unprecedented to human memory. The concept of peace was shattered and shredded and the world witnessed for the first time as to how much brutal a man can get. The First World War marked a change in how the world functioned and in its aftermath the world witnessed new uprisings and revolutions. New policies were drafted to bring about peace but just twenty years down the line, the world stood up in horror to witness the Second World War.
If the people were aghast at what the First World War did, then they were stunned to silence or were probably dead as the Second World War rocked the globe. This war shook the foundations of mankind and lasted for six very long years. The world saw deaths of people in millions and born was the new weapon— The Atom Bomb.
The United Nations was born on October 24, 1945, as a result of the destruction accrued after the Second World War. It was founded mainly to safeguard democracy, freedom, and peace in the aftermath of World War Two. The UN was born out of the League of Nations, which was an organization created after World War One but the League had failed to avert the occurrence of a second, even more cataclysmic war.
What did the world have twenty years later after the First World War had it could end up in a second and even more catastrophic war than the first?
Well, the answer is— Technological Advantage.
If technology and warfare were so advanced in the year 1945 that it could bring the world down on its knees, then imagine what can the technology in the year 2020 can do to the world. Since the Second World War, the world has witnessed many wars but we have our fingers crossed over the fact that a Third World War should not be nearing. But many people say that it’s a lull before the storm, and here is where world peace becomes the need of the hour.
Technology and its advancement have been a boon to our society leading to globalization and development but advancement in warfare technology has been a bane to the human race. The development of countries has led to insecurities and there is a rat race among them as to who can stash more advanced weapons. This kind of maddening competition has led many countries to pile up on their stock of nuclear weapons. Weapons that are multiple times more dangerous than the atom bombs that were dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Even today these places feel the effects of the destruction that took place there so it can be only left to the imagination when we think upon as to what can happen if the nuclear weapons, the countries are crazily hoarding, are unleashed.
World peace hasn’t been as important as it is now. Though we are getting technologically advanced, humans are getting short on patience. People nowadays are used to getting what they want—it’s a world of instant gratification and people are not used to the wait. This lack of patience in humans leaves the world sitting on a ticking time bomb.
As reported by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), in the year 2019 the United States of America spent US $ 684.6 billion as ‘the military balance’, China spent US $ 181.1 billion, Saudi Arabia used US $ 78.4 billion, Russia accounted for US $ 61.6 billion and India spent US $ 60.5 billion.
The question that one needs to ponder upon is that if peace is prevailing across the globe then why are countries spending so much on their military? They can definitely utilize this money in the education sector or for uplifting the poor. Then why are countries spending so much money arming themselves? The answer is simple, there is a sense of unease and unfortunately, it’s growing.
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
—Albert Einstein
Peace cannot prevail just by establishing organizations and forcing people to follow and abide by its decisions. As Einstein rightly pointed out, peace is about understanding and having faith in one another. In our race towards supremacy, we have forgotten how to have faith in one another, and that understanding nature has slowly vanished.
In the era of the 21st century, the need to achieve world peace is growing stronger by the day. Without world peace, our race could be hurtling towards annihilation. The idea of non-violence can be easy to imagine but difficult to attain but it should be the motivation so that peace can prevail. Peace is a phase that has to be nurtured and it needs hard work to maintain it but to make sure that doomsday doesn’t come sooner; the world needs to walk down the path of world peace.
It isn’t a difficult task for an individual to incorporate peace into his life. All he has to do is to traverse the road on non-violence and many great people have left their footprints on the sands of time to guide us down that path. The message of peace should be promoted from an early age, with children being given lessons in tolerance, commitment, and helping others. As they say, change begins from home and when individuals strife to attain peace, society turns peaceful, which in turn makes the country peaceful and the world blissful.
When peace is promoted, nations thrive. When the money invested in military activities are used in the development of the country, then there will be happiness everywhere. Peace builds the happiness quotient of a country, and when the citizens of the country are happy there is nothing to want for. Peace is an indispensable ingredient in the development of a country and without it, the recipe would never achieve perfection.
So, to sum up, if we think as to why is peace important? Then the answer would be that without it, the vicious tendencies of our species will continue to push us closer to our misfortune. But we humans have been blessed with thinking capabilities and in our true essence, we are capable of the most magnificent and inspiring actions. Peace is the desire of every thumping heart; peace is the expectation of every nation, it is the assurance of every politician and the underlining feature of every religion. Peace is the only balm that can soothe the burns that incidences of violence cause around the world. Where war destroys and shreds apart, peace, like a savior, builds, restores, and preserves. Hence for the continued existence of the human race on earth, it is of utmost importance that world peace is bestowed on all.
