In Hebrew, it is Shalom. In Arabic, it is Salaam. It is a word, a concept, a dream, an ideal, and more hard work than all the wars in history combined! Destruction has always been easier than construction. The nearest we've come to equalizing those two was the Genesis Project portrayed in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek III: Search for Spock. Even then, we came to find out that they used protomatter in the matrix that made the whole thing unstable...
We need to turn to science fiction to get close to an answer. My daughter and I share an affinity for dystopian teenage angst fantasy and in those circumstances, peace is found in conformity. That is not a new concept, I grew up reading "1984" and watching Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (which I think carries the spirit of George Orwell's fearful vision to its most effective portrayal on the screen).
I sign off on much of my correspondence, electronic or otherwise, with the word "Peace". It sounds pastoral and something Jesus would do if he sent emails. But I can't ever do so without feeling a twinge. The word is so easy to say, so easy to define, but so very hard to live. We fill our country with "Peace Officers" who in turn fill our prisons with more people per capita than the entire world except for the Seychelles (with a population of 90,000 as opposed to 330 million plus in the US.
Jesus came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Gandhi came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Martin Luther King Jr. came to bring Peace and they killed him for it. Malcolm X started in the War Camp but found Peace as his Mission on the Hajj and they killed him for it. I am blessed as a Christian to follow the one on this list that God brought back.
We don't achieve Peace very often. We talk about eras like the Pax Romana or the Pax Britannica, times of relative Peace in the world which happened because we had powerful nations big enough to stomp out any opposition.
I guess it might be helpful to define "Peace". It is NOT the absence of war, that is called "Ceasefire", like what we've had with North Korea since 1953. It is not the Exhaustion from war, which existed in the Arab Israeli relations after 1948, after 1956, after 1967-70, after 1973...get the picture? It sure is not Cold War (as opposed to Hot War) which had two generations in our nation fearing a Soviet nuclear attack. It is NOT conquest, which existed behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.
The Peacemakers who died, what did they seek? Jesus sought love, Gandhi sought liberation, King sought equality, X sought advancement, all of which go into peace. And their movements did bring about real steps towards achieving peace. But we've never really gotten there.
Consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as a test case in our country, seeking to bring peace between 'blacks' and 'whites'. In the 1860's we fought a war on that issue. In the 1960's it was a peaceful protest made around that issue. Now, in the 20-teens, we pay lip service to the 'equality; won, but by the 2060's, will lasting peace have been achieved in this one issue?
And peace will NOT be won by whites and blacks coming together to keep the next ethnic group (Latinos?) at bay.
I do not consider myself to be naïve. "War no more" is a pipedream. The only way that truly leads to peace is when EVERYBODY signs on. One side giving up war invites conquest by the other side. We are a violent and bloody race. War is never good, war is not the answer, but all too often war is what there is. And sometimes going to war is better than the alternative, appeasement or capitulation, as in against Hitler or against Tojo.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace, a worthy state of being. Worth the costs. But do we really know what those costs will be?
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