Department Of Peace Support

IONS President James O’Dea on the proposed Department of Peace
IONS | 10.30.06 | 05:24 PM

A recent statement by the House Majority Whip suggests that support for a Department of Peace runs counter to the War on Terror. Let me suggest, partisan politics aside, why I think this is a completely false notion. I support the creation of a Department of Peace because it is an intrinsically moral and creative response to the horror and brutality of violence when war and violent aggression are employed as a means to solve our differences. To defeat violence itself is an evolutionary imperative for humankind. I hold that the emergence of peaceful planetary civilization is a task that will require massive collaboration involving a clear examination of the root causes of violence; a collaboration that calls for a new conjunction of Reason, Science and Spirituality.

Let's begin with Reason. Although human beings pride themselves on the fact that the ability to reason is one of their defining characteristics, we get a collective failing grade on utilizing it as a guiding principle for sustaining life on Earth. We live at a time when substantial evidence has been provided to us that consumption patterns are unsustainable: we are devouring our own habitat at such speed we place future generations at catastrophic risk of death by climatic imbalance, toxic pollution, lack of water and a host of other challenges to basic health and development. This would not appear to be reasonable by any stretch of the imagination. Let's face it, the logic of narrow self interest has trumped Reason in the ecological, economic and social sphere on every continent. Reason dictates that we change course. Reason dictates that we employ all our ingenuity and focused intellectual acumen to saving Earth's ecosphere and restoring a balanced and creative relationship between economy and ecology. The root of both these words comes from the Greek language and means “home.” In other words, Reason dictates that we not destroy our own home. This seems, as Al Gore has pointed out, to be a very inconvenient truth; it is also an embarrassing truth.

But this gaping wound we have inflicted on Nature is a reflection of our own woundedness. The violence we do to Nature is an extension of the violence we do to ourselves. We do violence because violence underpins key aspects of modern economies; it lies at the heart of the voracious military industrial complex, and it is fed by much vaunted notions of cultural and religious superiority. Yet every bully carries a wound, and every glutton carries a wound, just as every bigot and racist carries a wound. Every form of oppression and deviance is an expression of a wound ignored and left to fester. It may be inconvenient and embarrassing to explore the way that family environments, cultural exclusions, unexamined religious dogmas, and rampant materialism have sown the seeds of aggression and violence and to see that some of our most sacrosanct institutions have been at the root of much wounding and abuse. But Reason invites us to examine the source and cause of behavior, not just various kinds of reactive indignation about its effects.

Reason would suggest that we understand Peace and how it thrives if we are to avoid the things which cause war and the incalculable wounds it inflicts. It strongly suggests that we try to understand the nature of the wounds of people who seek to hurt or even destroy us and our way of life. Reason asks questions, seeks dialogue and seeks to disarm aggressors. It is consummately skillful in avoiding words and actions that will provoke hostility, or feelings of humiliation and rejection. The creation of a Department of Peace is precisely the tool Reason would offer a government intent on finding peace and avoiding war if at all possible.

Let's turn now to Science. While science has been co-opted to build nuclear weapons and advanced technologies to deliver large scale death and destruction, it is also a vast resource for saving life, enhancing health and longevity, and providing humanity with tools for development. Science has a fundamental responsibility to explore the nature of reality and to attempt to accurately classify the basic laws governing all facets of existence as we know it. Its basis is a consensus built around objective truth rather than selective bias. We know that this consensus, sometimes referred to as a paradigm, can change. Our knowledge evolves: we no longer believe that Earth is the center of the Universe, even though we may still behave that way. Frontier science often has to face the willful, and sometimes politically orchestrated, ignorance of the prevailing notions of truth. The status quo can be blinded by an arrogant faith in itself. Nonetheless, Science has a basic requirement to challenge old conclusions with more reliable, comprehensive and informed truth. Again and again, Science has challenged cultural norms and fanatical dogma. Whole generations are conditioned by beliefs and worldviews. Once science provides us with a new basis for belief, we move on. History shows that we can release false notions about the nature of Reality once science provides clear evidence of its new perspectives.

Frontier science has, in recent years, been steadfastly questioning the notion that human beings are hard-wired for aggression. A great deal of scientific research concludes that we are wired for love, gratefulness, forgiveness and altruism. Our health, well-being and longevity are tied not to our ability to dominate others but to our abilities to relate and communicate with others. We are beings who love to be nurtured. An equally impressive amount of research suggests that a range of meditative practices are profoundly valuable tools for coping with the stresses and complexities of modern life. The deeper we search the inner life and physiological structure of human beings, the more we see a picture that suggests that we are peace-seeking, loving and relational creatures who draw our greatest meaning from contexts which allow us to fully express both our uniqueness and our connectedness to others. Imagine what a contribution to global peace could be made by a government, whose Department of Peace, began to apply and disseminate this emerging science. Lest we think this is all theoretical, just examine how a bloodbath was avoided in South Africa by strategies involving reconciliation and forgiveness.

Finally, if we could bring Science and Reason together to serve the cause of global peace why do we need Spirituality? Another word for spirituality is higher consciousness; it is the inner source of our capacity to create and derive the loftiest meaning we are capable of conceiving and manifesting. Spirituality is the essence of the religious impulse freed of dogmatic belief. It reflects capacities which can embrace both suffering and joy, and orient us towards compassion for others. The spiritual is consciousness recognizing unifying principles and experiencing a profound sense of oneness with others. While Science and Reason are critically needed to provide the basis for peace, it is in our experience of peace in our own lives, and the vivid flourishing that peace brings to our lives, families and communities which allows us to know the benefits of peace. Spirituality gives us the practice of peace without which our scientific and rational frameworks remain concepts not lived experience. It is in the practice of peace that peace will be attained.

So I support a Department of Peace because it is an eminently sane and reasonable initiative, it can help government direct resources towards the goal of peace, it can utilize the best science to help us all attain our optimal development and it can provide opportunities for practice in collaboration, dialogue, mutual respect, and reconciliation without which peace cannot take root.

What we give our attention to grows: if we look for enemies we will find more of them than we ever imagined possible, and if we look for friends and allies with skillful means and real sincerity, they will bloom where once there was a desert called war without end.

James O’Dea is the President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a member of the World Wisdom Council, and former director of Amnesty International, Washington, D.C.