It is crucial to use our intelligence to understand and recognize what our humanity means, which does not allow for a ‘partial or limited peace,’ and that is why war is said to be ‘absolute.’
In the past, human groups were isolated and uncommunicated, and the exclusive decision-making that leads to confrontation was inevitable. For this reason, humans have organized themselves into armed units or states. However, in our time, we can reconcile (and forgive ourselves, as it was not within our control not to harm each other) and establish peace or inclusive decision-making that avoids and prevents the intent of harm and implies cooperation for the common good.
However, the first inclusive decision must be disarmament, the renunciation of the intention or purpose to destroy the other, which is the object of the weapon. Without this renunciation, no inclusive decision can be made, since the purpose of destruction (of the other) conditions everything else so much that cooperation not only cannot be inclusive but happens only really against third parties (and hence the ugliness of politics).
Why is this so? Because of our humanity, which is unique and belongs to all of us, putting us in the place of the other by projecting and anticipating. That is why we submit to those who threaten us. The inevitable consequence of wanting to harm, even if it is only one person in the world, is equivalent to harming everyone, as this forces others to take sides (logically, the other will not agree to be destroyed), and where force is used, freedom and humanity are deprived.
This was already understood by the wise pacifists who called themselves cosmopolitans, as they understood that peace was nothing other than natural law, the law of the Cosmos. Mozi, the Eastern cosmopolitan version, whose doctrine is Universal Love, affirms that this love is the Will of Heaven, which has arranged things in such a way that some of us cannot have peace while others do not, as a consequence of that virtual human capacity. Similarly, for Mozi, love is not idealistic, a will or voluntarism that uselessly confronts a world at war, but rather love is the logical consequence of universality.
Mozi says in “Xiaoqu” – Minor Illustration – 7:
愛人，待周愛人而後為愛人。不愛人，不待周不愛人；不周愛，因為不愛人矣。乘馬，不待周乘馬然後為乘馬也；有乘於馬，因為乘馬矣。逮至不乘馬，待周不乘馬而後不乘馬。此一周而一不周者也。
To love people requires loving all people for it to count as loving people; but not loving people does not require not loving anyone for it to count as not loving people.
Riding a horse does not require riding all horses for it to count as riding a horse; it is enough to have ridden one horse for it to imply riding horses. By contrast, not riding a horse requires not riding any horse for it to count as not riding a horse.
This is “one requires all and the other not all.”
This captures the wonderful and fascinating condition and characteristic of our humanity. But it is intelligence that must discern.
And discerning this condition of our humanity is the meaning of the call for a Day of Reconciliation on January 30, 2025. Until that day, we share, spread, and support this message and the call as much as we can, and on that day, we ensure that this communication effectively reaches all of Humanity, thus beginning disarmament by placing all weapons under human command. As they are no longer than just one for the other, they suspend their activity and development, making disarmament not only possible but also convenient.
Not even that command can then generate the initiative of harm, as it would be the absurd and contradictory situation of one who simultaneously attacks and defends themselves. Moreover, the command is not at the top of the hierarchy, as only an army constitutes a hierarchy. Here, the command is over all arms, which do not compose a hierarchy, and therefore, it is a command of equals, a human command. All this projects intelligence before which we must not blind ourselves.
This is how liberal democracy introduces its Trojan horse (the East also knows about this key war idea with the YinYang) and conquers through globalization, with the advantage of printing dollars and buying everything of value. Similar scenarios unfolded in China, where Mao shut out Western powers established during the Kuomintang era, and in Russia, where the 1998 crisis marked a shift from Yeltsin’s liberal democracy to Putin’s current authoritarianism/nationalism.
Western leaders believe and assert that this is the only form of ‘progress,’ since there is no alternative—peace is ‘false,’ (just another Trojan horse) and material progress is the only option despite persistent inequality. However, this same design of the West was the good intention behind communism: using the working class as a Trojan horse to establish a unified world system, achieving maximum peace or, at least, maximum hegemonic control. This was also the project of the Spanish monarchy, the Chinese Confucian system, Islam, and every empire: conquest or total dominance through ideological penetration.
I recall when HUM was launched on February 3, 2018, an incredibly intelligent and sensitive woman asked me the difference between HUM’s project and Alexander the Great’s. Alexander propagated this human unity purpose as peace, making political and personal decisions according to it. The answer is simple: if ideology serves the arm, it cannot dispense with it, even if the world falls under a single command, as the U.S. recently did, or China deceives itself with its Confucian vision of a unified and benevolent command imposing peace. An arm implies hierarchy, absolute inequality or injustice, which prevent humanity and common sense, allowing only violent relationships. How can the arm bring peace if the arm is synonymous with war?
Peace is our responsibility as individuals, equal human beings, not as members of a hierarchy or state. It’s about drawing attention to the arm and demanding seriousness from others about it too, not hiding it behind windmills (figurations). We need to unite to disarm and live according to our humanity and common sense. This was unfeasible in the past but is now within our reach by calling for Humanity’s reconciliation on January 30, 2025.