CALL TO RECONCILIATION ON JANUARY 30, 2025
We are getting closer to extinction or, at least, we are flirting with it, while we know what peace is since millenia and the proof of this is that it has been equally understood and seen in the East and in the West without any contact between them. For instance, Marcus Aurelius puts it this way:
“If intelligence and reason are common to all humans, and reason tells us what should be done and what should be avoided, it is also common, therefore, the law must be common and we are fellow citizens of one citizenship where the world is our city (Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book IV, 4) “The nature of the universe has made us all reasonable creatures for one another in order that we may do good to each other (Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, Book IX, 1)
Mòzǐ shares this view, and he considers Universal Love (or Inclusive Care) and Mutual Help the Will of Heaven (also Nature), because things due to this reason which makes us equals, human have been created in such a way that we cannot have peace if it is not all together and if we live together in an inclusive-decision making system, we all will care of each other, and we will all reject evil because it will be our common interest.
The problem is that we cannot step from war to peace, from division to unity as we are divided into states or armed units. The weapon or arm in its beginnings was used by humans to defend themselves and hunt, but between humans, the weapon or arm, whose object is killing and harming, creates a logic of mutual threat that prevents understanding and leads to escalation, not only by generating all and the most lethal possible weapons, but also forcing humans to prevent its human nature and using only violence, enforcement in their relations by organizing hierarchically (absolute inequality or injustice(unfairness) so that that people assume the arm’s aim: to kill – or be killed, mainly as a deserter. For this reason, Cervantes tells us that “it is the same arms or war,” and “Letters (words, ideologies, figurations) are necessarily subordinated to the Arm”, therefore, he shows us the white flag as the means of stopping the arm´s effect, both, killing and threatening/determining us to kill.
Peace must be indeed based on the intelligence and reason that is common to all of us and makes us equal, as the sages tell us, therefore, we cannot expect at the same time peace to be a political initiative, because although politicians are humans, their particular job (call it Arms or Letters) is to serve the state or armed unit and submit us to its service. Politicians appeal to our human feeling, needs and plights because indeed we only know, understand each other this way, but the weird thing is that they limit this to the borders which is, at the same time, excluding the people beyond and this is exactly the way to wage war (outside and inside) because exclusion primacy is confrontation.
We propose a Reconciliation Day on January 30, 2025 by rising the white flag requiring with it to universally stop human service to the arm and initiate a dialogue between all communities, not only states, but also between ordinary citizens creating a network of trust and commitment that go beyond traditional power structures. We can form peace committees in each community, promoting cooperation and understanding, let citizens demand international cooperation for disarmament from their leaders. Just by surpassing the borders with this understanding and undertaking is breaking the cycle of violence by which we generate the common good, which by using the resources that now serve the arm for mutual aid to all Humanity without distinction or discrimination. Firstly, because the condition of disarmament is universality and, consequently, the dividend of peace is a common good and shall be shared as such and, furthermore, isn’t that what common sense tells us? Isn’t it obviously more important to prevent people from starving than for some of us to buy, for example, a new mobile phone? Saving people from death and indignity makes sense for any of us; it is not only about our mental health, it is our real interest and we know it because we are humans.
Share this message, please.