Spring Break
Understanding two kinds of peace
Dan Fitzpatrick
Issue date: 5/20/08 Section: Forum
A friend once told me there are two kinds of peace.
The first one is false, when everything is made peaceful not because it is right or just, but because people have artificially forced the peace to happen. He called this "the peace of the grave" because in that kind of peace, something dies in order to bring it about.
The second kind is a true peace, when things are in order and just.
This is the peace that we all really want, but too often we strive for the first one.
In the name of peace and unity, some Americans have tied themselves together and walked out onto freeways, staged sit-ins, stripped off their clothes and draped their naked bodies in treetops, held topless "Breasts not Bombs" rallies and written countless songs of love and togetherness.
None of these help bring about justice or order, which are the only means of securing a real peace.
Justice and order are difficult things to accomplish, however, and so many people simply give up and strive for a counterfeit. This counterfeit is usually called "unity" or "consensus."
When the Hamilton-Baker Iraq Study Group report came out in December 2006, it was lauded as a fantastic solution not on its merits, but because it represented a wonderful consensus opinion of those on the left and right. How wonderful that we can get Democrats and Republicans to agree on something, pundits said.
This must be the answer we've been looking for!
Except that the ISG report was wrong on its prognosis of the war.
The Washington Post declared at the time that the report showed "the war is essentially already lost" - and yet here we are in May 2008 looking back at the great success of the surge and the progress it has fostered in Iraq.
But the condition of Iraq isn't my point. The takeaway from this is that "consensus" opinion doesn't have a thing to do with truth.
No matter how many Sandra Day O'Connors and Vernon Jordans agree on how best to deal with the Iraq war, the fact that they agree on a solution means nothing.
The first one is false, when everything is made peaceful not because it is right or just, but because people have artificially forced the peace to happen. He called this "the peace of the grave" because in that kind of peace, something dies in order to bring it about.
The second kind is a true peace, when things are in order and just.
This is the peace that we all really want, but too often we strive for the first one.
In the name of peace and unity, some Americans have tied themselves together and walked out onto freeways, staged sit-ins, stripped off their clothes and draped their naked bodies in treetops, held topless "Breasts not Bombs" rallies and written countless songs of love and togetherness.
None of these help bring about justice or order, which are the only means of securing a real peace.
Justice and order are difficult things to accomplish, however, and so many people simply give up and strive for a counterfeit. This counterfeit is usually called "unity" or "consensus."
When the Hamilton-Baker Iraq Study Group report came out in December 2006, it was lauded as a fantastic solution not on its merits, but because it represented a wonderful consensus opinion of those on the left and right. How wonderful that we can get Democrats and Republicans to agree on something, pundits said.
This must be the answer we've been looking for!
Except that the ISG report was wrong on its prognosis of the war.
The Washington Post declared at the time that the report showed "the war is essentially already lost" - and yet here we are in May 2008 looking back at the great success of the surge and the progress it has fostered in Iraq.
But the condition of Iraq isn't my point. The takeaway from this is that "consensus" opinion doesn't have a thing to do with truth.
No matter how many Sandra Day O'Connors and Vernon Jordans agree on how best to deal with the Iraq war, the fact that they agree on a solution means nothing.
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