A peaceable existence

Existence is not enough – otherwise, why the need for and persistence of existentialism. Peace is not enough – otherwise why the ongoing violence and war that peppers our lives. Peace is a word they came up with, with a nice enough definition. If you were asked, who wouldn’t want what peace offers? But peace is not the question. Just as it’s not enough of an answer. An acknowledgement that even the people at the Institute of Economics and Peace make implicit in their delineation between an active and passive peace; their project, Vision of Humanity, designed to promote an active peace and encourage human effort worthy of the aspiration, publishing the Global Peace Index and methods by which we might climb in the rankings.

I have what my mother calls the social justice gene, which I hope as hell is not as arbitrary as a gene, rather something that can be fostered, and brought about by peaceable means – through the influencing efforts of the human arts – and the freedom for people to exercise and access creative and critical cultural and political production in order to explore their identity and enjoy an active citizenry. I think writers and philosophers, alongside their peers across the arts, have a role to play as effective, non-violent communicators, whose messages can potentially herald change, or at very least serve to lighten and enliven the times in which we live.

Peace won’t just arrive when the war is over. Just as peace is not accurately an absence of war. Peace is an art and it must be practised.