SEARCHING FOR PEACE AMID WAR

Almost two centuries ago the Spanish painter and printmaker, Francisco Goya created 82 etchings entitled “The Disasters of War” or “Los Desastres de la Guerra.” Although not published until some 35 years after his death, they were his visual protest against man’s inhumanity to war. He served as court painter during the brutal Napoleonic Wars which lasted twelve years and ended in 1815. Goya crossed into Spirit in 1828.
Historians are still trying to get a grip on an accurate figure of total fatalities, both military and civilian. The Napoleonic Wars involved most of Europe and claimed between 2.5 million and 3.5 million military deaths and between 750,000 to 3 million civilian deaths. A reasonable estimate of both military and civilian fatalities rests between 3,250,000 and 6,500,000.
Did we learn from European events in the early 19th century? It’s doubtful!
Exactly 100 years later Europe was again the battlefield for something they called The Great War. While disease through lack of medical and cleanliness claimed many casualties in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I saw an increased array of deadlier weapons on the battlefields –- tanks, enormous cannons, intense field artillery and aerial bombing. A staggering ten million military personnel and seven million civilians lost their lives. As if to curse the entire war in 1918 Spanish Flu swept Europe and the world and an estimated 50 to 100 million people died.
WW1 was called “The war to end all wars.” Twenty-one years later Planet Earth realized World War 2 and in those six years of 1939 to 1945 an estimated 62 to 70 million lives were lost. Of these 22 to 25 million were military.
Did peace come with V-J Day? Not a bit. Did we learn anything from the deadliest war in human history? Doubtful!
In case we have forgotten there were other wars taking place on the planet. Mao Tse-Tung’s war regime in China, Stalin's regime, the Russian Civil War, Congo Civil Wars, Korean War, the French Indochina War, the American Indochina War including Laos & Cambodia, the Sudanese Civil Wars, the Russian-Afghanistan War, the Ethiopian Civil Wars, the Mexican Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, Nigeria: Biafran revolt, Mozambique Civil War, Rwandan Massacres, French-Algerian War, First Indochina War, Angolan Civil War, the Spanish Civil War and the Somalian Civil War.
In the modern history of the human race there has not been a day of peace.
Has humanity in the 21st century learned anything about the tragedy of war? The number of smaller wars currently taking place on Planet Earth is mind-boggling and terrifying. Go to The History Guy and look under "21st Century Wars" and you will feel as bleak about war as Francisco Goya did two hundred years ago.
Is it true that humanity is prone to or even addicted to war?
Let us take a look at “war” on all its levels. There are the major wars. Then there are the neighborhood wars that range from big time drug trading, to small time gang wars on city streets. There are smaller wars that go on between families, cultural sects, and groups. When a group of people gang up to haze a person and hurt or kill that is war. Wars big and small are happening all around us. An adult group that violently invades the peace of another group is as guilty of war crimes as a country invading another.
Most wars are motivated by one or more of the faces of the negative ego: possession, envy, posturing, jealousy, anger, arrogance, deceit, discontent, despair, deviousness, anguish, lying, bias, worry, fear, panic, criticism, bitterness, revenge, tension, boredom, resistance, foolishness, confusion, flattery, conceit, insecurity, ignorance, possession, obsession, boastfulness, terror and hatred.
As an exercise read up on a good history of any war perhaps one in ancient times to one of the two dozen wars taking place at present on Planet Earth. Work to understand why the war came about. Work to understand the official rationale then work to understand underlying motives, the roots of war. Observe the propaganda; observe the news media reports for accuracy and bias. Study independent observer reports. Review the statements of the chief motivator of war and observe what faces of the negative ego were or are being manifested by leading politicians and opinion-leaders on all sides.
As a follow-up exercise examine a family or local conflagration and work to understand why that happened. Again, observe if any of the faces of the negative ego are evident in statements or actions of the chief motivators. Work to see if there are similar comparisons.
With both examples make notes and view everything without personal attachment – that is without comment, opinion or judgment. This technique is called Impartial Self Observation and is described in detail in my book Cracking the Glass Darkly. This ancient technique allows one to see clearly the motives of national leaders and the events of war without personal attachment.
Well intended people say we should all “fight for peace.” But here is one of the crazy illusions that frequent the human psyche. No one has ever fought for and accomplished peace. Fighting for anything does not result in peace. If a country has to maintain superior weapons of mass destruction in case they are needed, that country and its people are not at peace with itself or others. Nuclear silos are not symbols of peace, neither are nuclear bomb shelters in the backyard. They are reminders of war.
Peace is a consciousness of mind and spirit.
Learn to be an impartial observer of war whether big or small and work to understand why the principals are acting the way they do. Make a list of the faces of the negative ego given earlier and see if the principals are resorting to any of those faces. Do not fall into the trap of becoming guilty, angry or fearful, because that is falling into the mire of their scenario –- the scenario of war.
The more humans of all countries work to impartially understand the reasons for war and the people who brought them about, the more all will yearn for and seek peace and elect leaders with similar minds. It is a Peace Consciousness that stands in its own light of truth. Perhaps this is the message Francisco Goya was thinking when he created those classic 82 etchings two centuries ago called “The Disasters of War.”