Let There Be Peace on Earth...

...and let it begin with me.

Sy Miller and Bill Jackson wrote the song "Let There Be Peace on Earth" back in 1955. It has since snuck into hymnals - at least it has in the church where I work. It's a nice thought, isn't it? A world with no war, no violence. A brotherhood of man, as John Lennon sang in "Imagine."

It'll never happen.

We can't even stop people with 11 items from going through the "10 Items or Less" checkout lanes at the grocery store. Yet we hope that someday, people will join hands across the globe and base their lives on some sort of universal "Be Kind - Rewind!" mantra? Come again?

I don't have much hope regarding the greater good of Mankind. I guess that sounds pessimistic but personally, I think I'm being realistic.

There are pockets of exceptions, but overall, humans are hard-wired for survival at all costs, and as the gap between the Haves and the Have-Nots gets wider, the Have-Nots respond by losing their interest in keeping the peace. When resources are in short supply, the Haves tend to tighten their grip and hoard their treasure like Smaug the dragon. Let the doubloons corrode into dust and the great stores of wheat rot, but they'll be damned if they're going to share.

If your neighbor has the last loaf of bread in the village, he's probably not going to be willing to share any of it with you because he's concerned about keeping himself alive. Driven by hunger and survival instinct, you may very well mosey over to his hut, bonk him on the head with a club, and take the bread for yourself. If he had split the loaf in half and given you a share, two people could've lived half as long. If he kept it all for himself, one person would live twice as long. Which of those scenarios is better?

We might think ourselves above such survival-based narcissism but until we're truly in that sort of predicament, can we really say without a doubt's shadow that we wouldn't act like a baser animal, intent only on living for another day, kindness and social protocol be damned? I would like to think that I'd share my resources. I would also like to think that I wouldn't commit violence to obtain the resources of someone else. BUT I've never been put into the precarious business of clinging to life by the very tips of my fingernails. How do I KNOW what my reaction would be?

Let's face it. Even if we consider ourselves good people, we still have our moments where we want to smack the mother-lovin' bejeezus out of the person who cut us off in traffic or the rotten kid throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the store. We nearly get an orgasmic rush as we imagine the thick palm of our hand connecting solidly with the back of some jerk's bony head. It's a luscious sensation, isn't it?

But, being civilized people, we sublimate those feelings and go about our lives in a mostly non-violent manner. We don't act on our emotions. We may mutter blackly under our breath about unfit parents and mandatory birth control or, in the case of the snotwad driver, scream at the top of our lungs...but that's as far as it goes. We don't run the driver off the road or body slam the shrieking child. Granted, problems can arise when we never allow ourselves to let off steam in an appropriate way. Note the sexual abuse of children by priests - they're forced to stuff their natural sexual urges and it oozes out in unacceptable ways.

Too, if you think about having total peace on earth, "all good" isn't really much better than "some bad." There's no contrast, no friction. If it's sunny 365 days a year, you don't fully appreciate a sunny day. Let it rain for a couple weeks and then see how you feel when the sun comes out again. There's no such thing as "light" if you don't have "dark" to create a comparison. Death is necessary for Life to continue. As in all things, balance is essential.

Does that mean I like when bad things happen to good people? Of course not. I'm not a sadistic nut who gets off on other people's pain. I still grieve when I see a dead animal alongside the road. I still mourn the state of the world when I read about a 90-year-old woman who gets stabbed in her apartment by a creep who wants to rob her or about an 11-year-old boy whose life is cut short after he's hit by a drunk driver. I still ask "Why?" when a bridge collapses into the muddy waters of the Mississippi, killing and injuring people who wanted nothing more than to go about their evening's business.

While I don't foresee peace on earth, I WOULD like to see people dial it back a bit. Let's do our best to get rid of extreme violence - murders, rapes, torture, war. I think a few slap fights, a screaming match every now and then, and perhaps some vulgar hand gestures and a hard-fought game of Candyland would be enough to maintain the balance between Good and Not-Good.

It wouldn't be universal harmony, but I think it'd beat what we got going on now.