Our Words Suggest that the Human Race Is a Peace-Loving Species

Our civilization’s words imply that we value peace. I mention that today, as it’s the 42nd anniversary of the last appearance of a human being on the moon, during which Commander Eugene Cernan and crew member Harrison Schmitt unveiled a plaque which read: “Here man completed his first explorations of the Moon, December 1972. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.”

Even many of our wars began with expressions of our supposed love of peace, e.g., “The war to end all wars” (WWI) and “The war that will make the world safe for democracy” (The Invasion of Iraq).

It’s hard not to see the logical fallacy and hypocrisy of all this, which perhaps is the reason the Quakers (pictured: William Penn at 22 years old) simply refuse to fight. After all the centuries, they still react with astonishment when an ostensibly civilized nation of people embark on a campaign of mass murder in the name of peace.

One would like to believe that our thinking and behavior will one day fall in line with our words. In any case, I doubt that anyone will ever be able to communicate this notion better than Arthur C. Clark, in his wonderful video that he made on his 90th birthday, where he noted his hopes that the 21st Century will somehow be less “tribal” and thus represent a turn-around from the 20th, the bloodiest in human history.