How Sharing Promotes World Peace
When I first received this year’s assignment for the speech contest, I had no idea what to do. “How does sharing promote world peace?” My first thought after reading that was, “Sharing could never promote world peace. There just isn’t any way!”
I suppose I ought to explain my reasoning. Look at the world around us. Sharing is not something we human beings do naturally. From the two-year-old refusing to share her favorite dolly to the mighty stockbroker of Wall Street miserishly clutching his wallet as he passes a group of ragged-looking people. Need I provide more examples?
We all refuse to share on some level or another. It is simply against our nature to part with the things which we hold most dear, the things we think we simply “cannot” live without.
Yes, I do know that not everyone is like the miserly stockbroker, the whiney two-year-old, or maybe even that grouchy next-door neighbor. There are constant reminders that “the poor are always with us”, and so many do make an effort to help those poor, either by giving them money, food, shelter, and so on, or by giving them protection during a time of war. I know there is sharing going on in the world, but this sharing does not, has not, brought peace to the world. Indeed, it does not even promote peace within a nation, a village, or a family.
Think back to about sixty years ago. What was going on? World War II. What ended the war? The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 1945. And not just any bombs were used, but atomic bombs.
Albert Einstein developed the mathematical equation E=mc2, which laid the foundation for the birth of the atomic bomb. This terrible invention was shared throughout the entire world, but did this super-weapon promote world peace?
It did end World War II, so I suppose there is some argument for it. But, rather than peace, America received submission. I do not think submission can equal world peace.
The original purpose of developing weapons of mass destruction, such as the aforesaid atomic bomb and other nuclear warheads, was to frighten and subdue uprising nations, thereby bringing about a forced world peace. A brilliant idea at the time but, unfortunately, one that did not work. Seven years ago, America invaded Iraq not only due to the terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center, but also because of rumors that they had weapons of mass destruction in their possession. These weapons have not, will not, promote world peace. Instead, they destroy our world and all our hopes for peace.
Not all sharing provokes war, though! America is one of the greatest nations for giving to third-world countries: money, clothes, food, medical supplies - you name it, we give it. It does help, we can see that. But does it promote peace? No, it does not. We give so much to third-world countries that the inhabitants of those countries come to believe that Americans are going to provide for all their needs, so therefore they do not need to work for a living. If we should pull away from them, and cut off the supplies we send to them, they would perish, or rise up angrily against us.
How do I know that these people lean on us so much? I have experienced it firsthand: in Zambia I saw groups of men standing around, doing nothing to provide for their families. They relied completely upon the food given to them from World Vision trucks. In Mozambique, even the youngest of children knew to run after the strange white kids, screaming “Wazungus! Wazungus!” They supposed, since we were obviously wealthy Americans, that we would give them candy or money. When we didn’t give them what they wanted, hate or anger would sometimes fill their eyes, and they would turn away, refusing any other help that we might have been able to provide.
These are all cases of sharing – sharing which does not promote world peace. I am not against sharing, really, I’m not! I am just against sharing things which cause harm, rather than promoting peace. What can we do to help, to share, to promote world peace? What would make us all equals?
Knowledge. Knowledge can promote world peace.
I never thought about this aspect of sharing until a few weeks ago, when a young woman came to my school to lecture. She works with the Peace Corps, and had just returned for a brief visit home from Lesotho, a small country in Southern Africa. She is a teacher at a small college there, and works to teach her students how to grow their own food and to properly care for themselves and for their land.
Now this – this - could promote world peace. Instead of teaching people to rely upon others for survival, we can teach them to rely upon themselves. This young woman has made a long-term commitment to these people, sharing her knowledge with them in order to give them a better life. Now, instead of this particular third-world group needing external support, they can support themselves. That way, in times of difficulty, when America might not be able to help, their needs will be provided for, and they will be at peace with us, and among themselves.
Dear old Socrates sums up my argument in one simple sentence. “There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” Think of the world that could be if everyone knew the truth about education, nutrition, financial issues, and especially disease! Knowledge would bring about peace.
Again, I am aware that knowledge is not always the answer – there are always cases where the knowledge we share will turn around and bite us in the proverbial backside. But, as I have learned while writing this speech, sharing knowledge is the best way to encourage world peace.
Though we may not see the product of our efforts, the seed will have been planted, and world peace will develop.
2 comments:
wow, this is so true. its inspired me to write something on this. you should check out my blog.
i want world peace too.
=]
wow, hun!! this was fabulous! i know you wrote this forever ago, but I never read through it all the way. But, I'm glad I read it, it was really good.
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