Understanding Peace, By Dyske Suematsu

We hear words like "evil", "brutal", and "dictator" quite often these days. What we tend to forget is that they are relative terms. A few hundred years ago, the world was much more "brutal" place with countries like Great Britain dictating many parts of the world. By todays standard, what many European countries did to their colonies would be described as "evil." What the settlers did to the Native Americans could also be described as "evil". If you compare what Americans did to blacks, what Saddam Hussein did doesn't sound so bad.

Even if you take a slice of time, some countries are always behind others in terms of how civilized they are. From the perspective of civilized countries, the behaviors of uncivilized countries appear "evil" or "brutal". We see Iraq's dictatorship to be "evil" and "brutal", but this too is relative and subjective. To most Europeans, Americans are still uncivilized when it comes to things like death penalty. Most Europeans see Americans to be "brutal", if not "evil", for continuing to kill their own people by capital punishment. One could argue that capital punishment is not "brutal" but that does not change the fact that Europeans perceive it as such. By the same token, Saddam could also argue that what he is doing to his own people is not "evil", but we will see it as evil regardless.

Once we crush Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, the standard of "evil" and "brutal" will simply be readjusted. Remember: what we consider "evil" today, isn't as evil as what was considered evil, say, a few hundred years ago. Other countries that did not appear so "evil" when the Axis of Evil was around, will eventually look evil. In this manner, the world will always live side by side with "good" and "evil". If we cannot manage to have peace with "good" and "evil" coexisting, we'll never achieve it. The path to good cannot be forced on others; it can only be shown by your own example, like Gandhi did. When you try to crush evil, you only grow it bigger. Don't underestimate the power of the dark side. Only by throwing your lightsaber and saying "Never. I'll never turn to the dark side," could you show others the path to good.

Puritanical Christians, for instance, who deny the existence of "evil" within themselves, project their own inner evil unto others, and attack them in order to give themselves the illusion that they are nothing but good. We all are mixtures of good and evil. Good cannot exist without evil, and vice versa. If you think you are nothing but good, like George W. Bush does, you create conflicts not only in the world but also within yourself. It is only when you are convinced you are absolutely good, that you can impose your own will on others, i.e., "dictate" others. That is exactly what Hitler did. He never thought he was doing anything evil. He thought he was doing the right thing for his people.

Tony Blair said about a month ago, "But sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction." If you had never heard this before, and if I told you that these were words of Hitler in response to a criticism for executing the Jews, it would be perfectly believable.

A peaceful person, or world, is where good and evil live side by side.


By Dyske Suematsu | Apr-5-03