A planet of peace seems hard to come by these days. What might be the most beautiful planet in our galaxy, the seemingly dominant species has a nasty habit of declaring war on a myriad of fronts which include drugs, poverty, cancer, bacteria, viruses, and each other.

Rarely is there a victor. Most of the time, all parties involved lose in one shape or form. Yet still, the nasty habit of thinking in war-like terms and metaphors is passed down from generation to generation as articulated by linguist George Lakoff in his work.

However, there’s also a bright side. A thread of consciousness that streams through our species, is that of compassion, love, caring, kindness, and always looking out for others. These species members recognize the interconnectedness and oneness of all life. That we are all diverse aspects of a Universal Eco-System. This is the consciousness that can create a peaceful planet. Those that, through experience, often suffer and experience hardships, have come to see others in oneself, and oneself in another.

One could say that these are the more evolved members of the species. These beings are found everywhere on the planet. They’re inside every culture, religion, caste, every social and economic status. They prefer peace to war and diplomacy to violence. They recognize each other through their expression of kindness, consideration, patience, understanding, and compassion. There’s a lightness of spirit, resilience, and often playful humor.

It's an unofficial human species membership. Those that are more humane. Every human begins as a member. Then, a tiny minority drifts away from the core behaviors of bonding, social relationships, and building community. The entities that have kept us alive from the days of hunting and gathering have apparently decided that material wealth and power trump everything else.
This tiny minority drives themselves forward at any expense to others. Do so to attain positions of political office, military positions, and to become captains of industry.

The problem isn’t the positions that these minority members attain. Our species need responsible, thoughtful people in all positions throughout human society. However, there seems to be a few age-old adages that keep proving themselves true which has led to untold bloodshed.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

(Lord Acton)

As man’s power increases, their sense of moral ethics and perspective decreases. Creating peace on the planet is proving to be an untenable situation. There are likely few exceptions to this rule.

The great rock star Jimi Hendrix expressed his views on the concept of global peace in this succinct but impactful quote:

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

There are some people who have acquired vast sums of money by either seriously harming other people, the ecosystem, or most typically, both.

If you take a long look at the history of humanity, you will find that there are numerous sayings that echo the call for peace. These words appeal to the nature of humanity to do the obvious:

Do no harm. Keep your word. Serve People first, and get in line. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Find peaceful resolution to the conflict through the God-given gift of communication. Keep talking, listening deeply and empathizing, putting oneself in the other’s shoes, until a peaceful resolution is realized.

These simple guidelines provide principles of thought and action that could save countless lives and utterly transform life on this beautiful planet.

We know that when people live for a purpose larger than themselves, for instance, to serve humanity on Earth, there tends to be a kind of meaning and ambition in their lives that drives them forward toward this service. Service that isn’t an imposition but offers people what they want.

Living in peace and harmony on Earth, for instance, could be seen in simple steps that would occur in a much larger series of steps. As an example, if achieving these were Step 1, what if Step 2 would be to understand and explore everything below us, as in the depths of the ocean and earth. Step 3 would be to explore everything above us, as in the heavens and the rest of the vastness of the outer universe. Am I being Pollyanna? That should be the worst allegation! I’m aiming toward an ideal, granted, but with enough agreement among enough people, this vision can be realized.

Everyone would benefit. It would be a temporary, financial setback for those who prosper from war and violence, from the military-industrial complex to the media and Hollywood, but a spiritual apotheosis. Through creative diversification into peacetime, peace-making business activities, they’ll be more profitable financially, emotionally, and spiritually. Dollars in the bank are but one form of payment. Sleep, for instance, the World Economic Forum, the other major financial institutions, would be greatly improved. Imagine that global peace, all the way to peace in the family because everyone has enough food, clean water, a decent habitat, electricity, and their own garden or even windowsill garden, everyone has access to high-quality education in the true sense of the term, and with this foundation, we could really ‘get to work’.