Dreaming peace

Image by Javardh via unsplash

Yesterday, I returned to my Quaker meeting after a hiatus of nearly three months because of travelling. I have always been sensitive to energies, and I was not surprised to feel a cloak of peace enveloping me as I sat down in the meeting room.

Quakers are unusual. Some of us don’t talk of God; others do. Others speak of Spirit, the Divine, the Light, or simply Love. But we share the experience that we can all tap into a source of wisdom in the silence. Anyone can minister from that source. When I feel the urge to minister, I quake inwardly. It is like a tingling all over my body, and I know I must stand and speak even though it is sometimes the last thing I want to do. I would rather not put myself on the line in that way. Who am I, after all? Why should I break the silence? I’d much rather stay there in the tangible peace of a gathered meeting. But I have learned to give in to the urge to minister. The alternative is to feel somewhat out of sorts for some time afterwards.

And yesterday was one such day when I broke the silence. Because of peace. Now, I, like many of us, find the talk of Europe preparing for a third world war troubling, to say the least. We all know, even Quakers with our pacifist views, that certain world leaders are not amenable to negotiation. And sanctions hardly seem to touch them, even when their populations feel the pinch. The alternatives to violence we hold so dear simply don’t work.

But what if there were another way to do politics?

When I was working at the university, I had to go through an annual 360-degree evaluation. I had to ask students, colleagues, and my manager to send a confidential report on my performance to a colleague who oversaw the process. And I had to send her my assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Once she had read all the reports, she would meet with me to discuss how I might develop in the coming year, and what resources I might need in order to do that. It was a collegial process, not a blaming one, but still I found it excruciating. It was not flawless. It did not prevent cronyism in the higher echelons. But there was an accountability unlike the accountability in politics of ‘let’s see what the ballot box says about how we are doing.’ When you get a world leader who ignores ballot boxes, you are in big trouble.

So, what if, before even running for office, candidates had to prove their commitment to peace instead of their might? And what if, once elected, politicians had to undergo an annual evaluation, focussed on their peacemaking? What if well-being became more important than economic growth, as Jacinda Ardern tried to do when in office[i] in Aotearoa New Zealand?

I know my idea is a tad futuristic, but one world leader tried to do something approaching this. Unfortunately, she then faced tough decisions during the Covid crisis. She became unpopular for saving lives over businesses and mental health. World leaders face tough decisions.

We are at a crossroads in our history. The next world war will not be pretty – let’s face it, the other two weren’t, either. Humanity has a choice. We don’t have to go to war if we oust the leaders whose main purpose in life is to wield power. We can choose the peacemakers instead – the skilled negotiators, and people who know how to run a country in the way Jacinda did. Okay, even though she wasn’t perfect, many of us would rather live in a country that values wellbeing, where people hug each other genuinely, and that respects people of all faiths and none.

I’m not sure where we start with this world change. It needs dreamers, fiction writers (maybe including me) and so on to build up a picture of what it might look like. And then, we might just be able to turn a dream into reality. It would not be the first time fiction writers have foretold the future.

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[i] https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2019-06/b19-wellbeing-budget.pd

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