Can we find peace? (A solution)

I went to a hippie elementary school. We had a daily assembly called "morning sing" where we'd all sit on the floor of the ballroom and sing along to hippie songs like "Moonshadow" and the all-time Nueva classic "Let there be Peace on Earth" and it was supposed to instill the idea that we can be responsible for global peace. Unfortunately, all it did for me is show me that we're working for a peace that can't really be attained without wholesale global changes. Hatred is rampant in the world and the added technological advances only hasten the eventual destruction of our planet. As we see so many places descend into anarchy, conflict and chaos it is only natural to consider what kinds of possiblities we will have for peace. What will it take for this world to realize that we are all one and the same, we just live in different environments and speak different versions of the same language?

The epitome of this struggle for peace is obviously in the Middle East. Here is a region that has control over the most (economically) valuable resource to ever exist on this planet, yet the majority of the people live in squalor without any prospects. Meanwhile, Israel is this wealthy nation without any real natural resources and it breeds jealousy and hatred. The clerics use this discrepancy to engender resentment towards those who do not hold the same beliefs. Historical anti-semitism aside, there ARE reasons for everyone in the Middle East to hate Israel, but most of them are based in jealousy and revenge for military embarrassments. Israel is not a welcomed resident of the Middle East, but it's a resident nevertheless. In reality, Israel is just a REALLY easy scapegoat for all of the region's problems. Jews make great scapegoats because there aren't too many of them, and they are generally far smarter and more successful than basically any other ethno-religious group. Even though per capita income has fallen from $25,000 in 1980 to $8,000 in 2003, Saudi Arabia holds 24% of the world's Oil in reserve and there are bilionaires living as royalty. Why the people are willing to let their leaders grow so incredibly wealthy while their economic power is shrinking is beyond me. Instead of blaming King Abdullah for their problems and instituting a constitutional democracy with sharing of the vast oil wealth, the people live in a highly structured theocracy without any real say in the workings of the government, law or economy.

So why talk about Saudi Arabia when it's probably the least problematic nation in the region? Because the economic, natural and geographic resources are strong enough to engage in more symbiotic relationships with neighbors and to step in and be a regional voice of reason. Instead, they let Iranian president Amandinejad go wild with his megalomania and threaten Israel and the rest of the world. They let Hezbollah threaten regional safety without doing much of anything to help stop the growing conflict. When Jews are fighting Muslims, Sunnis are fighting Shi'ites and everyone is fighting peace, a voice of reason from within the region must step forward. The Arab street is very important in politics, and the street is calling for Israel to be wiped off of the map. What can be done to change public opinion? Simple, the leaders of the masses MUST step forward. They must say that all violence is wrong; that Sunnis, Shi'ites, Catholics and Jews are all basically the same and should be friends, not enemies; that killing innocent civilians in a suicide attack is NOT a martyr, but mass murder and is not a ticket to paradise.

But organized religion is simply not designed to foster peace and compassion for all people. If it was, we wouldn't have had endless conflict (resulting in the deaths of millions and millions) from the beginning of religion. Sunnis and Shi'ites are basically the same as Catholics and Protestants. They both follow the exact same religion, prophet and god as their counterpart, yet they feel this eternal hatred towards each other because one side chose to follow one leader while the other side went another direction. But their beliefs are the same basically, very few differences are present. Muslims and Jews have an unending hatred for each other, but they both follow the teachings of Abraham. Wouldn't it be better for everyone if we just realized this?

Religion blinds people. They use it as a crutch to make life easier. Without religion, people wouldn't sit in a church praying for rain to make their crops grow, they'd be out in the field figuring out ways to maximize their output. Religion may not have been the direct cause of the renewed fighting (a bold move by Hezbollah is), but theocratic regimes, clerics with too much power and centuries old religious hatred are all major factors. All religion does is divide people into groups when true morailty would have everyone included in the same group. Shouldn't we all believe in goodwill towards man, charity, love, honor and devotion? Why do we need some right-wing cleric (or pastor, priest, rabbi) to tell us how to think? Do people really need the pope to tell them how to think about abortion? Do they need a leader to tell them how to think about Israel? Global Peace is nothing but a pipe-dream when we cannot even have peace in our own cities. But the first step towards global harmony would have to be the elimination of organized religions and the supremacy it holds over the masses. Then we'd have to eliminate borders so we could eliminate the destructive -isms patriotism and nationalism. Only then will people realize that there are very few differences between people and that we really should be of one nation, one religion: Mankind.