Peace treaties cannot make and keep the peace

Question from the Internet:

“Why can’t we just have a peace treaty? We are all humans, after all. We need each other. Why are we harming ourselves?”

I am not sure how much you know history, but history, especially recent history, is full of peace treaties.

I still remember how excited we were when the Cold War ended, and the US and the Soviet Union signed all kinds of agreements about nuclear weapons and other stuff, not to mention the peace agreements at the end of the Second World War.

Today we have another developing Cold War (the West against Russia and China), which threatens with a nuclear world war, while the rest of the world is also full of ready-to-explode flashpoints. For example, I can’t even count how many peace agreements Israel made with Hamas and other terror organizations only to break out in conflict almost every year, even multiple times a year, not to mention Iran’s nuclear ambitions, etc. And the US is not really a “peace broker” but a facilitator of war.

The EU was supposed to stop rivalry and wars in Europe; by now, the UK is out, and at the same time, there is constantly growing resentment against Brussels, and the more powerful European nations from other nations, and one does not need to be a prophet to foresee the end of the EU as we know it soon.

Peace treaties — which are often unfair to one or more of the parties involved — do not mean actual peace. They just mean a pause in the conflict and war, giving time to the opponents to prepare for the continuation.

Peace treaties cannot and will not erase the mutual distrust and animosity. Usually, they increase it as a peace treaty usually comes with unacceptable concessions for most.

If we want true peace, we will need to understand why we cannot make and keep peace in the first place.

And we cannot make and keep the peace as we are all built for ruthless and exclusive competition and to succeed at the expense of others while actually enjoying proving ourselves on the account of others. We all want to accumulate and consume everything possible only for ourselves.

Thus for true peace, we would all need to learn how to exist and act above and against our inherent nature. And this is a formidable task. The question is if it will be increasing and finally intolerable suffering or wise forward thinking and conscious and proactive self-changes and self-development that will lead to true peace.

We need a unique, purposeful and highly practical educational method to make us feel that we truly need each other since we are all interdependent and that by harming others we are actually harming ourselves. Then we will be able to start acting above and against our nature.