Becoming capable of peace

You can find the program of the Munich Peace Weeks HERE

“My armor is the defensive one,
Your armor is the offensive one,
I have to arm because you are arming,
Because you arm, I arm,
So let’s get ready,
Let’s always be prepared.”

(Text by Berta von Suttner)

In the foreword to his new book, anti-armament campaigner Jürgen Grässlin describes what this deadly – and expensive – project could mean in concrete terms as follows…we are living in dark times: The climate catastrophe is progressing, wars and civil wars are raging worldwide, trillions of US dollars are being misinvested in armaments, arms exports and militarization – instead of in securing social systems, in health and education and in a world worth living in. world worth living in….”

We in the peace movement counter the demand for war readiness with the demand: “Become capable of peace!”

What does that say? For us, “peaceability” means above all a just society. A society with a school system that promotes children and young people according to their abilities and not according to their background and parental home – with a social system in which everyone has a decent livelihood – a society in which people with a migration background are valued according to what they do for us and not primarily according to the acts of violence committed by a small minority among them.

“Becoming capable of peace” is also a demand and a lifelong task for ourselves: To try to resolve conflicts in our environment through discussion and not through violence – to be prepared to compromise – to be the first to hold out our hand after a dispute – to give up an advantage in favor of someone who needs it more … surely each and every one of us knows examples of how peace was achieved or destroyed on a small scale.

Do we take things for granted? Perhaps, but if we strive for peaceful coexistence in our environment, we are also credible and can imagine that there are also approaches to this on a large scale.

The fact that a peaceful society is not boring, but can be worth living in, is a challenge from Günter Eich in his radio play “Träume” (Dreams):

“Do the useless, sing the songs,
that are not expected from your mouth.
Be uncomfortable,
be sand, not oil
in the gears of the world!”

As always, the Peace Weeks invite you to find out more about these and other questions of peace and to find impulses for peacemaking.