Reflective Essay: How Social Justice Will Create Global Peacefulness PDF

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Reflective Essay: How Social Justice Will Create Global Peacefulness FSGN 202-18 – Roots of Peace and Conflict

Peace seemed to be a relatively straightforward concept as a child – no war, violence or arguments and every person lived happily. Each definition of peace, I believe, is as unique as each individual who is attempting to define it and peace is not always easily defined and even less so achieved. I view peace as an extremely complex and multifaceted concept, and it is not just the result that is peace but includes the path we use to get there. When looking at peace, I believe that it is impossible to define it as we have yet to achieve this in our human experience. Do not get me wrong – I think there is substantial value in discussing what peace could look like, and the processes we can develop and use to work our way to a more peaceful world. Peacefulness is not achieved solely by an absence of war, but also of the incentives in waging war and creating conflict. Our society is built upon and controlled by a very small percentage of the world’s population, and they continue to gain power, money, and status by creating disputes around the world. As Fisk and Schellenberg (2008) note, many “promote hostility and violence or even depend upon…” these practices to maintain and strengthen their position of power. When we, as a society, begin to dismantle a system enabling the control of the majority through capitalist policies and obtain social justice, we can begin to see what peace may realistically look like for our world. A significant amount of conflict locally, nationally, and internationally can be tied to a few key elements – safety, security, and education. If we look at biological assigned sex alone, 51 per cent of the population live in a world that is not safe. I am, of course, talking about females and the gendered discrimination and (the often fatal) violence they face; people of colour, LGBTQ+, and those living in poverty are also more at-risk. With this comes the struggle to find security – whether it is safe and affordable housing, financial security, reliable and consistent employment or access to food and other necessities. How can one find personal peace

when they are experiencing such things? I believe that global peacefulness could only flourish when people are at peace with themselves. Education is key to creating an equitable society. Providing free, safe, and reliable education to all would create a more thoughtful and critical thinking population in our society. UNESCO (2020) declared education “… essential to strengthening the foundations of tolerance, reducing discrimination and violence” and I agree. Developing an understanding and willingness to listen to alternative thought processes, and also recognizing that discussions of ideals not of your own does not erase or devalue your beliefs, will create an environment ripe for effective and meaningful positive social justice change. Conflict will never cease to exist and “… is a normal and continuous dynamic within human relationships” (Lederach, 2006). Like the wind, conflict and violence can flare up and become destructive or catastrophic or be still and calm, but in any state, you can feel it in the air; it never goes away, there is always a hum of air movement in the background. Recognition and acceptance of this can foster unique ways to identify and resolve conflict if we do not incentivize settling conflict in aggressive and self-serving ways. Peacefulness is a combination of many things for me, and I believe is more about social change and justice. It is safe and affordable housing, food security, access to free education and healthcare, a lack of racial or gendered discrimination and systems that create barriers for the most vulnerable, whether those are social services or the justice systems, and a secular society where religious beliefs do not override the rights of those who do not share those beliefs. Webel and Galtung (2010) describe my thoughts on peace eloquently by saying, “Peace seems very illusory, almost ghost-like. It is sometimes fleeting and barely visible…” Peace does not exist, yet, but is still very much worth striving for.

References Culture of Peace and Non-violence. UNESCO. (2020, May 29). https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-peace-programmes.

Fisk, L. J., & Schellenberg, J. L. (2008). Patterns of conflict, paths to peace. Higher Education University of Toronto Press.

Lederach, J. P. (2006, August 7). The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Lederach, John Paul. Defining Conflict Transformation. http://restorativejustice.org/10fulltext/lederach.html.

Webel, C., & Galtung, J. (2010). Handbook of peace and conflict studies. Routledge. https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/handbook-of-peace-and-conflict-studies.pdf....