War is Peace
Posted on May 30th, 2008
by Freddy Gray |
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Let’s not bash the United Nations for the sake of it, but isn’t this video off-putting, smug, even sinister?
I especially don’t like the bit when Clooney, with a knowing flick of his brow, says, “Peace is certainly more than a celebrity endorsement”–go away then George, leave us in peace. It’s not just that, though. There is something unnerving about the linking of peace with militarism and the attempt to expand the meaning of the word peace:
Peace is a full-time job: it’s protecting citizens, overseeing elections, and disarming combatants… peace, like war, must be waged.
Isn’t this saying peace is just war? (Just in the traditional sense). It brings to mind Orwell’s 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”. (That is, admittedly, a harsh comparison).
Peace is the absence of war, or something divine, but it’s not multilateral intervention in the undemocratic world.
Filed under: Foreign policy
Peace is not just the absence of war. Peace needs an active vigilance and a willingness to force someone to stop hurting someone else. That’s the role of appropriate and just police power, operating within the law, with public oversight.
The problem is, when once someone brings “forceful peace” to someone else, the hard part begins — establishing good governance.