Does Peace on Earth Mean Anything?

Peace on Earth. I feel like this phrase has no power anymore.  Does it mean anything to anyone? Is peace seen as an unattainable wish that has become a meaningless phrase, or is anyone still working toward a peaceful world? 

We know most humans have the biological capacity to be violent because it is a survival mechanism.  But we want to cooperate because that is so much easier than fighting our way through life.  We should have made more progress with world peace by now.  Instead, we still have wars, kidnappings, unspeakable violence, and world leaders who can’t talk things out without threatening each other.  

What about our daily lives?  Nothing is really peaceful, as we have intentionally hidden violence in our culture.  Therefore, saying “Peace on Earth” is ingenuine unless we work toward it.  Our food system is based on unnecessary violence, yet few people seem to want to change to a peaceful way of eating, when it is as simple as choosing only non-animal products to put into your mouths each time you eat.  Don’t you “choose to eat this and choose not to eat that” every day?  If you can easily make choices, then why is it so difficult to keep dead animals out of your mouths? 

Looking at it as written, it seems so easy to convince others to do, yet humans get offended and defensive.  You would think they would jump excitedly at the idea of saving animals from immense suffering and to help come closer to peace on Earth. Few even realize it should be a goal.  

I think most people are just stuck in their culture, and don’t want to change anything – they want others to change everything for them.  Change would happen a lot quicker if everyone were helping.  Instead, humans just accept that “this is the way it is,” which is exactly why this is the way it is – and we are no closer to Peace on Earth. 

Stamps Show Our Subconscious Christian Nationalism

At our work, we have two different types of stamps for our holiday cards – secular and religious.  Of course, the religious stamp is of the Christian religion, with Mary holding baby Jesus.  The religious stamps were for certain clients, but I never saw us purchase Jewish stamps for our Jewish clients or Kwanzaa stamps or Eid stamps!  Did you ever notice we never show what our politicians claim – that we have “Judeo-Christian principles?”  We didn’t buy any stamps with Menorahs on them! 

We did run out of our secular stamps and we were told to put religious stamps on the cards.  As I slapped on Mary stamp after Mary stamp, I thought, if I had bought some Menorah stamps for the office, I bet we would not have used them; the cards would have been metered or stamps with the American flag would have been used. 

This is just another example of how Christian nationalists have gotten into our brains so that we do not even realize we favor Christianity.