Posted by Paul Revere on 06/05/09

Peace is often viewed very abstractly, being that it is tremendously difficult for individuals to willingly compromise in the name of others, but perhaps this is because it is difficult for us to relate to those who come from different walks in life. So we should ask ourselves:

How can we better relate to all of our fellow men and women? Even the ones we might not like or agree with?

It sometimes appears as though the tremendous boom in information and technology over the past decade have resulted in the tremendous shrinking of fruitful social interaction among individuals. We have our facebooks, ipods, and twitters, but what about face to face contact? Has it's purpose changed, been downgraded? Most human communication deals with identifying and recognizing vocal, body and facial cues, helping to better assess truth an trust in an individual. As we communicate less using these methods, our ability to communicate with each other and relate with each other becomes more and more difficult. And what is even worse, our new forms of communication can help to close us off and keep us in our comfort zone; looking only to those we can relate with easily, while closing off to the rest of the social spectrum. It is sad, because with this, pieces of our humanity start to die. It is what I like to call 'digital segregation.' I believe this will become the 21st century's version of apartheid. Because even though Obama talks with enthusiasm and a smile on his face, we have yet to see any substance from this transformational figure.

Back to peace...

When we isolate ourselves from our surroundings, we are missing out on oppertunities to interact with people that are different from us, people that may give us a bigger piece of the puzzle. Not to say that our digial communication does not help shed light on differences, just that it is not the authentic communication that humans have when face to face; the communication we have relied on since the beginning of civilization.

Because peace can only be forged when working together in the persuit of commonground, peace can only be had when we can properly relate to each other. With the digital degradation of communication (my opinion) comes the tangible degrade of understanding. When we can not understand each other, we can not have any peace... Digital formats create for rumor, lies, and misinformation... just go on youtube and see how many different spins of one topic you will find...

Yes digital communication is here to stay, yes it has created positives as well, and yes it has great potential of doing good, but we need to make a concious effort to unplug our ipods, and turn of our cells when walking down the street, because your best friend that you are yet to meet is right around the corner, and they are so very differnt from you and yet, so very much the same, you just don't know it yet...