The Pipes of Peace

A small slice of history from the Pilot of 1963, written one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even up to the end of the 1980s, until the Soviet Union fell apart, I remember growing up under the shadow of the atomic bomb. Dr Who's 1963 adventure, "The Daleks" has a world recovering from the effects of atomic war. John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids" has the fragments of a world surviving in the wake of nuclear war. And 1964 would see "Dr Strangelove", a movie all about the end of the world.

HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY WANT PEACE?

This article has been written by Mr. D. W. Chamberlain, a former Principal of the Jersey “Good Samaritans”. Mr. Chamberlain recently left Jersey to take up residence in Sussex. He has contributed this article exclusively for The Pilot.

4-minute warning

The peace of the world has been balanced on a thin knife-edge for so long that we tend to forget that we are at all times now rather less than four minutes away from a ghastly nuclear shambles which few could survive. It is not really a matter of forgetting, of course, but simply that is it impossible to maintain an attitude of terror and horror indefinitely; it is more a question of acceptance than anything else.

Peace is personal

But to accept this as a present truth is a very different thing to accepting it as a permanent feature of our lives. Within each of us there is the desire for a long and lasting peace that will not be forever subject to the whim of those in search of power.

The question remains as to how far we are prepared to go towards achieving this state, how much personal effort we are willing to put into it. It is only when we have established peace at our own individual level, in our homes, among our friends and acquaintances, in factories, offices, clubs and on all levels of personal relationships—that we will be able to experience the joy of world peace.

However well intentioned, the leaders of the nations of the world are unable of themselves to foster a sincere international spirit of goodwill and harmony. They are driven on by the collective desires, emotions, and ambitions of their peoples, and not until there is an attitude of peace within the private lives of the peoples of the world, can there ever be any real hope of achieving peace between nations. This deep desire for peace has to grow from the bottom upwards and cannot be enforced arbitrarily from the top, from Government level.

So let us work our hardest for peace on the individual level, within the nation—and international peace will develop naturally out of this.

Peace in the family

Within our homes and families we are so often at loggerheads with one another, and here it is that the first step must be taken. The conflicts more often than not are trivial, but the fact that there are conflicts at all demonstrate the absence of peace. To dispense with these disturbances means ceasing to insist that our own opinion must necessarily be the correct one, giving thought to the possibility that other views could be equally justified, and having the honesty to recognize the justice of a sound argument. All disputes must by their very nature be a conflict between two or more persons, and if all parties could only begin to accept that they might possibly be wrong, then a compromise solution acceptable to all can usually be found.

Between parents and children the element of discipline must be present, naturally, but this helps to emphasize that peace is not tranquility at any price, but rather tranquility with order.

Peace at work

Work plays a very large part in all our lives, and here too it is necessary for each one of us to strive for peace. There is really no conflict at all between what should -be the four major aims of any progressive business: lower prices, higher wages, bigger dividends, better quality. An efficient business should be capable of achieving all these targets, and if it does, then the whole united team of Management, Labour, Shareholders, and Purchasers, will all be well-satisfied. The present frictions in our working lives - and particularly in industry - will only die down when we take the trouble to understand that it really is possible to achieve these ideals, but only if we all work together as a team, with sympathy and consideration for each other’s legitimate desires and ambitions, and less insistence on our own personal wishes.

All the great religions of the world teach respect for the dignity and feelings of our fellowmen, all of us being bound together in a common unity with God; there may be differences in the way this truth is taught and practiced, but there is no virtue in trying to assess which method is superior to another. Our neighbour has as much right to his style of worship or lack of worship as we have.

It’s up to you

In our private and personal lives, in our working lives, in our spiritual lives, there must first of all be peace, before international peace even begins to be possible. No matter how hard statesmen strive on an international level, no matter how well-intentioned world organizations may be, there just cannot be any true and lasting peace in the world until we are in harmony and sympathy with our immediate neighbours.

It’s entirely up to us; it all depends on how much we really do want peace and how far we are prepared to go for it. It’s no good pretending it‘s easy to achieve, but there never was nor will be a more worth-while project. May God grant to each one of us the understanding of these things, and the courage and determination to change our attitude towards one another.