World Pieces

World Pieces
Written By: Ayla Lyonne

World peace is a novel idea. Whoever came up with it should be given a Nobel prize. Yes, that's sarcasm. It's a defense mechanism I manipulate when embarking on a distasteful venture. Yet, in a world where we have only one prestigious award for those who devote their lives to bettering the lives of others, and hundreds of thousands of esteemed awards for so many inconsequential things, it's no surprise that we are constantly fighting each other and reducing our personalities to the cynical meanderings and bitter babblings of those who have abandoned all hope.

This world is filled with so much hate and prejudice. I don't like to make blanket statements, but I feel I'm validated when I say that every single person in the world is guilty of prejudice of some kind. It's just a fact of life, at this point. Every single person has had at least one hateful thought. I am a peace-loving, bleeding-heart world peace activist; I have been judgemental and have had hateful thoughts.

In my humble opinion, hate stems from three things: greed, pride and vengeance. Our greed leads us to commit all sorts of unfavorable acts. Many people have focused so much on accumulating the materialistic objects in life, that their quality of life has deteriorated. Some make themselves sick over a stressful job, to give their children "the best" of everything. Some say that they've worked hard and they deserve nice things. But, if that were the way the world worked, then the thirteen year old boy half-way across the world, who works his knobby fingers to the bone from sun up til sun down to feed his mother and siblings, would be living in a golden palace. Instead, the middle aged man who spent the first half of his life growing up in the suburbs and the second half in Ivy league schools now lives in a mansion and owns three other extravagant homes. Who am I talking about? Pick someone.

We are living in an age of gross wealth and gross poverty. In the equation lies gross neglect. We are neglecting our fellow man. We are neglecting our duty to humankind and to our immortal souls. Our pride can be an even bigger demon than greed. You can't always see the product of your pride. You will most likely, however, see clearly the lack thereof. When we are too afraid of being judged to ask for the help that we need, society has, indeed, failed. We would rather watch our neighbor suffer than give up some of what we have; losing our status symbols would be just debilitating to our social life.

Pride is a great path to vengeance. With so much hate in the world- so many people who have been wronged- it seems everyone holds a sort of grudge these days. We seek to hurt those who have hurt us or others, and find solace in their punishment or demise. We hide behind "justice" and quote "an eye for an eye", like this somehow changes the fact that we're reveling in hate. I'm not at all saying that people who have committed terrible acts should continue to be free to do so. Not at all. But, sadly, we are a violent peoples and thus, even our 'kindness' has ulterior motives a majority of the time.

What we continually fail to realize is that every act of hate perpetuates yet more hate. Alternatively, every act of love perpetuates more love. It's really a simple concept, when it boils down to bare facts. If we choose love, in lieu of hate, we will have a world of peace, instead of a world in pieces.