The nightmare of peace

_{If you want peace, start by lighting a bonfire with your neighbors}

Sleeping is something we all must do. It’s a matter of health, according to several studies and medical authors.

A couple of days ago, I stayed awake all night. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. Around 5 in the morning, I gave up and opened my eyes for good. For some reason, Trump came to mind, with his eternal obsession with being the center of attention.

Specifically, I was thinking about when the president of FIFA awarded him the Peace Prize, just days after the Nobel Peace Prize was given to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician. Many said that Trump’s award was nothing more than a crude consolation for him.

No, this post is not about Trump

What is peace? Why so many prizes to people who have not brought peace but rather unrest and hatred to much of the planet? Could it be that we confuse its meaning? Or better yet… why a Peace Prize at all, if we’ve never truly lived in peace?

History is full of conflicts that, when they seem to end, are quickly replaced by others elsewhere or simply mutate and spread. As soon as someone or some group wants what others already have, the seed of conflict is sown.

If we bring this down to society, we see family disputes, domestic violence, bullying in schools. Surely there are governments working to reduce the impact of these evils, but it seems the great sellers of vanity win the battle, because in this consumerist life we lead, values don’t seem to matter.

So we return to the essence. Could it be that human beings are bound to live among conflicts? Is peace simply utopia?

Honestly, I think we were better off when we were primitive. Surely there were tribes that couldn’t stand each other, but among the people of their own “neighborhood,” there wasn’t so much dispute. Therefore, I believe peace is simply a trait of humanity that we lost with evolution—in other words, we don’t really need it.

What we do need is to be able to sleep at least 8 hours a day. That is non-negotiable. As for the rest, if you want peace, start by lighting a bonfire with your neighbors.

English isn't my native language. Text translated with DeepL