The Price of Peace

by Andreas Wittenstein

The concept of shalom, or "peace", is central to Judaism. In both greeting and parting, the most common Hebrew expression is Shalom!, enveloping our every encounter in peace. When we inquire in Hebrew about someone's well-being, we ask not about their physical health or worldly prosperity, but about their spiritual peace: Màh shlomèch? (f.) or Màh shlomchàh? (m.) -- "How is your peace?"

It is sometimes pointed out that shalom is related to the word shalem , meaning "complete" or "whole". But shalem also means "to pay". And therein lies an important lesson:

Peace has a price.

Bullies would have us believe that the price of peace is to forfeit our liberty: that they will protect us against real and imagined threats if we submit to their tyranny. But extortionists' lust for power conflicts with their victims' interests, and this leads to a vicious cycle of ever-mounting real or contrived threats and ever-declining liberties.

The true price of peace, as Secretary of State George C. Marshall declared at the end of World War II, is eternal vigilance. Vigilance does not mean neglecting our own pursuit of peace and relinquishing our liberties to a would-be protector. Quite the opposite. Vigilance means constantly and dutifully exercising our liberties to ensure that they remain intact.

Fascists gain and hold their power through fear and terror. By wrecking the economy, they make us fear for our livelihood and force us into a struggle for daily survival that leaves us no time, energy, or will to protest. By provoking hostility from abroad and from persecuted scapegoats at home, they make us constantly fear for our lives so that we instinctively seek their protection. And by terrorizing us with their own brutal power, they would have us fear them most of all.

If we truly want peace, we must stand up for it whenever it is threatened.

There are people in power today, both abroad and here, who would have us believe that our peace depends on relinquishing all our civil liberties. Imagine if unelected leaders could arrest you without a warrant; detain you indefinitely in secret; deport you to be tortured; try you in secret with a hand-picked tribunal whose proceedings may not be reviewed or appealed by any state, federal, or international court; and continue to detain you indefinitely even if acquitted. They can. Imagine if they could gain such powers with legislation kept secret from the legislature until after its passage. They did.

There are people in power today who would have us believe that our peace depends on abrogating all international treaties on chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; developing such weapons of mass destruction in secrecy; using any such weapons preemptively; massacring civilian victims of other tyrants; antagonizing our allies; and subjugating all nations militarily, financially, and culturally with a global empire.

There are people in power today who would have us believe that our peace depends on taxing the poor and subsidizing the rich; granting the powerful immunity from prosecution; breaching the separation of powers; removing checks and balances; and laying waste to natural resources.

Don't forfeit peace out of ignorance. Be vigilant. Pay the price for peace, or lose it forever.

Shalom.

—from our March 2003 Newsletter

Site design by BitJazz Inc.