THE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE

THE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE ~ 13 ~ With peace, we progress: without peace, we face ruin. Why should an ideology be required for peace? There are two principal reasons for this. When one focuses on an objective, one has to adopt one factor and discard another. This can be done with conviction only when one has clear and specific theoretical justification for it. Without this, one cannot be wholehearted in one’s acceptance or rejection of any concept or practice. For instance, if the notion takes root in the minds of certain individuals that their rights have been usurped and that to redress their grievances they must resort to violence, it will be impossible to dissuade them, unless we are able to prove with forceful arguments that violence is not the solution to their problems, that such a course will only aggravate matters and will never restore to them their rights. To bring these individuals to the path of peace, it is essential that they should be convinced by an ideology based on reason that, to achieve their objectives, they must essentially renounce violent methods and conduct their struggle along peaceful lines. Ideology gives us the logical basis as to why one course of action