Now that the wars are coming to an end, I wish us to prosper in peace…
And it is just time for Peace now — same as Ecclesiastes says…
But how do we go about creating the platform for this peace to be a long lasting one?
Since we haven’t quite managed a long peace after all, we might as well try to change our thinking in order to achieve this.
After the end of the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and after rebuilding the nations there for long years and at great expense in treasure and lives — we now ought to rebuild our own victorious ”empire” and our own nations and ideas too. Am not just talking about the need to rebuild our economies here… What am saying is that we must rebuild our own minds and hearts. We ought to rebuild and refashion our own ideas about national identities, same as we must rebuild our faulty ideas about our own exceptionalism, as well as all other tired ideas that don’t serve us anymore.
Because we are in dire need of new thinking now that although victorious, we suffer the trials of the vanquished. We suffer the economic devastation and the tribulations that are normally associated with conquered nations…
Everybody with vision, can see, there is now coming a new way of leading the world. The way of virtuous leadership. This is, no longer just the way of the gun and treasure but the way of valued leadership. leadership in service of all humanity and not just parochial self serving tribal interests…
Therefore we need a perception shift of our world views and national vs international diplomacy’s operating instructions. Somewhat of a software upgrade and a thinking adjustment or even a complete overhaul of our necktop computer. An overhaul of our brain software, especially of our own limiting views or the world and of our nationalistic institutions that separate men — same as race separated men of old.
Remember that positive national identity is very different from nationalism. Simply because extreme nationalism has been the bane of our existence through constant and ultimately fairly useless warfare. Wasteful warfare of misguided national “actors” vying for supremacy, and instead resulting in terrible outcomes. And in it’s ugliest expression nationalism, same as exceptionalism and racism resulted in the nasty excesses of the likes of Jim Crow leaders, Hitler, Stalin, PolPot and all the rest eminently forgettable evil leaders, bad societies and even the horrible recent events like the genocides of Bosnia and Rwanda and also the Norwegian massacre of the children…
We’ve got to have a serious rethink.
Ultimately, the real length and future of our Peace and even the nature and intensity of the coming wars that will shatter that very Peace — will be determined by our response to this question.
How do we structure our national, global and mainly our local Institutions for the coming Peace and for dealing with the major global issues facing us like the warming planet and the cooling economy? And how do we deal with their systemic relationship, their intersection and interdependability.
That’s the Big Think of the day…
And that’s what I ask of You to think about.
Because Peace takes lots more hard work, tremendous bouts of concerted effort and vastly more intelligence, than war does.
And if you thought this was newfound wisdom, let me tell you how old it is…
At least a couple of thousand years old intelligence. That’s how old it is.
Back when Alexander the Great instituted an innovative governance and social policy that treated all men alike as equal children of a loving father… And he took an oath to that effect promising to lead all the Peoples of his empire as equals and to institute a long Peace and transition to prosperity. Because Peace equates with security, prosperity and economic growth and democratic transparency…
So let’s hear of how Alexander the Great, a long time ago, thought of, and how he led his Peoples and sorted out this difficult perception shift towards a long lasting Peace.
Remember this was the year 324 BC and it was offered by the greatest leader, after the winningmost military campaign the world has ever known…
Alexander of Macedon: The Great Oath at Opis after the victory and conquest of Persia on the year 324 BC
“It is my wish, now that wars are coming to an end, that you should all be happy in peace.
From now on, let all mortals live as one people, in fellowship, for the good of all. See the whole world as your homeland, with laws common to all, where the best will govern regardless of their race. Unlike the narrow minded, I make no distinction between Greeks and Barbarians.
The origin of citizens, or the race into which they were born, is of no concern to me. I have only one criterion by which to distinguish their virtue.
For me any good foreigner is a Greek and any bad Greek is worse than a barbarian. If disputes ever occur among you, you will not resort to weapons but will solve them in peace. If need be, I shall arbitrate between you.
See God not as an autocratic despot, but as the common father of all and thus your conduct will be like the lives of brothers within the same family.
I on my part, see you all as equal, whether you are white or dark-skinned. And I should like you not simply to be subjects of my Commonwealth, but members of it, partners of it.
To the best of my ability, I shall strive to do what I have promised.
Keep as a symbol of love this oath which we have taken tonight with our libations.”
This was Alexander’s idea of leadership as expressed in the prayer offered and the resulting oath at Opis. An oath that was shared in a libation raised by more than 9.000 of his officers and men from throughout his newly founded empire. It’s not an accident that Opis was situated nearby to today’s Baghdad. Only then that was part of the fertile crescent and today it is mere desert because of our constant and wasteful exploitation of water resources for agriculture and soil erosion intensified the process of desertification…
Alexander’s oath at Opis in 324 BC can be reliably traced in history through the five following historians. Arrian, who when describing the oath scene at Opis and Alexander’s prayer – cried… Ptolemy, who was Alexander’s consul, friend and trusted general, always fighting alongside him, and who later founded the Egyptian line of Greek Pharaohs, and had Alexander’s diary in his possession… In Eratosthenes who wrote that when Alexander was considering these matters, he reached a philosophical conclusion and that is why he said that ”God was the common father of all mankind, but that he made the best ones particularly his own…” And Alexander’s Leadership wish and resulting oath was also described thus in the great works of Strabo… And lastly in Plutarch who best describes the oath in ”De Alexandri Fortuna”
And the historians all agree that Alexander right then and there, banned the distinction of Greek and Barbarian — asserting that the real distinction between men was not race, but virtue.
Further it’s known that Aristotle – his teacher – had advised Alexander to behave towards Greeks as a leader and towards the rest – the Barbarians – as a master. Yet Alexander disagreed and chose in his own way to see all men as equals.
And as he himself said — there were two reasons for this. Firstly because men can only be distinguished through the merit that their own attitude, work and virtue command. And secondly because had Alexander not done this, and instead he had segregated his governors, his officers, his men, his army and subject races, based on race and creed alone — he knew full well that he would have been seen always as a mean and hated enemy conqueror. And he further recognized that if he were given to exceptionalism and tribalism, his leadership would have come to nothing, but constant wars, recurring rebellions, wholesale banishments and continuous internal conflicts and strife resulting in terror. And he has been vindicated by history as acting correctly — same as history has taught us all so well. Especially so, when we observe nations and empires practicing various forms of apartheid…. and their resulting rapid decline and certain failure.
Alexander knew this better than any of his contemporaries and even acted upon his inner wisdom better than most all of the world leaders then and even of today. Proof of this, is what he said and did, back in 324 BC. He said that the real distinction between men was not one of race or creed and faith, but whether they were good or bad. Simple as that. Same as people are in every race – good and bad. Let them be judged on that alone.
Alexander believed that he had a mission to harmonize men and to be the reconciler of the world by bringing men from everywhere into a unity and mixing their lives and customs, their marriages and social lives, as in a loving-cup
Alexander was the first man known to us to regard all men as brothers before One God. And as an Emperor made this his official policy throughout the Greek language empire he had founded across the whole of then known world. And his impact was seen then same as now — when only a generation later and in the ancient world King Ashoka of India took a similar oath. Ashoka – fifty years later – in 273 BC as known from his ”Edicts” said: “All men are my children. I am like a father to them. As every father desires in good measure the happiness of all his children — I wish that all men should be always equal, prosperous, happy and peaceful.” Seems like emperor Ashoka of India borrowed something from Alexander’s playbook and further expanded it when serving as the most powerful king the subcontinent has ever seen. Because of that it seems to me that only the most powerful leaders who are strong enough and only when they feel secure enough — choose to fight for Peace and prosecute a policy of intense Peace building with the same vigour as when on the war path…
Cause it does take vast amounts of treasure, energy, treaties, negotiation, mutual respect and sensitivity over other people’s cultural differences and societal variances and national needs — in order to build and maintain world peace.
And the fact that it has happened before can only give us hope that we can do it again now.
When back in 324 BC Alexander believed that all men should live together in peaceful harmony, he went ahead and fought to achieve this. And following the semantic fashion of the day, he used the linguistic metaphor of ”Homonoia” meaning of one mind to communicate this new found wisdom. And ”homonoia” is an ancient Greek word that describes a joining and how a family, a tribe, a city, a nation, an empire and a world society can be functioning as a cohesive and peaceful whole. Or even a state of affairs where all men live in unity of mind and heart – and live together as equal partners.
It was a leadership innovation in his time — same as was his oath, his vision and empire governance policy.
And maybe it is high time now – a couple of Millennia later – to put this wise governance policy back into action.
A great President will do no less today.
We will certainly be given an opportunity to do just that soonest…
The choice is ours and ours alone to draft history on the right path…
Yours,
Pano
PS:
Homonoia, is the opposite of war.
It is a compact of Peace and wise leadership.
It is a government of democratic peers.
It is a concord of humanity.
It’s a unity of mind and action.
Something mankind has been longing for ever.
