Almost every other day, I come across an article, a book or a speech touching on the subject of ‘world peace’. Inevitably, the main question that is explored in such articles, books or speeches is that of how sustainable world peace can be achieved. In other words, numerous people all over the world are preoccupied with that particular question: the question as to what the real key to sustainable world peace is. But as you read through the articles and books or as you listen to the speeches, you make certain crucial observations. Firstly, you come to realize that most of the experts who comment on these issues tend to keep on beating about the bush. They seem to be afraid of asking the deeper questions as to why sustainable world peace can be achieved, and what can be done to rectify the situation.
If we are to be honest, we will admit that most of the conflicts in the world are centered around resources. People fight over resources. Sometimes (for instance, in the middle eastern oil situation) the connections between the conflicts and the resources under contention are direct and obvious. And at other times, the connections between the conflicts and the resources being fought over are not so direct or obvious. But whenever and wherever there is a conflict, you know that there is a resource that is being fought over.
Having figured out that the conflicts we see are centered around resources, it becomes clear that the key to attainment of sustainable world peace is to be found in fairer allocation of resources. But this is not easy: because to achieve fairer allocation of resources, you have to eliminate greed. Yet human beings seem to be greedy by nature. This therefore means that you may have to ‘reprogram’ human beings, and get rid of the greed DNA that is inherent in them, if at all we are to achieve sustainable world peace.