Global Strike for World Peace

Humanity, what a silly lot we are. 

We primp, and we preen.  We shamelessly parade about cloaked in our over-inflated sense of self-importance and hubris.  We bluff, bluster and bully each other to no end. 

We can show heart-wrenching tenderness, unbridled compassion and perform selfless acts of great sacrifice.  We can also commit unspeakable acts of cruelty, depravity and loathsome perversion.  We cause each other great pain and misery as well as great joy and happiness.  We can be loving and generous to our friends and families, or vindictive, spiteful and  hateful to our enemies.  We can perform unselfish acts of heroism, or commit terrible acts of indiscriminate savagery.

We harbor grudges that span centuries, devote our lives to vendettas and feuds whose exact origins fade in memories of the misty past, while endangering our loved ones in the here and now.  We perpetuate endless cycles of violence convinced that only more killing and maiming will satisfy our lust for revenge, and a restoration of our honor. 

We refuse to learn from our mistakes, we continue on courses which, though patently counter-productive and futile, we seem unable to alter.  But for every wrong which is thought to be righted another wrong has been committed—and thus the cycle continues.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  By that definition we are, as a species, fundamentally insane. 

We are, as is every living creature, guided by the dictates of our biological imperative. The desire to reproduce, to protect our families, to comfort the sick and feed the hungry, to provide for a secure future for our descendents, they are imprinted upon our very DNA. Our survival as a species depended on it and to some extent, still does.

We are who we are.  And under a thin veneer of civilization our animal ancestry still lurks within.  Predators in the natural world kill because they must.  They kill to survive; not for sport, not for revenge, not for pleasure.  Only we, Mankind, kill because we can.     

Of all the known species we, humanity, is the only one which craves power for power’s sake.

We are innately flawed and imperfect, yet we strive to be better than we are.  We are a host of contradictions constantly challenged by our inner daemons, unwitting stars in our own individual divine comedy.

Most of us travel through our lives functioning on a plain of limited consciousness.  All our energy is consumed by the mundane travails of maintaining our day-to-day existence; of raising a family, providing food and shelter; of eking out a living to purchase the necessities of life for ourselves and our loved ones.

We have scant time to reflect on the essence of who we are, where we came from, and where we hope to be.  Taking time for reflective thought is a luxury most of us can ill afford to indulge—who has time to ponder the universe when all your effort goes to staying alive and keeping your head above the water.

And so we leave it to our leaders to tell us how to act and think, who to vote for (if we’re privileged to have that option), which fads to follow, how to behave, what to believe.  It’s easier to let someone else do our thinking for us.

We are, however, ultimately all stewards of our own existence, all responsible for the personal choices we make everyday.  Most of us can’t choose our situations, but we can choose how we deal with them. We can be held hostage by events or endeavor to shape those events to suit us. 

We are all members of a single family, Humanity, sharing a communal nest and living under the same roof, The Earth.  We can not continue to foul our nest—even the lowliest animal knows better.  We can not continue to treat our brothers and sisters as unwanted strangers and unbidden guests.  We must embrace our shared existence on this singular planet; we must become stewards for each other, protective of our fellows and accepting of our differences.  We must promote the positive and negate the negative—we must free ourselves from the bondage of small minds and self-serving agendas.  We must nurture our loving spirits and suppress our hateful impulses.  We all must strive to be better than we are—if not for our own sakes then for the sake of our children and their future.

World Peace won’t happen unless we all work together to make it so.  There are thousands of us out here in cyberspace working independently, towards this goal, each in our own way, on our own sites and with our own agendas.  The problem is THE POLICY MAKERS ARE NOT LISTENING TO US!  Yes, there are a few groups with a celebrity voice fronting their message, and these sites are getting some traction, but there is no unified and concerted effort, or concise program being laid forth by anyone, other than the vaguely expressed desire for some nebulous and undefined state of World Peace.

We are trying to get our message out, that by uniting our voices together we, all those working toward the cause of World Peace and Global Unity, do have the power to make our selves heard, as a united front, not as singular cries lost in the overload of information and ideas.

So far we are not making much headway. 

Back in 1988, when I first conceived the concept of unifying our voices through a simultaneous, universal global strike, I attempted to turn this idea into the basis of a novel in an attempt to win a prize Ted Turner was offering called “The Tomorrow Award.”  He’d announced a contest to solicit manuscripts from unknown and unpublished authors pertaining to the problems in the world, and their possible solutions, which he could publish and make into a TV movie.  When I sat down and began to look at my strike concept in dramatic context I realized that there was, in reality, one group who could actually mobilize the world behind this idea; a group of us on this planet who spoke a universal language—to everyone in their native tongue; a group who, by and large, was not beholden to the political establishment; and most importantly, a group who dictates popular opinion and heavily influences the hearts and minds of the young—those historically in the vanguard of any major societal change. 

For 200 points, and the game…can you name this group?

Buzz!  Time’s up!  The correct answer is…High-profile musicians and their cohorts, Celebrity Athletes and Entertainers. 

My protagonist was a somewhat disreputable rock icon living in Aspen, who, after an epiphany event, conceives the idea of a universal strike, convinces his former band members, who are about to reunite to do a “Food For Peace Concert,” to join with him in imploring the international music community to support the call for the strike. 

Needless to say I didn’t win the award. 

The manuscript I wrote was subsequently turned into a screenplay which languishes today in the proverbial desk draw.  But the concept, I believe, is valid.  With a high-profile musician as a spokesperson, the media would pick up on the story and it would begin to snowball from there.  The youth of the world, the 16 to 35 year old’s, those who hunger most for a saner and safer world, the ones with the most to gain and the most to lose laboring under our current world order, those who avidly follow celebrities and are swayed by their actions, would pick up the baton and energize the process.

Unfortunately, I don’t know any celebs.  I’ve also discovered that it’s almost impossible to get anyone to look at an unsolicited manuscript, hence the desk drawer.

If we had the funds we would hire someone to act as the face of our movement.  Since we don’t we’re left to word of mouth to get this going.  So far, not so good.

Oh, well.  If our message is meant to be heard it will be.  If it’s not—we can sleep at night with the comfort that at least we tried to do something.  How about you…

Join with us, link us, like us, support us—it’s the only way it will happen!