![]() ![]() No one, we believe, denies this phenomenon. Today consciousness of Justice is increasing. This is the fact which characterizes the modern world and distinguishes it from the ancient. ![]() But if Justice, that is, what it is and what it should be, were to produce finer expressions beyond those now existing, what would happen?īefore answering, let us ask whether this hypothesis of a growth of consciousness of Justice is admissible, is probable and is desirable? And what do we call this sincere feeling for man? We call it Justice.īut is not Justice also an immobile goddess? Yes, it is so in the expressions of it which we call rights and duties, and which we arrange in our illustrious codes, that is, in laws and pacts which produce that stability of social, cultural and economic relationships which cannot be infringed. A Peace that is not the result of true respect for man is not true Peace. This is the right way to come to the genuine discovery of Peace: if we look for its true source, we find that it is rooted in a sincere feeling for man. It is difficult for one who closes his eyes to his innate intuition of it, which tells him that Peace is something very human. It is difficult, but essential, to form a genuine idea of Peace. Nor is it, in any way, violence: though at least violence does not dare to appropriate to itself the noble name of Peace. Much less is it pitiless totalitarian tyranny. Peace is not a lie made into a system (Cf. A life of pretence is the atmosphere resulting sometimes from an inglorious victory, at other times from an irrational despotism, from a coercive repression, or from a balance of permanently opposing forces which are usually on the increase as they wait for a violent outburst which by devastation of every sort shows how false was the Peace imposed only by superiority of power and force. The ambiguous character of the social life which follows is torture and corruption for human spirits. Since it is their interest and their duty to see that relations be normal between the members of a given group - a family, a school, a firm, a community, a social class, a city, a state - their constant temptation is to impose by the use of force such normal relations as bear the appearance of Peace. This we say especially to men in posts of responsibility. Peace is thus the central idea giving its driving force to the most active enthusiasm.īut this is not to say that Peace coincides with force. Is that what Peace is like? Yes, for the very reason that it coincides with the supreme good of man as he makes his way through time, and this good is never attained totally, but is always being newly and inexhaustibly acquired. Life is movement, growth, work, effort and conquest, things such as these. Peace is not a stagnant condition of life which finds in it at the same time both its perfection and its death. Its nature is that of an aim, and as such it is at the base and at the goal of our activities, be they individual or collective.įor that reason we think it extremely important to have an exact idea of Peace and to divest it of the false concepts which too often surround and thus deform and distort it. It polarizes human aspirations, endeavours and hopes. It is a necessary idea, an imperative idea, an inspiring idea. We believe that the idea of Peace still is, and still must be, dominant in human affairs, and that it becomes all the more urgent whenever and wherever it is contradicted by opposite ideas or deeds. ![]() We take up again our reflection on Peace, for of Peace we have the loftiest conception: that of an essential and fundamental good of mankind in this world, that is, of civilization, progress, order and brotherhood. ![]()
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