What is Peace?

What is peace? Chapter 12 in Book XIX of The City of God proposed a view of peace that I had never considered: that peace is what every person strives for and because it is everyone's ultimate goal, the manifestations of peace can be vastly different depending on people's differing perspectives. St. Augustine goes on to define several of the different types of peace which exist in the world. Perhaps the most difficult for me to grasp when first reading it was the idea that even war is a form of peace or rather a quest for peace. At first, this seemed like a paradox: how can war be peace? But upon further analysis, St. Augustine’s interpretation of peace is completely logical. Augustine writes “Thus their desire is not that there should not be peace but that it should be the kind of peace they wish for” (866).
Can utopia exist when if someone wishes to change that utopias peace? Augustine writes “In fact, even when men wish a present state of peace to be disturbed they do so not because they hate peace, but because they desire the present peace to be exchanged for one that suits their wishes” (866). So what if someone living in a utopia wished to change the present peace? The example that comes to mind is Omelas and the people who leave because they disagree with the treatment of the child. What if rather than simply leaving, they wished to change the current state of peace? War and utopia don't seem to coincide with each other. If two utopias were at war, the result would be each becoming a dystopia. To avoid dystopian consequences, I became curious of whether there was a “right peace” and a “wrong peace” and if The City of God held the answer.
What is St. Augustine’s definition of Godly righteous peace? 
The answer, as far as I could discern, is that there is “earthly peace” and “eternal peace.” Earthly peace is when man “observes” two things: “to do no harm to anyone, and, secondly, to help everyone whenever possible” (873). Augustine’s idea of peace opposes Plato’s definition of justice because he concludes that justice is not “meddling” in other people's lives. Augustine also states that earthly peace is to be on a pilgrimage towards eternal blessings and peace. One question I had is as follows: is there no such thing as “true” earthly peace, but rather one must accept that a real sense of peace will only come when a person enters the Heavenly City?

Where To Begin When Creating Utopia?

The idea of defining utopia seems an impossible task. Even Socrates and Adeimantus can't agree on how to create their theoretical “city.” There seems to be too many variables to consider— what to include and what to leave out. As I continued trying to think of what constitutes a utopia, I was struck by some questions that I could not get away from regarding the idea of utopia being a “perfect place.” Doesn't perfection remove the need for desire? How can innovation exist? How can a true sense of joy be attained  if all you ever know is fulfillment; how would you be able to make a distinction between good and bad while only knowing perfection?

Two things that seem necessary to create utopia and avoid dystopia: fluidity, or adaptability, and balance.

Fluidity would accommodate for the fact that people's needs, wants, and desires are constantly changing. Omelas accounts for this in their utopia by providing an option for everyone. For example, there is religion and everyone worships as they choose or choose not to. Another idea regarding fluidity is one discussed in class while attempting to define utopia: the idea that utopia needs to be thought of as a journey and not a destination. Along that principle a utopia could be a society working together to achieve harmonious perfection. By that standard utopian happiness would be created from hope.

As I contemplated utopia further, I thought of Lois Lowry’s The Giver and the “perfect” society that is portrayed. In exchange for not feeling pain, the society also doesn't feel happiness and all of its occupants are resigned to “Sameness.” So in order to avoid a gray world, another element that would have to exist in the definition of utopia would be balance. Many scenarios of utopia have vast extremes, for example The Giver. Balance or “everything in moderation” is necessary in order to avoid creating a dystopia.

Freedom seems to be another struggle when defining utopia. Too much freedom would lead to chaos, but with too little freedom you live in a dictatorship. Again, the idea of balance needs to be applied, but how would it be decided who regulates the rules? Freedom existed in Omelas but only in the sense that the people could walk away if they found the inhuman treatment of the child wrong. They couldn't choose to free the child or that whole society would cease to exist. Choice seems to be the most important freedom in a utopian society.

Cultivating Community

Utopia— A wonderfully strange word that brings to mind images that mirror the Garden of Eden. In a world filled with strife, conflict, and uncertainty the idea of a perfected world is one we all delight in from time to time. We look at the current political situation and voice our ideas of how to improve the issues at hand; we judge the opinions of those in power and state how we would have the answers if placed in their role. Often though, as we speak of our “utopia,” we think first of ourselves: how to create a world that meets our own ideals and needs. Yet, isn't this the problem? We live in a time dominated by “me” first— everyone else second. So wouldn't an obvious first step to building utopia be to think first of community and of ourselves second?

What would need to be done to achieve Utopia when most people center their lives singularly? Creation of community would be the first step towards a more perfect world. Community creates responsibility and accountability among those who live in it, and as a result when problems arise, rather than face the struggle alone, community members would have a support system to rely on. Additionally, members would be forced to make decisions that benefited the community as a whole and not small segments of it.

Why is community important? Sadly, at this time in history many of us have lost the desire for human interaction and connection. It is easier often to email, text, or DM someone than to call and have a live conversation or, scarier yet, actually have a face-to-face interaction. Community outside of the virtual world forces us to make human connections, and through those connections find real, solid utopian-like happiness.

How can we cultivate community? The source of our struggle seems to be one thing: money. We don't have enough money; we have an excess of money; we want to get more money; we want to spend money. We work our entire lives towards the goal of financial security because as a result we believe we’ll be able to find peace of mind. While money can solve many of our problems, it is also often the source of many other problems. In order to create a stronger, unified community, money would have to be removed. In place of money to provide for ones needs (I.e. food, medical care, security) a bartering system would be put in place. As a part of this bartering system people would identify their own unique talents and exchange their talent for services they need. For example, a farmer can exchange food he produces to a veterinarian for medical care for his animals and vice versa. This would help to build community because the system would be interdependent on each individual to be successful as a whole. While a major flaw of this system would be that if one person were to fail the whole system might collapse. This, perhaps, is the only way utopia could ever exist beyond imaginary confines— to recognize that struggle and strife will always exist and can not be wholly removed; with this in mind, a utopia would be created as a community working together to resolve issues that arise with the intention of protecting both the individual and the community as a whole.