The dilemma between power and peace

I have been doing a pretty great job of being ignorant about the problems going on in this world lately. And after having experienced it myself, I do agree, ignorance is bliss.

I was too occupied complaining about not having enough will to eat healthy, or getting more sleep than I need, and the worst problem of all of not having a partner that I can love and confide to.

It was almost like I was not even conscious of the people of this world scattered around the globe that are dying out of hunger and thirst, some cannot get sleep for more than a few seconds because of the loud noises coming from gun fires, and those same gun fires depriving them of their loved ones till eternity.

This facade was broken a few minutes back when I decided to tap on a friends Instagram story. It gave me a crash course on the things happening in Sudan as of now. The same old same old people killing and hurting others while battling within themselves to find the right balance between power and peace.

Humans seem to be hungry for power and peace, and the saddest, most ironical part is that both of these things are at the opposite sides of the spectrum. To gain power, you have to let go of peace, regardless of trying to convince yourself that it is only for a brief moment. And the same applies to restoring peace. It is this constant dilemma between power and peace that has and will destroy nations universally.

But interestingly enough, this is not exclusive only to governments and leaders. Our parents have the same dilemma, a little spanking or shouting could go a long way at establishing the authoritative power in the house and maybe even a delusional peaceful environment?

And the same dilemma can be seen for an individual battling with their own life decisions. We could give up our peace by taking up power to do something about these “unjust”(I put unjust in quotes because we all are biased in all situations no matter what, and maybe from our perception it is clear that it is unjust but from the people that make the decision to kill, they probably have justifications for their actions in great lengths, but bias is a topic for another day) wars. Or we could just give up our power, and lead an ignorant peaceful life.

And suppose for a second I do decide to choose power and take action. What actions do I take that can actually help? Which battles and wars do I pick to take actions for? Is putting up an Instagram story or writing a Medium post enough of an action?

I’ve heard this saying a couple of times that goes something like “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

But is just doing something or anything by good men enough for evil to not triumph? I somewhat get the idea behind this quote, but what exactly do good men do? And how do we even know if we are the good or the evil in a situation? Is the only way to find out which side is right is by seeing where the majority of mass killing is being taken place? Is that the metric that needs to be followed? Or is there a way for good men to do something before evil triumphs, but what if those decisions are that make them the evil that triumphs?

Maybe I am looking at this from a completely wrong perspective, I really do not know. The more I try to learn, the more I find out the less I know.

So then by the process of elimination, do I pick peace over power and knowingly live an ignorantly blissful life?

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