Peace

It must be said that the accumulation of anthropological knowledge on peace has been extremely and excessively small compared to the abundant social scientific knowledge related to war. The history of war is being written constantly&sbquo but not the history of peace. This is simply because the emotions of war can be strong motifs in artistic expression and design&sbquo but the preciousness of peace is noticed only when it is lost. An ironic saying claims that "True peace exists when there's war somewhere else&sbquo" implying that peace is the anti concept of war&sbquo and in fact peace has been defined as the absence of war. The absence of war&sbquo however&sbquo does not necessarily mean peace. It is therefore necessary to independently redefine the word peace. The most important point then is to examine peace from the viewpoint of culture and the relevant age&sbquo and not as the anti concept of war. Culturally&sbquo the meaning of peace varies from the core axis of each culture to that of its periphery. For example&sbquo if we compare words that mean peace and their concepts in different cultures&sbquo there is an emphasis on order at the root of such mindsets as the aggressive orientation for justice in salom in ancient Judaism&sbquo eirene in Greece and pax in Rome. On the other hand&sbquo Ancient India's santi places importance on one's spiritual state and this is also linked to the view of peace in China and Japan. That is&sbquo while realization of justice in the West is outward-Iooking and political&sbquo as seen in its "wars for peace" and the complete conquest of and reign over the enemy nation&sbquo in the East it is inward-looking and nonpolitical&sbquo and involves serenity of mind and the removal of hatred. This great difference&sbquo however&sbquo has constantly changed at the points of contact between cultures and ages&sbquo and has created new views of history and the world. If we take a look at peace as a worldview today&sbquo what realizes true peace is now thought to be influential actions and implementations by people who embody knowledge and thoughts&sbquo and not the knowledge and thoughts themselves. This has become the goal and concept shared by all human beings. In design too&sbquo practice and embodiments that move towards peace are considered to be its essence.

Copyright © 2009 Kazuo KAWASAKI All rights reserved.