This peace sign was soldered by Top1s father in the late sixties. (His parents were active in the Amsterdam peace movement.)
Researching peace, I stumbled upon an interesting paper mentioning "The concept of peace", a book by Scottish theologican and philosopher John Macquarrie, in which he dissects the concept of peace with an appealing combination of theology and philosophy. A quote from the paper (cannot find the book online, alas):
"Healing fractures" has to do with estrangement, alienation, bitter division and war. Fractures occur in many if not all aspects of human life including; a) war between and within nations, b) industry, in the form of Hegel's alienation, c) marriage and family with problems of creating and sustaining intimate relationships, d) alienation from nature as a result of overpopulation and increased technology creating an environmental crisis, e) alienation from reality itself in the sense of loss of existential meaning, and f) finally fractures occur within the individual such as indecision, conflicting emotion, and mental illness. The Christian concept of peace is the healing of fractures. In the Hobbesian view, fractures are taken as an inescapable part of existence and must be dealt with, perhaps preserved, or peace is not possible.
Forty years on, we're still hoping to incorporate more peace in our lives.

2 reacties:
Us too.
Peace seems like such a simple concept and yet... even in the little every day things. I work in an office and it never ceases to amaze me how "enemies" are made simply because of different thoughts on filing or how documents should be saved on the system. So much time wasted fighting and being angry on such silly things.