PROFIT FROM PEACE – THE PEACE INDUSTRY TV SHOW (ISSUE 134)

By Diane Gold

Profit From Peace is an ideal that has fallen through the cracks in discussions at the university level, in primary and secondary schools, across diplomatic and corporate tables. It’s not really in the back of our minds, yet, either.

Peaceful coexistence is talked about a lot. Personal peace of mind is a popular topic. Yet making profit in a peace environment is not considered.

Well, why not? As I see it, people know what currently works for profit and don’t want to do the exact opposite of that, infrastructurally. But, brilliant entrepreneurs can create a new industry of peace that can transition us into an entirely new method for profit: The Peace Machine. Let’s think outside the box as to what a TV show like this could accomplish.

Let’s consider the peace industry show, Profit From Peace, in development. Just as Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, runs a competition-like job interview show whose prize is running one of his corporations; the British The Apprentice: UK’s prize has evolved to become an investment in a business of the winning candidate’s creation. The British version is more the concept we have for Profit From Peace, discussed here.

Each candidate would pitch the business plan of her/his created company, including how to finance and manage it. The show would include role playing a board meeting run by the prospective director of the company.

To qualify, the business being pitched would have to profit from peace and peaceful coexistence similar to the way we now profit from war: only the peace economy would include green transportation instead of petroleum or diesel spewing vehicles and energy efficient lighting on all our roadways including photoluminescent paint that depicts roadway lanes and current weather conditions.

It would also have to be funded, in part, by a multinational company whose products typically are used in wartime, business investors and/or celebrity investors, all of whom are TV judges of the ideas being presented before them.

The challenge of the show is to come up with a lucrative enterprise that can, eventually, replace the current war economy enterprises so that profit motive is removed from influencing whether or not we go to war. If we remove the profit temptation, we look through different eyes.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

I want to make it very clear that I support our military’s being strong. But, as with martial arts, just because we have the training and the equipment doesn’t mean we use it to solve a conflict.

I also stress the importance of creating a new infrastructure that can stand on its own, inclusion of the business of war, so that the powerful business concerns that currently fund war products would be motivated to support peace profits for profit purposes.

THE CONCEPT OF MAKING MONEY THROUGH PEACE, NOT WAR

We already know how to make money from war. Military equipment, location and protection technology and gear, air, land and sea vehicles need manufacturing, technological assembly, fuel for transport, human personnel, financing up front to pay for the above, medical costs during and after war. We have mastered this art. Let’s explore another.

What if we focused our attention on making money from peace? That would be a game changer. By doing so, we would be taking away the demand for extra war products by not creating wars, which would entail developing other industries than those making money from the projectile products of war. Plus, we who would like to develop this profit from peace set of industries would be motivated to examine the ways to seduce multinational companies to begin coming on board.

INTERNET SEARCH FOR PROFIT FROM PEACE

When I looked on the almighty internet for the phrase “profit from peace,” there was one entry. In 2011, on a ted.com site, one person questions “what if we had peace industries.” Not surprisingly, the discussion was closed with only 2 comments. I found lots of links showing discussions of people making peace with money but none specifically targeting making money from peace. Furthermore, when I searched for peace products, I found flags, clothing, mugs with a peace sign, jewelry; but no infrastructure for profit from peace.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Although there are big bucks to be had from war; people die, families get fractured, cultures get lost. So, as with every strong habit, if we can replace it; it will go dormant. That is to say that if we start showing strategy that will work, we can turn companies who profit from war into companies who profit from peace and support us.

BUSINESS INVESTORS

There are some business investors who tend to favor projects that involve human rights. There are also those financiers who are looking for the next best start up. Finally, multinationals donate money to worthy projects, as this one might be viewed. So there are many possibilities for funding.

CELEBRITY PEACENIKS

There  are many lists out there of celebrity peaceniks. They are mostly written by non-peaceniks and may include people with a broad range of charitable interests. So, even if I called Woody Harrelson, Jane Fonda, Diahann Carroll, Harry Belafonte, Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day, together; each might have a very different agenda. But, together, we can do it, meaning get celebs on board!

CONCLUSION

Profit For Peace, The TV Show, is such a huge idea that, I think, any celebrities who actively pursue upgrading human rights would jump on board. I’d like to think so, and only time will tell.

ACTION STEPS

Below are several action steps we can take that can contribute to the TV show to further the infrastructure of industries making profit from peace.

1)   Create 1 business idea that can take the expertise of a company that currently makes profits from war and use it and its already built manufacturing plants for the purpose of peace. An example might be  having an airplane manufacturer shift their emphasis from military planes to human rights ambassador planes for protection of human rights throughout the world.

2)   Make a list of 3 industries that can be used for profiting from peace.

3)   Write down what you think would happen if we kept looking at new ways to profit from peace.

Hopefully, the profit from peace concept is now embedded in our minds. It can only grow as we talk and refine it. If we are consistent, don’t disrespect the profit position of war manufacturers and give them an alternative; we might have embarked upon something that will work.

4)   Last, but not least, if you would like to be involved in this project; please connect.

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DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She believes there is a way that is within our grasp to profit from peace. She says,

“Before there was an auto industry, or a computer industry; someone had to have the concept. Once there, focused, systematic attention had to be paid to each task devoted to success. The conceptualizers of our time figured out the next step. This meant many, many failures, each of which, as we know, brings us one step closer to success.

“Let’s focus our attention on the idea that the peace industry is active and that it is worth creating products and services, funding and supplying and distributing products. Let’s make more money, which would have nothing to do with war, from peace concerns now. We can put our minds together and work toward profit from peace and can help in the development of Profit From Peace – The Peace Industry TV Show.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

THE HABIT OF PEACEFUL CONFLICT RESOLUTION  (ISSUE 122)

By Diane Gold

I have been considering the idea of the habit of peaceful conflict resolution and how it affects world peace. This kind of thinking comes from deliberating about the anger and hate that lead us to vengeance, jealousy and greed. I am always examining new ways of conflict resolution and looking at how our reactions to these fight or flight emotions can be tempered.

Are we uncontrollable animals who need revenge to survive, or are we civilized beings who can calmly resolve our differences without annihilating each other if someone steps on our prideful ego in some way? The microcosm, meaning conflict resolution between two individuals, mirrors the macrocosm, meaning conflict resolution, country to country. And vice versa. As we work it out individually, we can work it out globally. As I see it.

This leads us to the “habits vs. instincts” discussion.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HABITS AND INSTINCTS

I have been searching for the words that define the difference between habits and instincts. Here’s a quote from the differencebetween website which had a brilliant and superlatively simple way of putting it,

“Habit is a fixed tendency or pattern of behavior that is often repeated and is acquired by one’s own experience or by one’s own learning, whereas an instinct tends to be similar in nature to habit, but it is acquired naturally without any formal training, instruction or personal experience.”

What makes the above quote a great definition is that Charles Darwin alludes to something similar in his Origin of the Species as did his predecessor, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, 500 years before Darwin. They both arrived at the idea that traits can be passed down generationally even if they are acquired through acquired training of the previous generations. Another way of saying this would be that the offspring of parents who are trained in a certain behavior are born with the behavior and no previous training in the future generations.

For example, if it became necessary for all of us to swim a lot to survive well, we, primates, might, in generations to come, be born with the ability to swim without being taught.

We can look at the domestication of one or two wolf species. The domesticated wolf became the dog, according to James Serpell, professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Vet Medicine in his 1995 The Domestic Dog. Through teaching the wolf pup of the wild wolf to be calm, gentle and social with humans; the offspring of the tamed wolf pups began to exhibit the gentler traits at birth, without any training.

HABITS AND EVOLUTION

So, the way of our evolution has to do with the training we are given which, if ingrained in us well, can be passed down to our offspring or to their future generations from birth. What could exist is our own domestication, cultivating the habit of peaceful coexistence.

We are no longer savagely beating each other for food, land, shelter. We are civilized society. Unless someone takes our food, land, shelter. Then our survival instinct comes into play, and we become original savages. We create laws to temper our survival instincts. Good. This is civilized. But isn’t our penal system based on vengeance and our forgiveness based on remorse?

Example 1: When someone commits, some of us say an eye for an eye.

Example 2: When someone commits a crime and shows no remorse, we want to penalize that person with the maximum sentence. When the same person with the same crime shows remorse, we show leniency, and it is easier for us to feel for this person as a human being and forgive. Those of us who can forgive the non-remorseful who laugh at the pain they have caused have developed inner wisdom. I aspire to that, although I am far, far away.

CULTIVATING THE HABIT OF WORLD PEACE

The point here is if we start role playing peaceful solutions to different circumstances when we are young, we will be very experienced at conflict resolution by the time we reach 25 when our voices can help run the world. We will recognize human rights violations and know how to use our voices against them using our peaceful methods. This means we may be interested in letting go of our old ways.

We know that repetition develops a habit. So, if we continually come up with solutions using peaceful methods, we eventually will develop the peace habit. If we then cause peace to happen due to solution-based strategies rather than problem-centric ones, several generations down the line can be born with the peace gene more inherent than ever before.

CONCLUSION

Educating our young is the way to world peace. Changing ourselves is another way, but this may the hardest of all endeavors. The subject of peace must be added to the worldwide curricula, not for one unit in fourth grade, but every day and week of every year through graduation. If we begin the process today to regularly replace our own fight or flight emotions when we are not really in danger of losing our lives, future generations have the chance to be born with more tempered spirits. Instead of keeping our eyes closed, we can see that cultivating the habit of peaceful conflict resolution is our responsibility. We can make an effort to balance ourselves; we can also volunteer to teach the way to do this.

Becoming involved in educating about peace is worth everyone’s time. Make some.

ACTION STEPS

1)   NEIGHBOR A TAKES NEIGHBOR B’S LAND

a)   Gather a group of 5 family members, friends or associates.

b)   Agree to do an exercise where none of you will be speak or act disrespectfully or raise her voice.

c)   Agree to speak about your emotions during the exercise.

d)   Put names on individual pieces of paper, and put papers in a top hat or bag. Draw two names out without looking to see whose turn it is.

e)   Neighbor A will be the aggressor neighbor, and neighbor B will be the neighbor upon whom aggression is taken.

f)   Neighbor A takes 25% of Neighbor B’s land. The town in which they live has given jurisdiction to the individuals to work out their own issues, so there is no town board to intervene. Both Neighbors A & B say their ancestors owned the land.

g)  Neighbor B will come up with one possible peaceful solution to this issue.

2)   NEIGHBOR B TAKES NEIGHBOR A’s LAND

Follow all steps a) through g), but reverse roles.

3)   EACH OBSERVER COMMENTS ON THE METHOD USED TO SOLVE THE ISSUE

4)   DO THIS ONCE A WEEK WITH FAMILY AND AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH WITH FRIENDS OR ASSOCIATES.

5)   PASS IT ON TO MORE GROUPS.

___

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.
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FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave  a comment.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

Please follow us on Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She is concerned with the peace of the world and believes educating youth at an early age holds the key. She says,

“We defend ourselves for no apparent reason other than soothing our egos. And we are encouraged to do so. This behavior perpetuates the war mentality.

“Consider that if we could tame ourselves, we could create world peace. Isn’t it worth it to learn peaceful conflict resolution? Isn’t it worth it to teach it early?

“It starts with each of us individually. We may even begin our personal journey by teaching the peaceful way to our young ones. Through our teaching, we will learn.”