If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal. -John Lennon

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.

I have spent much of my life studying war, and it has changed my attitude in two major ways. It has made me very skeptical about the nature of politics and very hopeful about human nature. Although wars are often about resources, most people aren’t willing to die for resources. What most people will die for is their family, country, freedom, and ideals. This is why national leaders throughout history tell their people that wars are necessary for self-defense, protecting their way of life, and liberating oppressed people, but you don’t hear ancient Greek or modern American politicians tell their people that they are fighting for gold, silver, oil, etc.

If you want to know whether people are naturally loving or violent, all you have to do is examine war propaganda. War propaganda manipulates our most powerful instincts, which are love of family, love of freedom, and the desire to help others. According to propaganda, wars are always about liberating people and self-defense. There has never been a war in history where the invaders openly said, “We’re going to war for the money.”

Also, war propaganda never portrays the other side as human. It hides the fact that we’re killing other human beings. Instead, we’re killing monsters; we’re killing cockroaches; we’re killing sub-humans. If we were naturally violent, our leaders could openly tell their people, “I’m going to give you a chance to kill people so that I can get richer, and I’ll even pay you!” But in reality, that would be a very ineffective form of propaganda. As more people learn the truth about war, peace, and human nature, we will make further progress on the road to peace.