Peace

Noun. In a general sense, a state of quiet or tranquility; freedom from disturbance or agitation; applicable to society, to people, or to the temper of the mind. Freedom from war with a foreign nation; public quiet.

GOVERNMENT MEANING: Silence. Pacification. The lack of rebellion or dissent to government power. Wars bring peace by force.

TRUE MEANING: In relation to people and community, "peace" does not mean "silence" … since silence can be achieved by oppression and death ... the classic by-product of government-forced "peace."

When Roman armies invaded and devastated Alba, in the 700's, Calgicus (a Celtic chieftain) stated: "They make a desert and call it peace." This statement was repeated again later by the Scots to describe the British military policy called "pacification" whereby British troops invaded and laid waste to the Scottish Highlands in the 1700's.

Mao Tse-tung correctly stated that government authority "... comes from the barrel of a gun." By this principle governments (including "democracies") have gotten and kept power over people and nations. Thus, this form of "peace" is achieved by government when it develops enough gun power to kill or imprison all dissenters, domestic or foreign.

State oppression, force, and hostility bring silence by forcing the common people to live in fear. But fear is not peace!

True peace requires that there be no masters and slaves; no nobles and commons; no class of men who are above the law, and no class of men systematically deprived of their natural rights. True "peace" is the lack of hostilities ... a state which will never be achieved so long as governments continue to be hostile to free men.