The World Is Actually Becoming More Peaceful

Lance Schuttler
5 min readOct 26, 2020

--

Sources: Our World in Data (2015); Uppsala Conflict Data Project Programme (2015); Peace Research Institute of Oslo (2014)

Is it too good to be true? Is the world actually becoming more peaceful? With the advancement in technology and the rise of alternative media continuing to spread, we are now witness to many things we previously were not.

With that, some might reject the statement that the world is becoming a more peaceful place. However, it is simply that we are now catching on camera and video some acts of violence that then spread on social and alternative media.

We see that it is not that the world is becoming more hostile and violent, it is just that we are now catching these things on camera more than ever.

As Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker says, “The news is a systematically misleading way of viewing the world.”

In fact, there is statistical and real-world evidence to support the statement that the world is becoming a more peaceful place.

As we can see in the image below, the amount of deaths around the world due to war has trended downward for quite some time, outside of the small uptick in somewhat recent years.

In his 2011 book, “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker states that the decline of violence is, “the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.”

He also stated that between 1945 and 1990 there were 30 wars that killed over 100,000 people each, which included wars in Tibet, Uganda, Greece, China, Mozambique, Algeria and Guatemala.

Pinker adds, “With the exception of last year’s small wars in Ukraine, the zone of war has contracted to a crescent from Central Africa through the Middle East into South Asia.”

The Harvard psychologist also said that in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, he has proven statistically that other forms of violence has also declined, including murder, capital punishment, torture and domestic violence.

Source: Global Conflict Tracker (2016)

Recent Examples of Peace

In somewhat recent years, wars in Iran, Peru, Chad, Angola, Sri Lanka and Lebanon have ended, which is another positive and continuing trend.

Additionally, the Afghanistan government in late September of 2016 signed a peace deal with Hezb-i-Islami, which is the first peace deal signed by the Afghanistan government since war with the Taliban broke out in 2001.

In October of 2016, thousands of Palestinian and Israeli women marched together for two weeks on a peace march which they called March of Hope. The march ended in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem, which was done in attempt to get peaceful dialogue started again between Israel and Palestine.

Also, in November of 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC Rebels signed a revised peace treaty, which is ending a war that has been occurring there for over the past 50 years.

In 2020, additional major peace deals have been signed.

On September 4th, 2020 a peace deal was signed between neighboring Kosovo and Serbia.

On September 15th, 2020, Israel and United Arab Emirates as well as Bahrain signed a peace deal.

On October 23rd, 2020, Sudan and Israel also signed a peace deal.

On October 25th, 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan announced a ceasefire deal, bringing an end to previous fighting.

There are also strong stirrings of more peace deals being signed and implemented in the Middle East and other places throughout the world in the coming days and weeks as well.

Clearly, peace is spreading.

What We Can Do

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once said, “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”

Sychronized prayer and meditation isa powerful way to peacefully and effectively organize.

One way to “effectively organize” is to participate in synchronized meditations and prayers, which means to meditate and pray with other people at the same time.

I recently help put together an article titled Mass Synchronized Meditation and Prayer For a Fair Election 2020, where we announced a large prayer and meditation event taking place from 11am-3pm PST on Sunday November 1st, 2020 with the meditation and prayer occurring from 12:30–1pm PST.

You can register here for Protect The Vote: Meditation and Prayer for A Fair Election.

Collectively praying or meditating on November 1st between 12:30–1pm PST with the goal of peace, love harmony and confidence in your heart will be a wonderful way to “effectively organize” as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated.

Peace starts within each of us. We each have the power to directly affect how events play out in our world. More people each day are reclaiming the power of their minds to directly create and affect the world.

Remember, quantum physics demonstrates to us that what we focus on individually and collectively is what appears in our individual and collective lives.

With the long-term data described above as well as the recent string of four peace deals signed, let’s continue to focus on the fact that peace continues to spread.

Help spread the momentum by sharing this article as a way for more eyes and more focus to be placed on the fact and evidence that long-term and short-term data jointly show how peace continues to spread.

Continue to dream big.

Continue to declare a peaceful life for yourself and for our world.

Continue to know that peace is spreading.

— — —

Author: Lance Schuttler graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelors degree in Health Science and is the CEO and owner of EMF Harmonized, an electromagnetic field (EMF) protection technology company that is dedicated to helping improve people’s lives.

He is also the co-founder of Ascent Nutrition, a unique holistic nutrition company.

He is a board member of The Master Shift, a non-profit dedicated to conducting global meditations/prayers, educational conferences and supporting endeavors to foster worldwide healing.

He is also a board member of Free Food Now, a non-profit dedicated to helping people find free food at the time they need it and working towards achieving large-scale global food abundance for all.

He is a facilitator and collaborator of big ideas, visions and projects that spark creative and healing solutions to complex challenges in our world.

You can follow Lance on Facebook here.

--

--