When something is abundant, we expect to run into it. Of human abundances which dominates? Peace? Violence? Is peace the norm and violence the dramatic exception? Is violence the norm and peace the quiet exception?
As I have pointed out before, the history of the past millennium includes a war per year. A war per year! In fact, numerous wars per year. Wars everywhere, every year. War is a constant. And then there’s violence between individuals: Abuse, petty and serious crime, and murder. We don’t have statistics on murders-per-day for every year of the past millennium, but if we did, we would probably see a relatively steady proportional rate. Of course, with today’s seven billion people, the same percentage of murders per 1,000 results in higher absolute numbers. Depressing, isn’t it?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if peace were as widespread as aluminum? If it were the litter of our world or the dust on our shoes?