Italian version

War and peace. The dilemma of human history on earth. With the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, our days and our thoughts are filled with images and words of war, which enter our homes daily through the media. Even our future is permeated with war, as world leaders compete to paint a threatening picture of what lies ahead. Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi uttered the following sentence:
“We are not yet in a war economy, but it is good to be prepared.”
In hindsight, these words represent the far-sighted and tragic prelude to what is happening. Not only is the war in Ukraine still ongoing, but Europe is preparing for a potential escalation of the conflict regardless of the cost, with several billion euros already allocated to expand its arsenal. This does not bode well, as we learned from Germany’s massive rearmament in the decade leading up to World War II.

In this scenario, those who promote the principles of peace and dialogue struggle to make their voices heard. For some, war and weapons are the only solution to resolve conflicts and ensure order and security. When I participate in discussions on the topic of war and peace, I try to argue with conviction that only peace can guarantee a prosperous and sustainable future. Sometimes my arguments are dismissed with the following phrase:
“Peace is just a utopia.”

The first traces of war can be found in prehistory, dating back about 10,000 years. From the moment we begin to study history in primary school, we embark on a journey marked by wars and oppression, death and slavery, leaders and generals who have committed immense massacres. It seems that war is an inescapable part of human history, and indeed necessary for the development of civilization. Furthermore, since World War II, humanity has witnessed a steady increase in the production of nuclear, bacteriological, and chemical weapons, which globally have such destructive potential that they endanger life itself on the planet.

Given these premises, I am aware that it is difficult to refute the idea that peace is pure utopia. I could counter with arguments based on ethical, religious, and philosophical principles, but I admit that they could easily be considered biased and abstract.
So I propose to the reader a drastic and unexpected change of perspective. I will try to refute the equation peace = utopia with an interpretation that, based on biology, removes all ideological prejudice from the discussion.
The life of a human being (but also of an animal or a plant) can be defined as the result of the harmonious cooperation of a community of cells, each of which performs specific functions that contribute to the survival of the organism as a whole. Communication between cells, their specialization, and their ability to replicate are some aspects of this organization.
If we think about human beings, each of us is the spokesperson for a community of about 50,000 billion cells that perform complex, highly specialized, and organized activities with a sophisticated level of collaboration and harmony. Cells give up total autonomy, cooperate, communicate, and accept common rules. All this can be summarized by saying that cellular peace is the fundamental prerequisite for the well-being of every individual. The disruption of this state of peace and harmony, such as the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells, can lead to disease.

But there is more. Based on our current knowledge, the first single-celled organisms appeared around 3-4 billion years ago. At this point in evolution, we can say that the life of humans, animals, and plants, based on “cellular peace,” is what has been biologically most suited to representing life on our planet.
In conclusion, peace is not pure utopia. Peace is, instead, a very concrete biological principle on which the life of every living being on the planet is based.
Ten thousand years of wars and massacres are nothing compared to the approximately 4 billion years that separate us from the appearance of the first single-celled organisms. As human beings, we are taking our first steps on the vast journey of life. We are biologically newborns compared to the age of the universe, and sooner or later we will understand that peace is the only possible evolutionary path.

You can send your comment to info@esperienzedivalore.it, I will be happy to respond.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)