Founder of the Global Peace Index and the Institute for Economics and Peace
“In the age of the internet, where we live our lives projected outwards through many devices that we own, we need to consider the inner-net instead. The great writer Leo Tolstoy, who was the first person to give a human perspective to the tragedy of modern war said “from the beginning of history we have always sought to fight evil by destroying it, but the very process necessitates using the very violence that we abhor, thereby creating the very thing we seek to destroy. Since this has been occurring from the beginning of history and still hasn’t work we need a new way. That way is to seek our peace within, the kingdom of god lies within”.
Although spoken nearly 150 years ago, it is true today. The Spirit of Humanity forum provides an opportunity to contemplate our inner-net, to spiritually connect, to deepen our understanding of our personal spirituality and to broaden our networks and acquaintances.
Humanity is moving into a new age, the age of the Anthropocene. This is one where humanity controls the destiny of the biosphere. My own work is helping to understand what creates a peaceful society, because without it we will never get the levels of trust, cooperation or inclusiveness necessary to solve these problems, therefore peace is a prerequisite world for the survival of society as we know it in the 21st century.”