It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

Decades ago,

our teachers said:

we were living in a civilized age.

 

Parents also said,

study hard, and you will have a future.

 

Everyone believed

that the more we learned,

the smarter and more useful we would become.

 

Decades have passed.

Now we have entered the age of technology,

more “civilized” than before.

 

Yet looking at the world today,

it is hard not to wonder:

How far have civilization

and human progress really come?

 

Those in high places

are often well educated.

They hold power.

They make decisions.

 

But they are not always the ones

who bear the consequences.

 

Once they leave their positions,

what remains

is left for others to carry.

 

We possess more and more knowledge,

yet the ways we resolve our differences

have not necessarily become wiser.

 

Seizing, destroying, killing.

Even these have become specialized skills.

 

Is this how a civilized age

solves its problems?

 

What people truly want

has never been death and destruction.

 

But a strong and prosperous nation,

a stable life,

and the chance to live well.

 

Every country

wants to be strong.

 

Civilization has come this far.

Humanity already has the ability

to move forward differently.

 

We want peace and stability.

So do others.

 

What we are unwilling to bear,

others are unwilling to bear too.

 

Do not impose on others

what you would not wish for yourself.

 

People have always wanted happiness,

yet so often take a path

that leads farther away from it.

 

In stillness,

we may look again.

It doesn't have to be this way.