How are we able to live a peaceful life? The peace that we are currently having for granted is definitely not something that always exists in the world. Through the 1960s to 1980s, South Korea was a state where the government committed violence and massacre to its own people. During World War II,  German citizens were enthralled by Nazi demonizing and killing innocent people. Before 1964, the United States was the country that was not able to be true to what was said on the paper. However, South Korea is now a country that had full democracy until 2024, Germany is a state that learnt how to preserve human rights and freedom, and Americans were able to build a society where diversity is respected. How is this possible? The answer is love. When we bring peace through love, hate cannot cause violence. 

 

When we hate or fear, our brain begins to work in such an inhumane way. There is a region called amygdala in our brain that is responsible for fear, and it can be activated when we begin to conceive a certain group of people as a threat. Then, the medical prefrontal cortex, a part of our brain that enables us to feel empathy, cannot function. After that, our brain considers the suffering of people that we fear or hate as a  reward. And that hate has always been an obstacle against the liberation toward human dignity. During the fascist regime of Germany during World War 2, Nazi made a propaganda that people who are weak are the cause of suffering of the majority of people and should be eliminated in order to make Germany great again. This made German citizens support Nazi’s cruel war crimes. In the time period when South Korea was ruled by dictatorship, dictators falsely accused their victims as communists. And this made Rhee Syngman, the dictator who killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians through the Bodo League Massacre and fifteen thousand victims, including children through the April 3rd incident, still be praised by a lot of people, even by politicians, in Korea today. Before the ratification of the Civil Rights Act, the United States had structural racism and cultural prejudice against black people.

 

Still, in spite of the presence of hate that makes us avoid peace and get attracted to the violence, there is still one thing that enables us to build a better tomorrow: love. When oxytocin, a love hormone, is released, empathy is allowed in our brain. When we gain empathy, we can “embrace another human’s suffering with an emotional bond of support”. And that empathy was what made the world a better place and the fuel toward a more peaceful, hopeful tomorrow. After World War 2, in order to free itself from fascism, Germany began to seek a way to protect human dignity. Germany’s education is now based on acknowledging the danger of hate and learning how to use empathy to promote pro-social behavior. Thanks to efforts, Germany, a state that used to be ruled by facism, is now a nation that ranks the third place in education and the seventh place in the quality of life in the world. During the autocratic regime of South Korea, people were outraged whenever they realized that people who were killed by the government were actually innocent and cherished family members. When a high school student was killed by Rhee’s autocratic government, students organized the Revolution of April 19th, and when an innocent college student was tortured to death, anger of citizens led to the June Democratic Struggle, leading to the democratization of South Korea. In the United States, the dream that “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers” was shown through the March of Washington. And that dream toward a place that everyone can become friends no matter the race, in the time period people were poorly treated because of the race, led to the ratification of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibited discrimination. This made Americans recognize the importance of diversity. Through modern days, when there were instances that non white people in America’s rights were violated, people stood up to protect their rights.

Human history was not always peaceful. There were time periods that violence was justified due to the hate. Still, if we are able to love, it will bring empathy that can build hopeful tomorrow. 

By Hangyul Park