"There's a phrase we hear every holiday season but secretly long for year-round: Peace on Earth and goodwill to all. We say it on greeting cards. We sing it in carols. And then we go right back to fearing and hating our neighbors. U2's "Peace on Earth" captures this ache. Bono wrote it after the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland, in which 29 people lost their lives, including a pregnant woman. The song is a lament, an existential wound asking: When will we ever get peace on earth?"
"We are consumed with endless fear, anger, and hatred. Ego is being celebrated and rewarded. We vilify the people next door instead of loving them. Our culture now celebrates the very qualities our greatest spiritual teachers warned us against - the love of money and power, greed, and self-importance. Aren't we better than this? Don't we already know that love is the highest good?"
"Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson diagnosed our problem perfectly: "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology." Wilson's diagnosis has a name: accelerating evolutionary mismatch. It's the gap between our ancient biology and the world we've built is widening faster than we can adapt. We are cavemen piloting a spaceship, driven by ancient fears while wielding powers our ancestors would have called divine."
Holiday invocations of 'Peace on Earth and goodwill to all' contrast with persistent fear, hatred, and neighborly animosity. U2's 'Peace on Earth' arose from the Omagh bombing, expressing lament and asking when true peace will come. Contemporary culture rewards ego, greed, power, and self-importance, contradicting spiritual teachings that value love as the highest good. Many people sense a deeper societal malaise beyond personal resolutions. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson framed the root problem as Paleolithic emotions paired with medieval institutions and god-like technology. Accelerating evolutionary mismatch means ancient biology cannot keep pace with the rapidly changing human-built world.
Read at Psychology Today
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