Let There be Peace on Earth, or My Idealism is Showing

One of my favorite hymns from going to church was "Let there be Peace on Earth:"

Let there be peace on Earth,
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on Earth,
The peace that was meant to be.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In perfect harmony!
Let there be peace on Earth,
And let it begin with me!

To me, it seems to advocate a personal responsibility in world peace. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it'll only be when everyone on Earth chooses personal peace that we'll have world peace. I still believe it's possible (perhaps because I'm young?), though entirely unlikely, at least in my lifetime. Excuse me, is my idealism showing? But if you believe that world peace is only possible if everyone thinks the same, or shares the same faith, then you're never, ever going to get it.

on a tangential note...

I can recall having a conversation with my mother about Marlyn Manson. She was in total disapproval of his choices, going on for a solid fifteen minutes about why he's bad. My end of the conversation can be summed up as:

You can't control what he does to his body.
He does what he does for shock value.
When you talk about what he's done, particularly in an indignant or offended way, you're actually reinforcing his shocking behavior.
Moreover, you're teaching people that if they want attention, they should do something wild and crazy.

I used the example of a flasher, that he does what he does for people's shocked reactions. If the people he flashed were to, say, comment on the lining of his coat, behaving in an un-shocked way, they'd be taking his reinforcement away. If the media decided not to cover the craziest segments of society, except perhaps in conjunction with a larger story (and then, very carefully), then I imagine that as a whole, we'd see less of the crazies. And with the extremists not getting any real coverage, then perhaps we can see some real depth to serious stories. Oh shit, my idealism is showing again.

I think largely ignoring people who want others to be annoyed, offended, or angry is a good step towards peace on a larger scale.

Though, I do wonder how well this attitude will serve me at Boot Camp...