If history teaches us anything it’s that we rarely learn anything from history. Human history is the story of men seeking power by any and every means necessary. The brief, beautiful, moments we cherish most in the human chronicle have come from those who love peace and have made spreading peace their vision and goal.

In my country we’re watching an unprecedented loss of personal liberty for the “promise” of greater “security.” The willing surrender of liberty is a foolish bargain for nearly any reason - but much more so when it is done out of fear.

Genuinely peaceful people struggle to wrap their minds around the fact that there are individuals so hungry for power that they will manipulate others by preying upon basic emotions and needs. Fear is one of the greatest weapons of manipulation for such unprincipled men.

Human history also teaches us that once power has been obtained it is almost never given back. There is always a “logical” explanation offered for why power must be retained - followed by explanations for why more power and control are being sought.

Technically speaking, the United States is not a true democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic. That means people do not make most of the decisions. We, as citizens, elect other people to represent us and make the decisions.

The key word in the phrase, “Constitutional Republic” is the word “Constitutional.” That means the Republic is ultimately governed by a document - never by men. Citizens in a Constitutional Republic hold the power only so long as they make their leaders accountable to the governing document (the Constitution).

When the document ceases to reign supreme in the affairs of government, then the quest for power by schemers of every stripe becomes an easy victory for them to win. All that needs to be done is to excite the people’s fears, to explain that the times are threatening in ways the world has never seen, and to continually stir the notion that life today is so unprecedentedly dangerous that only by surrendering personal freedoms can we insure true freedom in the long run.

Logic 101 would see the fallacy in that argument - let alone anyone who is even remotely familiar with the history of humankind.

President Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

But there is another way.

The most defining moments of history have never been birthed by power hungry schemers. They have been created by those who seek peace and pursue it - by those who believe that human beings are really not stupid enough to believe every lie.

President Lincoln also said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Great Britain once boasted its empire stretched to where, “The sun never set,” until a man named Mohandas Gandhi began to conquer Britain's stranglehold on India by love and peaceful non violent revolt.

In stark contrast to Gandhi's revolution of peace, religious leaders of different faiths worldwide prey upon the basic fears of people to incite xenophobic suspicion and violence. Entire nations are sometimes referred to as “devils” by such fanatical men; while still others seek to terrify us about the consequences upon society that stem from “devils” seeking to live out their personal preferences and choice - though those choices affect no one but themselves.

Believing that "pagans" (those who differ in their beliefs from others) must be forced to convert is what is truly devilish. And it’s devilish whether it’s advocated by a fanatical extremist religious leader - who in no way represents all the people - or by a nominal “Christian” conservative commentator. It’s seeking control and manipulating with fear that’s devilish. That’s a means never justified by the end.

We should never allow ourselves to be manipulated by fear - no matter how convincing the argument becomes that truly smart people really should be afraid. I agree with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The only thing we really have to fear is fear itself. If that “handle” on our will is removed deceitful men lose their greatest weapon to control us.

Kipling said, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.... yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.”

Peaceful people will always be the butt of jokes and the focus of ridicule. But the most stellar examples of humanity this Earth has ever known have not been power hungry schemers or ambitious “dictators.” The cherished and adored examples of humanity at its best are those men and women who have advocated peace, sought peace, and worked for peace in the non violent manner that has changed individuals, societies and impacted the entire world.