The need for a secure life is a basic human need. It gives us a sense of stability and peace. However, peace is not just the absence of what directly threatens us, such as war and violence, but also the absence of what indirectly and structurally threatens us. We seek peace on a personal, social and global level, which illustrates how highly we value it as a society.
We tend to discover the significance of certain things only after they had been taken away from us. When something jeopardizes our peace, we cannot function normally on a daily basis. Therefore, peace resembles an invisible thread that keeps our life balanced. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the need for safety is among basic human needs. This is reflected in the fact that we strive for home, health, financial resources and a secure environment in general. Its significance is mostly seen in moments when something endangers our safety, such as war, natural disasters, domestic violence, abuse, the loss of a job, etc. This need for stability and peace is so essential to us that it is sometimes hard to give thought to other needs in such situations.
The reasons are clear: the source of uncertainty, either physical, psychical, social or financial, poses a threat to us and causes turmoil in our life. The value of peace is seen in the fact that it permeates all planes of existence – from our private, inner life to global events and crises. Peace is dynamic, omnipresent, sometimes invisible and other times the only thing we see. We strive for and are committed to establishing peace at all levels of society, making it mankind's biggest virtue.
mag. psych. Iva Vukojević, assist.
