While many mid-lifers tell you they’ll do anything for peace, far fewer find practical plans to help harmony happen. It’s no surprise when you look at how the human brain wires and shapes itself based on what we do. For instance, because we wire our brains for war daily, through words, traditions and images, we miss opportunities to encourage peace.

Peace tends to move somebody’s mind long before its power is felt by families, friends, and community.

Whole cultures hard wire their brains for war simply, because of focus more on words, images, and traditions for battles, and that focus should concern us. For instance, if psychologist Donald Hebb has it right. Hebb discovered that because of “too much focus on narrow details … ” people lose sight of any broader horizons…. In other words war images, heroes and constant reminders, result in what is known as “Hebbian Learning….” It literally changes the way human brains wire and it precludes peace.

We act on what we know … and we know what we focus on … that’s how the brain operates. It’s also how peace continues to allude us as a culture.

Physical and psychological changes in our brains, based of a culture’s constant reminders of violence, begin to make war seem the only sensible solutions to problems. In a catch-22 dilemma… changes in the brain’s plasticity make it harder for people to embrace peace. Gradually even well-intentioned leaders reject innovations that could end wars and cultivate calm….

You see this Hebbian problem most in people who insist on one view or opinion and who no longer appear to see any alternative angles. Eventually their belief systems wire so they can no longer consider opposing views … and only envision fighting as a viable option. Listen to war generals talk of their battle plans, their war heroes , or the best battle books on the market, and you’ll see why they can no longer offer options for peace or its prosperity. Their words reflect Hebbian focus of brains hard-wired for war, even when they crave peace. War becomes their only option, and so their focus narrows to how to carry it out in the best manner. What about the rest of us?

Mind-bending peace plans come from minds pre-wired against violence … long before a conflict comes calling for a fight. Martin Luther King rewired his brain for the dream etched in history through his Nobel Peace Prize winning speech. It’s futile to crave for peace with a mind wired for war, but Thanksgiving seems like a terrific time to remember those, like King, who pre-wired for peace. What do you think?