War or peace

I love to learn but I have come to understand that not everybody does. There are far too many people who would prefer to simply be comfortable or have a "good time". Too many people think that learning things requires going outside their comfort zone. I truly believe that education is essential to anyone who is interested in doing any more than taking up space on the planet. This does NOT mean that everybody needs to attend college and acquire a degree. There are people who have a degree who are every bit as ignorant and ego-centric as some high school dropouts. To me, education is curiosity, empathy, meditation, and hard work. I have been enjoying some recorded college lectures on a variety of topics. The professor who recorded a series on events in history that have changed the world pointed out that there have been 4 "great teachers", namely Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus Christ. None of them wrote any books; their students or followers recorded their words. None of them waged a war or anything like unto it in order to force their ideas on anyone else. They all spent a lot of time observing, listening, pondering, then would share what they came to understand with others. They all taught 4 basic life principles essential to happiness, peace, and success: wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. Wisdom is the ability to understand and make good use of information and intelligence. Justice is the awareness of making things fair, doing unto others what you would have them do to you. Courage is the determination to stand by what you know to be true, have integrity, and live according to what you learn despite the consequences. Moderation is avoiding going to extremes in behavior or speech leading to divisiveness, hatred, even war.
There have been many wise people who have lived on this earth. There have also been many foolish people. I realize that not everyone has yet acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God, our Mediator, and our Savior. They will some day. But for now, it would behoove everyone to at least be aware that many wise (not just LEARNED) people have come to a consensus that we can all live together if we follow some basic principles that promote peace, understanding, and greater wisdom for all. Martin Luther King read about and followed the examples of Jesus as well as Ghandi. He was a catalyst for major societal changes without killing, oppressing, stealing, or cheating. There is a saying that anyone who refuses to study history is doomed to repeat it. We surely do cause any and all tragedies  throughout history to be repeated when we improve technologically (science, medicine, transportation, communication) but refuse to advance our basic nature to challenge, rebel, contend, be greedy or cruel, or to be just plain selfish. People are just as dead whether they have been killed with a club or a nuclear bomb. People are just as unhealthy if they try to cure themselves with blood-letting as they are if they refuse to stop smoking or consuming copious amounts of alcohol. People are just as ignorant if they burn all books without reading them as they are if they have access to literature but spend all their time watching junk entertainment. Why can we not learn and advance? We each have the freedom to be whatever kind of person we want to be. When we fall short of learning and implementing principles of goodness and wisdom, we are wasting time- stuck in our infantile stage as potential great beings. If anyone reads this and understands what I'm trying to say, let me know.