Talking about peace today may seem the talk of dreamers. But when the culture of peace seems to have vanished, "imagination" - said Andrea Riccardi at the opening assembly of the international meeting in Paris organised by Sant'Egidio - ‘frees us from resignation. It creates alternatives'.
His proposal for an Olympic truce has been disregarded, yet French President Emmanuel Macron's observation is very realistic: peace is impure, it is a path to follow - says the French President, echoing Camus - to give meaning to history. For many peoples "it is a time of war. A war that,' says Andrea Riccardi, “could expand” while discussing the use of nuclear weapons in Europe or elsewhere: ’We have witnessed the rise of a policy that is so realistic that it ends up emptying itself of its force.
In the current context, wars are becoming eternal, seemingly without end, ‘generating perverse ramifications’. Conflict risks becoming a form of dependency. ‘Imagining peace’ will be challenged by scenarios that cannot be simplified, but neither can they be allowed to drift.
