Garth George: World peace not on until we get our own house in order

There is, in the eternal scheme of things, no significance at all in the progression of our calendar from 2004 to 2005, for Almighty God, the creator and sustainer of the universe, lives in a seamless eternity.

He has all the time in this world (and the next, I suspect) to give guidance and grace to those who seek it from him; and to watch the rest of mankind's futile attempts to rise above the natural handicap of having been born inherently evil.

One of the greatest deceptions perpetrated on the world is the humanistic chant that mankind is inherently good and because of that can manage his or her own affairs (and, often, the affairs of others) without reference to the One who put the Earth together and created all that is in it, including us.

There will be those who will stop reading right here because they can't stand the thought that they've been lied to all their lives and that at bottom they're fundamentally bad.

But if you don't believe me, ask yourselves this question: Did you ever have to teach a child to be naughty?

For we humans, who are restricted to a box of space and time, there is a necessity to evolve a form of time management and that we have done as the millenniums have rolled by.

And not much more than 36 hours from now one of them, the year, will click from the old to the new. Which is traditionally the time for those of us who are that way inclined to take a bit of time out to review the 366 days just passed and give some thought to the 365 to come.

I'm not talking about framing New Year's resolutions. I gave up making those when I was in my teens, mainly because every one I made - particularly the one about giving up drinking that sprang from the depths of a shattering New Year's Day hangover - never lasted more than a day or two at the most.

I'm talking about honestly taking stock of how our lives went in 2004 and thinking about what we might do, and do better, in 2005.

There won't be many of us, for the art of healthy introspection is in most people stifled by the hectic nature of their external lives, which are subconsciously kept that way just to avoid standing still long enough to take a look inside.

I am a great believer in the words of the Greek philosopher Socrates, written more than 2400 years ago, that "The unexamined life is not worth living".

In my meditation on the year to come I have decided that if God should grant me one single wish, I would wish for peace on Earth and goodwill among all men (and women and children, too, of course).

It ain't going to happen, even though thousands of millions of dollars (and pounds and euros and yen and shekels and all sorts of other coin) will be spent on trying to achieve it, and tens of millions of man-hours devoted to its pursuit.

It won't happen because "world peace" - a term I've heard week in and week out since I was born on the day Italy entered World War II - can never be achieved on a global scale until it is a reality locally.

As long as men and women (and, these days, men and men and women and women) and children snarl and spit and belt one another in the home, there can never be peace in the neighbourhood.

As long as neighbours complain and bicker over their fences and take one another to court - Grey Lynn and Western Springs residents take note - there can never be peace in the community.

As long as communities (cities and districts and provinces) contend with one another and politicians and their parties play never-ending games of denigration and one-upmanship, there can never be peace in the nation.

And as long as there is no peace in this nation there can be no peace in the world. Peace, you see, starts with each of us as individuals and spreads outward, not the other way about.

So let's not worry about "world peace", let's concentrate in the New Year on peace in our own homes and our own neighbourhoods, for the achievement of those alone would bring immeasurable and priceless rewards.

Just imagine. It could bring an end to spousal violence and to child neglect and abuse; it could see an end to poverty; it could help to prevent murder and grievous bodily harm, sexual assaults and housebreaking, drug-taking and alcohol abuse, dangerous behaviour on the roads, and even truancy.

And if that were achieved in just one apartment building, one short street, one small suburban block, it just might spread from there to a suburb, from a suburb to a city, from a city to a nation and from a nation to a disturbed and fretful world.

Idealistic? Certainly. Impossible? Probably. For we are up against man's three greatest weaknesses - pride, selfishness and greed.

But those of us prepared to give it a go will be able, when 2005 comes off the calendar to be replaced by 2006, to comfort ourselves in the knowledge that at least we tried.