‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ is a Latin aphorism dating back to fourth century AD. It can be literally translated as ‘if you want peace prepare for war’. This phrase has been derived from a book named ‘De Re Militari’ written by a Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus. However, this concept has roots in the philosophical thoughts of Plato as well. Politically this phrase has been interpreted as building up military strength to deter potential aggressors. A strong defense can discourage possible aggressions from the enemies and encourage them for peaceful solutions. Some misuse this concept to justify the large military spending and as an invitation for war and violence as one and only solution to solve problems.
This political thought can find some psychological relevance as well. Many a times the inner conflict of individuals emerge into external violence and wars. When one fails to handle the inner turmoil in a healthy manner, it can spread into the life of other individuals. Therefore, it is important that each one finds healthy and effective skill sets to solve the problems in their personal life.
Many a times people do not even recognize that they have a problem. Some leave it as it is. A few others set them aside since they don’t have any clue how to address that. Even some others create new problems while they try to resolve their problems.
Emotions have a major role in the problem-solving mechanisms. Many feel alarmed and stressed when there is an issue. Such an experience can be explained as a mix of emotions like fear, anxiety, threat, suffocation and tension. Emotions like shame, shyness and embarrassment can prevent people at times to take any initiative to address their issues. Sometimes a feeling of hubristic pride makes people arrogant and adamant while dealing with such issues. The above-mentioned emotions are usually named insecurity feelings in general. That means the insecurities of individuals would either prevent them addressing their problems or make people ineffective to solve them properly. Such a way the problems prolong in their life. Simultaneously, insecurity feelings influence drastically the trust and openness of individuals and prevent them to take an initiative to search for an external help of an expert. Therefore, people live in their problems continuously and which damages their self-belief, self-confidence and mental well-being.
In sort, the dictum ‘if you want peace prepare for war’ means prepare oneself to strengthen the inner core to deal better with the daily stress and problems. A secured inner-self would prompt one to believe in one’s own psychological capacities to address their problems. A life without problems is an illusion. Prepare oneself to deal with their insecurity feelings would make one better equipped to deal them in a healthy manner.