How Being Naïve Can Be Our Greatest Strength
In a world addicted to fear and weapons, maybe trust isn’t naïve — maybe it’s the most powerful and courageous choice we have left.
We call it naïve to trust. Foolish to disarm. Unrealistic to believe in peace.
But maybe it’s even more foolish to believe that more weapons will bring safety.
The world is arming itself again. Military budgets are growing fast. Politicians speak of strength and deterrence, and we’re told that spending billions on new weapons is the only way to stay safe.
Fear is dressed up as wisdom. Distrust is sold as maturity.
But what if the truly mature choice is something else entirely?
What if the greatest courage today is to trust?
What are Illusions?
When I say I have no illusions, I mean this:
I no longer believe in the stories of separation —
that we are enemies, that fear protects us,
that power comes from control or domination.
These are illusions:
the idea that we must always defend ourselves,
that people cannot be trusted,
that war is inevitable.
I see through them now.
To trust may look naïve,
but to keep believing in fear and think that more weapons can keep us safe — that’s the real illusion.
Truth=Love
Illusion=Fear
So yes, I am naïve.
And I have no illusions.
The “What If” Trap
Whenever peace is brought up, the fear chorus begins:
But what if Russia escalates? What if there’s a new war? What if we’re not prepared?
Well — what if I get robbed tomorrow? What if a bear attacks me on my evening walk? What if a meteorite crashes through my roof?
Should I wear armor everywhere? Carry a weapon at all times? Should I never trust anyone, just in case?
That kind of life is not a life — it’s a prison of fear.
And when nations think this way, the result is a planet locked in perpetual distrust, paralyzed by fear.
We’ve normalized this insanity and called it “realism.”
But there’s nothing realistic about believing that more weapons will finally bring us peace.
That’s not wisdom — it’s fear speaking.
I Walk Unarmed
Call me naïve, but I walk through life completely unarmed.
Through cities and forests, day and night.
No gun. No sword. Not even a knife.
All I carry is respect — and trust.
Toward everyone I might meet, human or animal.
And you know what?
It works.
I haven’t been mugged.
I haven’t been attacked.
Because most beings respond to the energy you bring.
And when you lead with peace, peace often meets you.
Some might say, “You can’t compare global politics to personal experience.”
But I think you can.
Because behind the suits and borders and weapons,
we’re all still human.
And respect and trust are universal.
They work — on every level.
Even the Cold War Ended with Trust
We’ve been here before.
The Cold War was a decades-long standoff fueled by fear, suspicion, distrust, and enough nuclear warheads to obliterate life on Earth several times.
But how did it end?
Not with war.
Not with victory.
It ended with Trust.
When Reagan and Gorbachev sat down in Reykjavík and Geneva, something remarkable happened: they started listening.
They didn’t agree on everything — far from it — but they broke the silence. They began to reduce arsenals. To sign treaties. To take steps.
It wasn’t perfect. But it was enough. And so far, no one has launched a ballistic nuclear missile towards another country.
The Berlin Wall didn’t fall because someone fired a missile.
It fell because people on both sides stopped believing that war was the only way forward.
Even that Cold War — one of the most dangerous stand-offs in history — ended when someone dared to trust.
Peace Needs the “Naïve”
To choose peace, you have to risk being called naïve.
You have to be willing to believe in the good in people — not because they always show it, but because believing in it is the only way to help it grow.
Real peace doesn’t come from preparing for war.
It comes from preparing for peace.
It comes from dialogue. From cooperation. From building systems that support life — not threaten it.
Yes, it’s risky. But so is love. So is raising a child. So is walking out the door in the morning.
Life is risk. But it’s also possibility.
Every Great Leap Looked Naïve
History is full of people who were mocked, dismissed, even imprisoned for being “unrealistic.”
- Gandhi faced down an empire without violence. Naïve.
- Nelson Mandela invited his former jailers to sit at the table of reconciliation. Naïve.
- Visionaries who spoke of equality, human rights, or planetary peace were always told to “be realistic.” Naïve.
And yet, they changed the world.
Not by accepting fear as a guide, but by daring to dream beyond it.
Maybe they weren’t naïve.
Maybe they were simply free. Free from illusions.
What If the Whole World Trusted?
What if the whole world trusted each other?
What if we built a global society — not on fear, control, or competition —
but on something utterly naïve: trust?
Trusting that our brothers and sisters take only what they need,
and leave enough for the rest of us.
And that we do the same.
A world like that may sound impossible.
But I’ve imagined it — and written it.
In Waking Up – A journey towards a new dawn for humanity, I describe a future where humanity has moved beyond money, beyond fear, beyond the illusion of separation.
A world that works — not because people are perfect,
but because they’ve remembered who they are.
Naïve?
Maybe.
But I have no illusions.
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