This is the fifth in a new series of blogs written for our website by Humanity Project Founder, Bob Knotts, a playwright, poet and author of the book “Beyond Me: Dissecting Ego To Find The Innate Love At Humanity’s Core.” These blogs offer a more personal perspective on the goodness and inherent value of humanity, ideas that are the foundation of the Humanity Project’s work.
Let’s bring back the peace sign. I’m talking here about the hand sign used by the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s to express feelings of gentle peacefulness toward each other. I remember. I was one of them.
But now, as the Age of COVID demands new rules of social interaction for the immediate future, the handshake is a memory. So are charming habits such as freely hugging anyone who seemed they might enjoy it and kisses on the cheek, so common in many cultures outside the United States especially.
So yes, today the Humanity Project humbly offers a solution drawn from the hippie past. The two-finger vertical peace sign, which of course can double as a V for victory over COVID. (According to the Daily Mirror newspaper in the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill was far from the first to use that famous World War Two symbol for victory over the Nazis: “This is because the ‘V sign’ was first used by English longbowmen in the 1415 Battle of Agincourt to mock the defeated French army. The longbowmen relied on these two fingers to fire their arrows to deadly effect upon the enemy, which was a key factor in the victory. It represented a show of defiance and derision by the English soldiers, and showed the French army that all they needed was these two fingers to win the bloody battle.”)
Once the martial V evolved into the 60s peace sign, I loved that sweet symbol of togetherness, of a caring humanity. I flashed it often back then, especially when greeting or leaving the company of other long-haired folks of the period. And I find myself using it once again more and more often in recent years, spontaneously and sometimes even to my own surprise. To me, the peace sign still means “hello friend” or perhaps “goodbye friend.” I think it’s a beautiful display of bonding among people.
Not that the peace sign ever really has quite gone away. Some of today’s youth already use it, even turning the upright fingers on their side when the mood strikes them. I like it.
But for an all-purpose, post-Great Lockdown, socially distanced method of demonstrating our affection or friendliness or just general pleasantness as at a meeting, why not that wonderful holdover from the peace-and-love decades? The traditional vertical two-finger peace sign. I have for many years felt that we have yet to tap into the large reservoir of loving social consciousness that was one hallmark of the hippie era. I’ve floated the idea of creating a Humanity Project task force formed wholly of Baby Boomers who still want to make a contribution. We may yet try that. But for now, oh yes, let’s bring back the peace sign. Let’s each begin to use it. Maybe share this blog on social media and with friends or family. Who knows where this may lead. Or not. I’ve learned there’s no telling in advance whether an online campaign may go viral. That’s in the lap of the gods.
Still, the world needs something joyful, something widely understood and widely shared to replace the handshake, the hug and the cheek kiss, doesn’t it? The peace sign just could be it.
