Treating People as Fully Human: Giving Up Enemy Making
- January 15th, 2010
Disaster Opens the World’s Heart
As I write, the world is pouring out its heart to the survivors of the Haiti earthquake. I watch, stunned at the magnitude of the devastation and awed by the magnitude of the generosity this tragedy has elicited. Something about natural disasters brings out the best in people. Perhaps this is because we would want others to treat us with compassion were we the ones in desperate need.
Having
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On our shrinking globe, there is a pervasive belief in the inevitability of war/armed violence. It is accompanied by a sense of hopelessness and despair that things will ever be different. Peace is seen as those brief periods between outbreaks of armed violence. This blog will introduce a radically different approach which begins with the fact that violence and war are language-based phenomena. Change the language and thinking and you change the behavior. We humans can choose the kind of world we want to live in, if we want it badly enough. If we chose to create a world that worked for everyone, no force on earth could stop us. We have the capacity to create, at this point in history, the kind of future we want for ourselves, our children and future generations. This is Peace by Design.
Here are some of the questions we will address:
How Did We Get Here?
Cycles of War and Peace
War has become a habit that humans can’t break. Why? Are we destined to kill each other forever?The Costs of Armed Violence
The costs of armed violence seem to be written off and war just keeps on going. Why are we willing to pay the costs of war, terrorism, and genocide?Current Approaches to Peace and War
From realpolitik to the UN, we have many rational reasons and approaches to deal with international conflict and violence. Do they really work?How Human Beings Work
The proclivity toward violence and the longing for peace has its origins in the design of the human being. Does this mean violence is inevitable? Or can the human machinery be worked with to create new possibilities, new realities?Designing the World We Want
Here we get very specific about naming exactly the kind of world we want to live in, give up our hopelessness and declare that this world will come to pass and commit ourselves to its fulfillment.Shifting the Planetary Conversation
The greatest power of humans is the power of language and creation happens through language. Shift the conversation and something new will happen.
