Non-violent Western by Giovanna- Tuesday, 21 August 2012, 06:53 PM

What do you think this means?

Is it possible for the Western culture to leave violence aside?

I would say it's extremely difficult to leave violence aside when it has been so normalized, and when you can expect 20 mass shootings per year in the USA these days...

This article discusses the issue:

http://rt.com/usa/news/mass-year-people-massacre-710/

Quoting from it:

So far in 2012, more people have been killed in Chicago than the number of US servicemen in Afghanistan.

The NYPD recorded 730 shooting incidents this year alone, showing a 12 percent increase from the same time in 2011.

According to the Brady campaign, who brands itself with the slogan “sensible gun laws save lives,” the Aurora incident is already the sixth mass shooting in the month of July alone.

"Children are becoming victims more and more in these communities," Rev. Taharka Robinson, founder of the Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition, told the Huffington Post after the NYC mass shooting weeks ago. "If you can have an individual spray bullets where children are playing nearby, there's something wrong. We need to get to the root of the problem."

WE NEED TO GET TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.

What is the root?

The Root, in my opinion:

Warped ideologies, violent media, poor family and community values, aggressive everyday-life examples, disturbing environments, lack of education and alternatives, cultural influence, normalization, lack of safety, fear, power relations, corruption, and the list goes on.

The Solution:

My solution always steers towards providing safe environments for children and youth where they will have access to positive role models, education about healthy lifestyles, and be exposed to love, cooperation, trust, etc. It wouldn’t hurt to support their mothers too. Of course, every individual situation/place/community would need a context-based approach.

A little encouragement for us all:

Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed. -Jan de Hartog, The Lamb's War

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. -Mother Teresa

A good example has twice the value of good advice. -Author Unknown

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. -Mother Teresa

Becky, you are right! We should focus on small things and hope those small things will transform into something big. Or just them let them be small and effective? Maybe that is the option for us right now...

I think that in the western countries exist a culture of violence, for that reason could be difficult to leave it on the side. We can see many examples in America, for example United States, where the government has a historical policy of solving the problems with conflicts or wars or where the people can obtain a gun easily and kill a lot of people or where the bullying is a huge problem within the young population. Another example, is in general Latin America where nowadays in the XXI the violence against the women has increased, and in particular this phenomenon in Colombia is an heritage of our history, which recently has been the best alternative to fight the armed conflict, because something like peace is not wanted.

I agree with what you guys are saying – it’s really important to get to the root of the problem through education, by providing a safe environment for children and their families etc. I think there are also some pretty strong links between loss of social capital in communities, income inequity and homicide rates. These issues also need to be addressed, but as Chris said yesterday, they are complex social and economic problems that require many solutions (too many for this blog!).

But I also see a major part of the problem in the US as being easy access to firearms. Following the Port Arthur massacre in Australia the government restricted access to semi-automatic rifles, purchase or possession of guns without a license etc in response to the shooting. I’m unsure why the US government can’t do something similar (despite the NRA) - it may not be politically popular but morally it’s the right thing to do. So while we should work on the long-term challenges to address the roots of violence, more immediate political action is also important.

I'm not sure I agree with Andres that a culture of violence exists in Western countries - what about Australia?

This is indeed developing into an interesting discussion. How about shifting our attention to peace which is commonly defined negatively as the absence of violence. I think that violence occurs because peace, which is the norm of human affairs, has been 'broken' and once the violence stops, 'things will return to normal' (that is peace). So let's expand the question of why are people or societies violent to include its corollary: why are so many people and societies (a great deal more than violent societies) live in peace and harmony (a word that is almost always paired with peace)? To put it another way: How can we account for peaceability (which is the norm for humanity contemporarily, geographically, and historically)? There are incredibly more people and cultures now and before throughout human history that have lived in peace but there appears to be a disproportionate attention to violence, an aberration of human behaviour. Too much attention on the deviant rather than the common or normal human behaviour. I am involved in several peace organisations and would like to invite you to look them up: Peaceful Societies (www.peacefulsocieties.org) and Center for Global Nonkilling (www.nonkilling.org). I am on the Anthropology Committee for the latter and contributed a chapter in the book, Nonkilling Societies (downloadable for free). Peaceful Societies is run by a friend, a fellow anothropologist, Bruce Bonta. My ESP model is featured on this site (under News and Reviews: 8 December 2011).

I am wondering whether you would like me to present a kind of autobiographical seminar on my intellectual (and spiritual) journey that has shaped my ethics and values on ecology and peace. I am a peace loving greenie who abhors violence, both physical and structural (inequality, poverty, racism, ecological vandalism). I'll be happy to do this the week after Nalini's sessions. What say ya?

Very interesting Alberto, I have never really thought about violence and peace this way. Thanks for sharing the links, very inspirational. Why do we never talk about peace?

I'm sure we would all enjoy learning more about your thoughts and experiences!

It would be a great idea, indeed.

Wow Alberto, it sounds really interesting. I'm already looking forward to the lecture where you can explain more about your concept of peace.

Alberto I will really enjoy that lecture! I can't top thinking about how groups could have done for the protest to be peaceful. I look forward to that session. Thank you for sharing the links!

Sounds great Alberto. It's really interesting to turn these questions around, instead of asking why there is so much violence, why is there peace? It brings a whole new perspective.

Here's a wonderful story of an effort to cultivate peace through community gardening: Calle de Comida: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/54759095-78/zivkovic-community-garden-gardens.html.csp?page=1

Hm interesting how people come back to the same concept as ancient greek fiolosophists did... it just reminded me of my high school time when we studied about greek philosophists and I still remember the story of Epicurus and his concept of garden as a place of meetings with other philosophists, which according to him was the best place to create friendship within the community (garden) which consequently leaded to the happiness.

Its good to see that people still believe in the power of nature, that can bring peace, harmony into our lifes and as the woman from the article says "it will nurtures childrens souls". Its important to share this way of living with the others, especially with children who represent future "protectors" of the nature of our planet.

Thanks for the link Alberto, what a great story. Community gardens are such a great way to break down barriers between people. I hope that she’s able to expand her idea to other parts of the city.

I‘m for the lecture too.

Alberto, this lecture will be interesting to hear. looking forward to it too.

I would really enjoy getting to understand peace more. Thanks Alberto for offering a lecture on this topic!

A link recommended to the class by Chris Roach last week, “The Empathic Civilisation”, gives a summary of the book in a short animation. It states that, contrary to some beliefs that we are inherently inclined towards aggression, violence, self-interest and utilitarianism, we are actually soft wired towards sociability, attachment, affection, companionship and the empathic drive to belong. In other words, we prefer peace over war and non-violence to violence. It also speaks about empathic distress that is built into our biology which is the reason why a baby starts crying if it hears another baby cry. Therefore, it is not only for ourselves that we want a non-violent, equitable and just life, we also want it for all other humans as well, as we see and feel their pain through empathic distress.

Rifkin's The Empathic Civilisation is a good read but what he presents is by no means new. Anthropologists have been writing about this for more than a century. How might we foster empathy within a system that advocates and promotes individualism, self-interest, acquisitiveness and utilitarianism and along with that, exploitation, oppression, and inequality? Rifkin tells us that empathy is an innate human quality and that we are at the edge of entropic catastrophe but the pressing question is how are we going to 'make social change happen' (that's what we are trying to appreciate in MSH).

Two Wolves

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Beautiful Becky! It seems that all of us in this class are determined to feed our 'good wolf' and assist others in recognising and feeding their 'good wolf' also. Is this enough to 'make social change happen'? - living in accordance with our empathic respect for one another? I guess if enough people are living by this, others will catch on too??

His Holiness The Dali Lama explains that true happiness does not occur by making oneself happy, but by making another person happy. He used the metaphor of a child being happy when she or he receives a present, yet when this child grown into an adult, they do not enjoy so much receiving their own presents, as giving a present to a child to see their happiness.