Tag: armed conflict

Gratitude on Thanksgiving

Posted on by patdaniel

Today, Thanksgiving Day, 2011, we are thankful that we did not grow up in a country that deals daily with armed conflict on its own territory. We are glad that we have been sheltered from bombs, terror, and torture.

First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe
First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe. Image in public domain

We also are thankful to be activists during an era when activism is growing around the world–activism aimed at ending economic inequality, social injustice, and costly and wasteful wars. We are grateful for the U.S. Bill of Rights and Constitution that protect our rights to activism and free speech.

We are thankful to be part of the 99% who are recognizing that we can have a voice, that we need to speak out against those members of the 1% who have gained so much control over the lives of ordinary peace-loving, justice-seeking people around the world.

We feel a rush of happiness seeing a police captain join the Occupy Wall Street movement and speak out against ruthless militarism in fellow wearers of the badge. (See story and video about retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis  arrested at OWS).

We feel pride and intensified optimism when we hear a veteran speak out against the tragic wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. For example, see the great new essay by Ross Caputi, a frequent contributor to this blog.

Please join us in being grateful for all people of conscience who resist war and other forms of inhumanity. Enjoy the celebration on this video or this one.

And check out the New York Times article about the benefits of gratitude, including mention of a research study showing “…that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked…”  Perhaps gratitude provides a path to world peace.

Finally, we are grateful for you, dear readers of Engaging Peace, for your comments, your stories, your commitment to peace in your own lives and work.

Please submit your own comments about what you are grateful for this Thanksgiving Day.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology, and Pat Daniel, Managing Editor of Engaging Peace

Lessons from the Bastille

Posted on by kathiemm

July 14 is the Fête de la Fédération, generally known as Bastille Day in English speaking countries. The events leading up to that critical day in the French Revolution are instructive.

Storming the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houel
Storming the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houel (Image in public domain)

With his government facing economic crisis because of his war expenditures (i.e., his intervention in the American Revolution), King Louis XVI imposed heavy and regressive taxes on the middle class. He was unable to broaden his tax base because of the power of the small but entrenched and very conservative nobility.

Do these problems have a familiar ring? Can you think of countries where there is a middle class struggling with similar issues? What are some
ways they can achieve equality and fairness without violence?

On July 14, 1789, opponents of autocratic rule stormed the Bastille, an ancient fortress and prison, to liberate the vast stores of arms and ammunition there. Many French troops  sympathized with the rebel cause and refrained from attack.

Soon after the storming of the Bastille, the leaders of the Revolution drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The principles in this Declaration include:

  • Social equality and freedom of religion
  • Ending the exemptions from taxation that had benefited the nobility
  • Ensuring free speech while acknowledging the need to keep freedom of expression from being abused
  • Calling for universal military service

Many of its principles were also included in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, and the document became a model for much of later human rights law. Moreover, the motives behind the storming of the Bastille and the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen continue to push for expression around the world today.

Following its Revolution, France experienced many years of violence — against its own citizens, against neighboring countries, and as part of its efforts to obtain and retain colonies in other parts of the world.

Today, France ranks 36 in the Global Peace Index, well ahead of the United States, ranked at 82.  It has shown reluctance to be drawn into many of the armed conflicts of the day, often to the anger of the U.S. government, and its active role in the European Union helps to insure that it will not go to war with its neighbors again.

Perhaps that is another lesson to us all.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Misrepresenting or minimizing consequences (Moral disengagement, part 6)

Posted on by kathiemm

Misrepresenting or minimizing consequences is another moral disengagement mechanism.

Psychologist Albert Bandura notes that when people commit atrocities for personal gain or as a response to social pressure, one way to offset shame and guilt is to minimize or distort the ill-effects of their behavior.

During contemporary warfare by the developed nations, this process is facilitated by modern technology, which allows maiming and killing from high in the air–thus avoiding the sight of blood, guts, and dismembered bodies; the screams of pain, pleas for help; and victims begging for an end to their ordeal.

It has been noted that the Pulitzer-prize winning photograph of the naked Vietnamese girl running from her napalmed village played a pivotal role in turning the American public against the Vietnam War.

To avoid a repetition of that kind of public disavowal of their political and military aims, more recent governments have exercised extreme control over media portrayals of wartime events.

Misrepresenting and minimizing consequences is rampant in relation to the environmental consequences of war. Among the long-lasting effects of war that are minimized right out of people’s consciousness are:

  • Sunken ships that continue to pollute the oceans
  • Landmines that continue to maim and kill
  • Hazardous waste from the manufacturing of weapons
  • Destruction and pollution of wildlife and human habitat through use of herbicidal weapons such as Agent Orange
  • Environmental degradation from the thousands of refugees fleeing the armed conflict.

(For more about environmental consequences of war, see the report of the Environmental Literacy Council.)

In reaction to the minimizing, misrepresenting, and denial of the environmental effects of war, the United Nations, in 2001, declared November 6 to be  International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

Note: This post was adapted from my previously published article in Peace Psychology (a publication of the American Psychological Association), Spring, 2009.