Lemmings. Popular Science Monthly, 1877. In the public domain.
by Kathie MM
Engaging peace. For what purpose should we engage peace?
To resist violence. To prevent violence. To end violence.
Violence is life-shattering, life-destroying.
Peace is life-affirming, love-affirming, future-affirming.
Right now life on Earth faces the most violent assault since the Ice Age, which wiped out not only dinosaurs but also countless other life-forms.
I am not talking about nuclear bombs or neutron bombs or drones or weapons of mass destruction, although all those threats are real enough, terrifying enough.
I am talking about the program of mass murder, mass suicide, and mass genocide that human beings have undertaken through their wholesale destruction of the life forces that sustain them.
What elements made it possible for the original life forms on Earth to evolve? Water, a tolerable level of sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.
What do we need today if we are to survive? Water, a tolerable level of exposure to sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.
What are we doing to the elements that sustain life? Poisoning them. Destroying them. Making the earth uninhabitable for many plant and animal species that can include our own.
More than 15,000 scientists from more than 180 countries have recently issued a warning about the catastrophes that face us and the steps that can be taken. Read and take steps
Nobody has the right to participate in this suicidal process.
An icon to represent “global thinking”. In the public domain. Author: Benjamin D. Esham (bdesham).
by Anthony J. Marsella
The emergence of a global era — a borderless psychological and physical milieu –confronts us with new and bewildering challenges to identity formation, change, and assertion.
Age-old questions regarding identity — “Who am I?” What do I believe?” “What is my purpose?” “What are my responsibilities?” “How did I become who I am?”– must now be answered amidst a context of unavoidable competing and conflicting global forces that are giving rise to increasing levels of uncertainty, unpredictability, confusion, and fear.
Indeed, many of our traditional political, economic, social, and religious institutions — long a major source for shaping individual and collective identities — have become part of the problems we face in identity formation and negotiation.
The problem of the sense of identity is not, as it is usually understood, merely a philosophical problem, or a problem only concerning our mind and thought. The need to feel a sense of identity stems from the very condition of human existence, and it is the source of the most intense strivings.
Since I cannot remain sane without the sense of “I,” l am driven to do almost anything to acquire this sense. Behind the intense passion for status and conformity is this very need, and it is sometimes even stronger than the need for physical survival.
What could be more obvious than the fact that people are willing to risk their lives, to give up their love, to surrender their freedom, to sacrifice their own thoughts, for the sake of being one of the herd, of conforming, and thus of acquiring a sense of identity, even though it is an illusory one (Fromm, 1955, p. 63).
But amidst this quest for identity — essential to human functioning – we are missing an identification that may be critical for our survival, and that is an identity with life itself. We seem oblivious to the fact that above all things, we are alive, and life deserves our loyalty as much as any other identity we may have or pursue.
We are more than humanity, and we must identify ourselves with more than humanity. We are embedded in life, we are surrounded and immersed in life in millions of ways. It is the most obvious and yet most ignored aspect of our being, and in our ignorance, we fail to see that we are connected, united, linked to so much more beyond ourselves. And that “connection” holds the key to our very nature.
Yet, we find ourselves as human beings assaulting and killing life in all its forms—species are becoming extinct, bio-diversity is declining, global warming is occurring, and there is a depletion of our water, energy, and agricultural resources, and wars and conflict are endemic. I would like to suggest that a solution for many of the challenges we face may be to move beyond our conventional identifications with self, culture, nation, and even humanity, to an identification with life — Lifeism.
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii. Dr. Marsella has promoted cross-cultural understanding and acceptance as a key to peace within and among nations. He has conducted international research for three decades, as a Fulbright Scholar in the Philippines, a project director for a psychiatric epidemiological study in Borneo, a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Culture and Mental Health Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, and a professor of psychology and director of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is Past President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR).
Protesters hold banner showing support for the St. Petersburg (Florida) for Peace at the March 20, 2010, anti-war protest in Washington, DC. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: Rrenner.
by Civility Pilgrim
You ask what we can do beyond the screams, sarcasm, threats, and tears:
I say: Hold mock constitutional conventions in each State to increase awareness of our constitution and the abuses to its inherent virtues and rights. People know nothing about our rights and governance.
Educate! Circulate copies of the universal declaration of human rights (UDHR). Create community dialogs to inform, inspire, and increase awareness of the rights, responsibilities, and requirements of citizenship.
2. I say: Teach non-violent protest.
3. I say: Remind people of the perilous state of life on Earth in our Anthropocene Era. Catastrophes are imminent. Extinctions of life, pollution of air, water, and earth are omnipresent.
4. I say: Preach peace! Educate people about the sources and consequences of war and conflict. There must be a relentless education of the public to stop their romanticist notions of the economic satisfaction, benefits, and comforts from war!
5. I say: Do what you can when you can to communicate empathy, compassion, and courage.
6. I say: Discuss and critique the serious pathology of the USA popular culture: Materialism, consumerism, exploitive capitalism, celebritization, endless competition and violence infatuation.
7. I say: Teach peace and nonviolence as an educational requirement in schools, colleges, and workplaces. Re-designate schools, colleges, and universities as peace institutions. Require each student to take a course or minor concentration in peace and justice.
8. I say: Elect political leaders who are not beholden to special commercial, professional, and personal interests.
These suggestions are insufficient in isolation, but as a group, as a wave across the land, they can channel energies, inspire ideals, and bring purpose and meaning to life and lives.
Lemmings. Popular Science Monthly, 1877. In the public domain.
