Tom Greening was educated at Yale, the University of Vienna, and the University of Michigan. He has been a psychologist in private practice for over 50 years, and is a retired professor from Saybrook University, UCLA, and Pepperdine. He was Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology for 35 years. He is a Fellow of five divisions of the American Psychological Association and Poet Laureate of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry.
Waterboarding From The Inquisition To Guantanamo, Constitution Ave., NW (Washington, DC). Image by Jim Kuhn and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
June 26 is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture—an important if mostly neglected reminder that torture continues to victimize people around the world today–often at the behest of powerful forces within the US government. Torture destroys the well-being of millions of direct victims as well as their loved ones. The theme for 2015 is the Right to Rehabilitation (R2R); we should never forget that victims of torture may suffer for a life time.
The Miriam Webster Dictionary defines torture “as the act of causing severe physical pain as a form of punishment or as a way to force someone to do or say something, something that causes mental or physical suffering, a very painful or unpleasant experience.” This is a broad definition but useful.
How many of you still feel anguish when you remember traumatic experiences of physical or psychological punishment or coercion—e.g., beatings, humiliation, terrorizing–at the hands of family members or bullies? How many of you needed either professional or other support to deal with the effects of those experiences? Can you imagine how much worse it would be to be the victim of the more commonly-acknowledged forms of torture, such as waterboarding, prolonged solitary confinement, rectal feeding, and other atrocities outlined in the recent US Senate report on torture by the CIA?
Torture is a moral issue, one that all people of conscience can address—not only on a community, national, and international level but in their own lives. See the following links for some ideas of what you might do in honor of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture… and every day.
To ring in the New Year, with its new choices and pathways, here is the fourth post in our current series from guest author Dr. Anthony Marsella.*
Beyond Propaganda, Media Deception and Abuses, and Lies
The United States of America and its closest international allies have chosen the path of war, with tragic consequences for the survival of humanity and our natural world. Our foreign and domestic policies are destructive — serving the political, economic, and financial interests of a limited number of individuals and organizations. Unless we retreat from this path, and choose the path of peace, we will find ourselves doomed to endless domestic and international violence and war.
The US government has fashioned an explicit global domestic and foreign policy that encourages endless fractures and divisions between and among nations, regions, genders, religions, ethnic groups/races, and social-economic classes. The government is pitting humanity against itself and against the natural world, promoting global chaos and collapse.
Efforts by the US power structure to use the deceptive “patriotic” attractions and seductions of war — blindly mantled in glory, soldiers’ bravery, and martial domination, replete with songs, parades, banners, and celebrations of victory and nationalism — are deceptive attractions and seductions of our bodies, minds, and spirits.
How many more must die from this lie that finds virtue in war? How many more must be wounded, traumatized, and punished by starvation, torture, and social upheaval and dislocation? Have we no conscience? Have we lost all sense of human dignity and worth? Have we no awareness of our assault on nature? Have we no sense of the exploitation and exhaustion of our natural resources?
Our leaders come before us, offering plaintive explanations designed to sculpt their destructive legacy in our minds as legacies of brilliant strategy, moral and ethical choices, and wise and learned tactics and actions. Through daily exposure to these messages, will humanity continue to accept such lies? Or can we choose a different path in 2015?
*This post is adapted from an essay originally published by Transcend Media Service at
People united in protest against killing of Michael Brown, Ferguson,Mo., August 2014. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
A dear friend of mine complained that often when she often reads my blog she is left feeling sad and discouraged. The posts remind her of all the things wrong in the world, and the many injustices done by and within our own country, and she doesn’t feel she can do much about any of it. But she can make a difference. We all can.
I can understand how she feels; I can empathize with her sense of discouragement, her wish to be distracted from the evils of racism, the horrors of war, the barbarism of torture. But ignoring the problems won’t lead to peace of mind or safety or a future for our children and grandchildren.
As 2014 ends, and we move into a new year with new possibilities to make a difference, Engaging Peace offers reminders of some of the more positive posts of the past year—the beacons of hope and the guides for the new year.
January 2, 2014. We rang in the New Year with appreciation for the work ofnon-profits resisting war, combating arms proliferation, and promoting peace and nonviolence. http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7466
April 10, 2014. We suggested that organizations, like individuals, can be morally engaged and nominate a few exemplars: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=7771
Those examples of individuals and groups working for peace and social justice come from fewer than six months’ worth of engaging peace posts. Join their efforts in 2015. Engage in resistance to violence, racism, and other forms of social injustice. That’s one way to get to feel better.
