The desire for peace and social justice beats in many hearts, but that desire, that dream, that need, too often become squelched by fear mongers, by the military-industrial complex, by unscrupulous politicians hoping to terrify citizens into voting for them, by the power brokers who enrich themselves through means that kill, maim, depress, and dehumanize enormous segments of the human species.
Psychologists have learned a lot about the processes enabling the power-hungry to manipulate others and the processes that make all people vulnerable to manipulation. Time to get the word out.
Among the powerful processes that can make ordinarily kind human beings act in immoral, insensitive, uncompassionate ways are various forms of moral disengagement, including dehumanization, and blaming the other. However, human beings can also be or become morally engaged on behalf of themselves and others and moral engagement can become a force for the kind of resistance to social injustice we saw in the Occupy Movement.
A new ad hoc committee of psychologists, of which I am a member, has come together to address issues of violence, particularly structural violence , and social injustice. We are embracing an explicitly psychological perspective, and are powered, I believe, by moral engagement. Here is our new organization’s preliminary mission statement: To genuinely and compassionately promote fairness and well-being for all.
Our planned strategies include:
- Using psychological principles
- Speaking truth to power
- Renewing peoples’ beneficent thoughts, actions, and feelings, and doing so with basic kindness.
- Engaging people on behalf of the well-being of themselves and others.
We are grateful to be receiving advice and consultation from two like-minded documentary filmmakers–Donald Goldmacher (Heist: Who Stole the American Dream) and Laurie White (Refusing to be Enemies).
We would love to hear from you. Please send us your thoughts and feelings about our endeavors.