Tag: love

Give the gift of peace

Posted on by kathiemm

Christmas is meant to be the season of peace, love, and goodwill to all. If you are a Christian, think of your favorite carols and their messages. None of them says, “spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy.”

Christmas gifts in colorful wrappings
Give the gift of peace. (Image in public domain)

If you share the belief that the holidays have become too commercialized, and that the main purpose of the season seems to have become the pressure to buy toys that will be broken within a month, think of ways to give the gift of peace.

For example, consider family activities that promote cooperation–such as volunteer service, non-competitive board games, reading stories about peace, or outdoor hiking. Take time to discuss the true meaning of Christmas with your loved ones.

Pose questions such as:

  • What do the terms “peace” and “goodwill” mean in our daily lives?
  • What prompts us each to feel peaceful, and what fosters antagonism?

We also encourage you to learn more about ways to green your holidays and gift-giving that is environmentally friendly.

The gift of peace education

As wars continue to bedevil and destroy both human lives and the environment, there is a growing movement towards peace education that has produced books and other materials designed to promote peace and reconciliation in children and adults, and to foster awareness of the need to resist the destruction of our environment in the endless pursuit of money.

We provide below a sampling of books for children and adults, as well as films that are season-appropriate gifts. For additional suggestions, see our pages of resources for adults and kids.  As you do your holiday shopping, please consider these suggestions.

Children’s books about peace

101 Relaxation Games for Children: Finding a Little Peace and Quiet In Between (SmartFun Activity Books)
Can You Say Peace?
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Journey to Change the World… One Child at a Time ( The Young Reader’s Edition)

Books for adults about war and peace

The Book Thief
The Lacuna: A Novel (P.S.)
Moral Politics : How Liberals and Conservatives Think
Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War (American Empire Project)

Films about peacemaking

Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)
Forgiving Dr. Mengele
Howard Zinn – You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train
Invictus

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

Moral disengagement – Introduction

Posted on by kathiemm
Photo of 3 monkeys in "hear, speak, see no evil" poses
Hear, Speak, See No Evil. Toshogu Prefecture, Japan. (Unconditional permission granted by photographer, via WikiMedia Commons.)

Psychologist Albert Bandura has devoted his life to the study of human aggression and violence.  It is his theoretical constructs that we begin considering today.

Bandura recognized that shame and guilt are uncomfortable emotions and that people will utilize a variety of strategies to avoid feeling them.

For some people, feelings of shame and guilt resulting from bad behavior may lead to positive character development, mature intimacy, generativity, and integrity.

Other people use strategies of “moral disengagement” to help them avoid shame or guilt while continuing to behave badly.

According to Bandura, “mechanisms of moral disengagement” can serve to satisfy their users that they are behaving morally because they are conforming to the values of their role models, spiritual guides, or political leaders.

Unfortunately, many leaders, often with the help of the media, promote the development and use of moral disengagement in order to insure their followers’ compliance in acts of horrifying violence against others.  For example, they encourage viewing “the enemy” as someone evil, inferior, and deserving punishment or even elimination.

Bandura has identified several types of moral disengagement that allow ordinary people to tolerate and even contribute to behaviors like torture, rape, and murder–behaviors that violate the ethics of reciprocity, the teachings of love and brotherhood in all major religious texts, and the human rights laws endorsed by the United Nations.

These mechanisms of moral disengagement include:

  • “Moral” justification–which we prefer to call “spurious moral justification”
  • Euphemistic labeling
  • Advantageous comparison
  • Displacement of responsibility
  • Disregard or distortion of consequences
  • Dehumanizing or demonizing the other

In upcoming posts, we will explore each of these mechanisms in more detail, and give common examples of their use. We will also introduce the mechanisms of moral engagement that allow individuals to resist spurious calls to violence in the name of peace.

Be sure to check back to learn more.

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.