What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world?

Conversation Cafe is a worldwide network of people working to create a culture of dialogue through hosting Conversation Cafés.(see www.conversationcafe.org) Our sister organization Peacemaker Institute hosts weekly Conversation Cafes in Second Life and in this online forum we would like to continue the dialogue as well. We will post regular questions and topics. Please join the conversation!

Below is a question from the "ten top" questions for International Conversation Week 2008 which happened in March:

10. What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world? (Ending violence everywhere)
What incites people to violence and how can those conditions change? When have you experienced a potentially violent situation transform into a more peaceful resolution and what can we learn from that? Where is violence happening in your community and what would you like to see in its stead? What will it take to not just end violence and war, but wage peace?

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Permalink Reply by Kate Crisp (PDN Director) on March 30, 2008 at 9:53am
I personally find language to be one very powerful way that violence is perpetuated (judgments, defensiveness, criticism, evaluations, etc..can sometimes inspire a rather 'violent' or triggered response in others). So for me learning to develop the skill of an active expression of empathy through tools like nonviolent communication, deep listening, meditation, etc. has been helpful to reduce conflict.
Permalink Reply by Ekō (Joshua) Goldberg on March 30, 2008 at 4:55pm
"Where is violence happening in your community" -- where isn't it happening in my community. From the spousal battering experienced by the woman and children living next door, to the caged men living in the prison facing our backyard, to the entire area we live in which was stolen from Lekwungen families for colonial settlement, to my cultural community which is strongly supportive of the actions of the Israeli government, to my country's violence against Afghani people through our occupying forces, to the violence done to the land and animals for profit or just out of ignorance or suffering and seeking to lash out as something even more defenceless...Sometimes the reality of it shocks me and sometimes I just numb out to it or feel hopeless/helpless.

I have tried to intervene many times, sometimes with the result of decreasing or transforming the violence and sometimes not. One of the things I try to do to try to create support for waging peace is to put my wages to peace rather than to war, as a war tax resister. Every yeat at tax time I redirect the military portion of my taxes (8.4% this year for Canadian taxpayers) into a Peace Tax Trust Fund and lobby the government to use those funds to support nonviolent initiatives relating to peacebuilding, crisis intervention, and conflict resolution.

On an interpersonal level, I have intervened in many physical assaults, and often because I'm small (so not physically intimidating) have been able to stop fights when I physically get between people who are fighting. Oddly it has been my experience that not avoiding the conflict, but stepping into it, is quite helpful in defusing it. Perhaps that is because many people look away if they see violence happening here, or try to shift responsibility by calling the police. Having a neutral person step in and express concern for the safety of everyone involved seems so jarring and unexpected that it can break the momentum of the escalation.

This is not to say that's an appropriate action in every situation. It could make things worse sometimes. And I do not tend to physically get involved if I think doing so will really risk my safety. I also still get overwhelmed with fear or indecision sometimes.

I look forward to hearing other people's replies. It is good to learn from how other people do things.

Cheers,

Joshua
Permalink Reply by Shakti on April 25, 2008 at 1:24pm
Hi Joshua~

Please tell me how you redirect the military portion of your taxes. I'd love to know how to do this.

Shakti
Permalink Reply by Ekō (Joshua) Goldberg on April 25, 2008 at 10:27pm
Hi, Shakti. Nice to "meet" you. The process depends on where you live. There is an international Ning site that includes links to groups in various regions who can give you instructions on how to do it in your country. The link is http://peacetax.ning.com. You are welcome to email me if you have any questions (I'm the admin for that site, so clicking the "feedback" link will reach me).

Cheers,

Joshua
Permalink Reply by Fleet Maull on April 3, 2008 at 12:44am
Great comments from Sophie, Joshua and Kate ... thank you. For me the key to reducing violence in the world is to recognize and begin to address one of the primary sources of this violence--unhealed trauma resulting from child abuse, shame-based cultural conditioning, and internalized oppression and shame among oppressed and marginalized groups and individuals. Almost all of us have been coercively conditioned as children with shaming and the threat of shaming into arbitrary culturally acceptable behaviors, and most of us are sitting on suppressed shame, anger and even rage as a result. Those of us who experienced abuse, neglect or various kinds of oppression and violence as children are sitting on even more. Today millions of children are being exposed to sexual abuse, domestic violence, urban violence, war, extreme poverty, and oppression and marginalization based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc.. We are raising new generations of traumatized people all but programmed for a pandemic of violence we have yet to imagine. We need to see this virus of internalized shame and trauma based violence in human culture as a world wide epidemic and marshal the resources to address it and overcome it just as we have done or as we are doing with polio, malaria, small pox, typhus, and AIDS, etc.
Permalink Reply by Janna on April 12, 2008 at 12:24am
I agree with Fleet that violence and its antidote, empathy/compassion, need to be a major public health focus, enlisting, training and supporting traditional healers to that end, as well as community health workers, teachers, community leaders, and children. Radio and media in general can be effective tools for healing the world of suffering that is totally preventable and in our hands.

I do not agree that violence is primarily internalized shame, although I am willing to think more about this. It is always related to seeing the other as an object, unlike ourselves, which stems from grasping onto a mistaken notion of "I and mine." I am living in Lhasa, Tibet, now a ghetto, a machine gun every few feet and ID checks, for a torch that is more important than the non-people here. Internalized shame is not the problem here; rather a grandiose self that disregards the other.

Verbal violence has a lot to do with the overall situation here. Daily we have an hour of accusations against the "Dalai clique" broadcast over the loudspeaker. We ourselves have been spared the numerous "meetings" that others are being subjected to. These cannot make the people here any happier.

Please appeal to government representatives on behalf of the Tibetan people to have
1. Unrestricted access for independent journalists
2. Medical attention for many who fear going to government run hospitals
3. An international investigative committee regarding the Chinese accusations and the current situation
4. Direct negotiations with the Dalai Lama

http://www.stoptibetcrisis.net/
www.phayul.com
http://www.bpf.org/html/resources_and_links/statements/statements/B...

Truth will go a long way towards healing violence in the world.

Blessings for happiness and great compassion, to you and all beings.
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Permalink Reply by Erin Ferguson on April 3, 2008 at 2:23pm
I am with Fleet on healing violence through focusing on the shame-based cultural conditioning. Self-empathy, metta practice, and accepting what is, is a good place to start.

I have observed that acceptance of what is, combined with the realization that acceptance does not mean approval of other people's values, can stave off a violent reaction.

And, the adage from Sartre: "Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you."
Permalink Reply by Janna on April 12, 2008 at 9:16pm
How to end institutionalized state violence? Like the prison system?
Permalink Reply by Ekō (Joshua) Goldberg on April 12, 2008 at 9:36pm
Hi Janna,

What a tough question. I can only speak for myself. When I was in my teens and twenties, my perception of institutionalized state violence was that it was something separate from me and that I had to be at constant war with it to make it stop. As I get older and also engage in spiritual practice more steadily my perception is shifting so it is not something separate from my life or my community, but rather not so different in that its perpetuation requires continual consent from all of us in the various ways that we participate in it. I can see how within my life, sangha, family, neighourhood, etc. there is complicity with state violence in many ways. There is no "state" separate from the people who make up the state, just as there is no "prison system" separate from the people who have a relationship within it (inside and outside).

The implication is that we can withdraw our consent and participation -- financially (e.g., tax resistance, financially supporting non-violent alternatives), politically (e.g., education campaigns, lobbying), and in very practical ways (e.g., not relying on the prison system to solve interpersonal violence in our own lives, seeking out opportunities to interact with people on the frontlines so we can really listen to their perspectives).

I grew up in a very politicized family and cultural community, so spent my whole life immersed in community organizing. A lot of the strategies and campaigns I was involved with or observed were deeply flawed and contributed to a lot of suffering. But imperfect though collective organizing is, it seems important to keep trying, balanced by periods of reflection and rest. Spiritual practice and meditation is part of that picture, but not the whole picture, at least for me.

What are your ideas and observations from the frontlines in Tibet?

Best wishes,

Joshua
Permalink Reply by Janna on April 12, 2008 at 10:17pm
My observations are horrifying. I cannot elaborate them here. You may go to the websites I posted above, see photos and read. youtube has firsthand accounts by nuns of torture to which they were subjected, during "good times." Nazi Germany is an excellent and not exaggerated analogy in every respect. The Chinese must be pressed to dialogue immediately, since hundreds, even thousands, of lives are in immediate danger.

Your suggestions for action are excellent (financial, educational, political lobbying, creating alternative community conflict resolution resources, information gathering). As people, as individuals, we all interact with institutions and encounter institutional violence. Does a list of recommendations for constructive action, as, say, exist for environmental awareness, exist for opposing and transforming institutional violence? Amnesty has some suggestions on their website; I'll look again. If none exists, I invite this forum to brainstorm such a list, which would certainly be relevant on the personal, interpersonal and national/state levels, since violence at all levels has the same root causes. Does Zimbardo have some concrete suggestions regarding transforming systems on his website or in his book "The Lucifer Effect?"
Permalink Reply by Michael on April 19, 2008 at 9:00am
My perspective on all of this is that everyone commenting has touched on an integral and crucial piece of an effective solution. Justice organizations (as organs of the state) must be retooled to prioritize mindfulness and compassion over retributivism, deterrence, or merely warehousing. Nietzsche made a point somewhere that war will end forever when the army decides to close its own doors; to fashion its own swords into ploughshares. Likewise, responsible government agents (as mindful individuals who ultimately make policy), through their offices can both render compassionate governance and teach citizens about compassion (withouth compromising democratic values).
Permalink Reply by Janna on April 24, 2008 at 8:56am
Here are comments to the IHT article on US prisons.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/23/america/23prison.php?d=1#com...

In addition to the three things I noted in the article in a previous post (where is the post?): 1. arms control to reduce violent crimes by individuals and state sanctioned violence such as armed forces, 2. stable civic positions for the criminal justice system rather than the vagaries of elections that politicize the c.j.s, and 3. participation in programs that can be linked to length of sentence, such a NVC, prison dharma (with outcome assessment), several comments in the above link refer to the privatization of prisons and so the economic interest in prolonging and increasing incarceration.

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