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Peace Education and Walking the Talk
by Tadit Anderson
December 23, 2004

"The survival of democracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of nonviolent means to combat evil and advance the good." A. J Muste

In this quote Muste's meaning for the word "nonviolence" is much more than ending physical violence. His statement calls for the ending of system embedded violence in the forms of elitism, sexism, and racism as well. Limiting Peace advocacy to ending only overt physical violence and aggression leaves the societal, economic, and political violence in place and fully operational. Expecting reforms of such a configuration of interests and expectations to be able to "raise all boats" is delusional, if only because the general pattern of behavior is based upon discrimination, the advantage of the wealthy, and the promise of privilege. We must seek out the historical and social roots of anti-democracy, violence, self interest, and then dissolve it as a basis for our lives.

The ABB strategy as promoted and fumbled by the Democratic mis-Leadership Council was never a solution for much of anything other than as an opportunity to demonstrate the impoverished imagination and principles of the US Democratic Leadership Council vying for their equal opportunity to undermine our democracy in favor of their partisan version of politically correct corporatist theft. The DLC strategy could not have produced any substantive reform to the extent that they accept as given the violence of our current economic, cultural, and political priorities. The extreme disconnect between Kerry promising that no vote would be left uncounted, then making an early concession by declaring a "healing," and then creeping back with a token presence after others independent of the DLC corporatists challenged the blatant election fraud and demanded recounts. The same DLC is again pressing an agenda that will position the Democratic Party further even right by distancing itself from Pro-Choice principle and even pro-democracy principles.

These are very clear examples of our two party, one ideology political system at its corporate business as usual, dysfunctional worst. Both corporatist partisans seem similarly committed to violence as currently embodied by our culture, economy, and government. The premise of limited ourselves to choosing the lesser evil was self defeating from the outset. We cannot advocate Peace and leave the violence of present priorities intact down to even our personal choices.

Instead of one fraudulent political campaign we had two. Even so, some of us knew that our expectations of the current political machinery could only be limited. What is necessary to turn this whole process around really goes much deeper and the effort of the process will be much longer. The 2004 electoral interlude was very much like playing musical chairs on the deck of the Titanic. In measuring this against any authentic version of democracy, it is difficult to dispute the fraudulence and subversion by self interest of our political, cultural, and economic legacy by every stripe of corporatist. By their grasping schemes they have conspired to divest by theft and privatization the sovereign assets of people of our own nation as well as from every other nation on the planet. My point here is that the project to restructure relations of the US toward justice, fair trade, nonviolence, basic human rights, and sustainability for the species was always a much larger project.

One description names our current culture as a struggle between two different types of conservatism which are also symbionts. One is the conventional amoral conservatism and the other is an alternative amoral conservatism which often identifies itself as "liberal." Another description describes our situation as dominated by courtiers and technocrats, on both the left and the right.. What both views detail is the historical ignorance, impoverished imagination, dedication foremost to very limited self interests, and a disinterest in what actually works or produces the declared goals. The current example of a political formula for "success" is to promise moral values and deliver corporate deregulation, privatization, the off-shoring of jobs, and tax cuts for the rich.

The courtier's "wisdom" would have us believe the elitist propaganda and disinformation fed to us as higher wisdom passed down from somewhere further up the corporate ladder. One of the major tactics of this perspective is what I call the "Great" theories of history and culture as attempting to identify simple and efficient causes. Everyone who has suffered through public dys-education here is familiar with the approach and most have accepted this distortion of history as the actual "truth." That many choose to be persuaded that a "Great" person of any political tilt could lead us out of any current contradiction with a made for mass media "charisma' is no surprise. This is the pattern to which we have been indoctrinated. It seems simple, it seems easy, and it is wrong.

We seem to have no shortage of schemers willing to pose as the next "Great White" or even "Off White" corporatist hope. However the "Great" theories of history and culture are only selectively true and generally false. The wide acceptance of the policy manual as being the corporate "Bible" of edicted truth or of the theological "truth" of neo-classical economics are other features of the courtier's and technocrats world view. The general description clearly includes a substitution of a fabricated world view for both history and for what actually works. This is the violence of ideology, of ahistorical theology, and of false promises, against real needs and real social and ethical problems.

Because wealth and the economic part of our lives has been abstracted and deified, the consistent result of this world view has been disaster for the many and reward for the greedy. In this context the control over the educational system and communications systems are essential in order to maintain the law and order of corporate theft.. The use of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the sum of all monetary measures is a high admission that the corporate managerial model of economy has been impoverished to the level of a bunko scam. The legal fees related to divorce rate, or criminal prosecution do not represent any measure of domestic economic health. Bankruptcies of family businesses, farms or other assets do not represent progress, Corporate acquisitions and mergers do not represent positive economic activity. Eliminating jobs by downsizing or outsourcing jobs to other countries does not represent a healthy economy or society. Currency and stock speculation is another time dishonored method of expanding wealth without expending imagination and effort, though based upon the productive efforts of others.

Producing weapons such as land mines and Uranium weapons that continue to kill civilians and soldiers long after a staged conflict and which pollute the land for generations do not represent investments toward a peaceful world. Acting to increase the poverty and insecurity of every group in this nation or in the world creates short term profits for the armament manufacturers but diminishes the chances of managing conflict in a nonviolent way. Using the public assets to realize private profits and socialize the related wastes, harm, and debt does not advance the public interest. All of these transactions are currently measured as additions to the Gross Domestic Product. The GDP would better viewed as a statement of the poverty of the imagination of the corporate technocrat. When the expansion of an economy has been redefined to include the theft, cannibalization, and depletion of assets as "free enterprise." As such, it is condoning piracy at the point of a pen. A market structure that encourages such substitutions for real economic development and nonviolent conflict management is already in a free market free fall.

The myths we have created to exempt our worldview from the legacies of history and personal responsibility remain. Either we choose the unpopular truth or the inevitable and even more brutal consequences of denial and disconnect. The preference for simple answers arrives looking for easy and relatively painless solutions, even though the "problems," as now identified, developed through a particular historical and cultural context. It is a clear indication of the scope of the problem when each new cast of political courtiers invoke empty myths of technical and ahistorical expertise and excuse the negative results of their actions in the name of collateral damage. The actual way out of our impending end game, whether short term or long term, will be based upon doing Peace education toward intensifying the cultural context small group education, so that real change can occur. Here "Peace" refers to a vision similar to that of A. J. Muste as also stated by "There is no way to Peace; Peace is the way." Upon this approach we can build substantive change.

Peace education should involve the widest possible definition which addresses ending the violence that is both overt physical harm and threat, and the violence which is imposed through the structures of irresponsible policies and principles of authority. Deprogramming people from the dys-education and corporatist propaganda of exceptionalism and full spectrum dominance is a early step. It begins with self education and continues with the personal interactions and dialogues all the way up the organizational scale. Peace organizing will be ineffective unless it is organized also on the principles of peace and nonviolence as well. One level is to create contexts and priorities that are more open to projects which are directed to uprooting corporatism and establishing more historic and dialectic processes. Restructuring "peace" organizations to be primarily member or "We the People" directed, rather than those organizations being structured upon the more familiar corporate CEO top down model is one way. Using a problemizing approach to project building, that is staying project and solution directed, to try to limit the social space for partisan posturing is another way..

Expanding the definition of Peace is another way by including the development and promotion of alternatives to structural violence. Engaging people in actual serious public dialogues will also have enormous positive effects. Restorative justice is one such approach. Peace education must be both internal and external. People accepting at least partial responsibility for the implementation of their expectations will help to cut the ground from beneath all varieties of hierarchs. Treating the Peace organizing process as primarily a social event for those that presumably already agree or to confront those that disagree will be partisan and self limiting. Going out and listening for a change rather than presuming a vanguardist elitism will also serve to build dialogues and to diffuse confrontation and opposition. Celebrate diversity as a resource not as an obstruction. We will make the road by walking it, step by step and together.