I want to see a society where people treat each other well. It looks pretty different than this world. It looks like People being okay with talking to people they don’t know and leaning out of their comfort zone, people being okay with negotiating conflict, dealing with conflict. It’s not a hippy dippy world where no one ever fights. People are going to have conflict, so how are we going to resolve that in a way that’s respectful and one that’s not so outrageously violent? Society is so obviously violent. It’s so interesting how we’re immune to it. People don’t even see how violent our society is because we don’t know anything else. You pass someone who’s homeless on the street every day in New York City, at least one person, and that’s such violence. That’s extreme violence. I’d like to see a world where that doesn’t exist anymore, a world where powerful nations aren’t extracting resources from less powerful nations. Maybe there aren’t even nations. It’s just people kicking it together and hanging out because really that’s what most people want to do. They just want to hang out and live in a world peacefully, without threat or fear. That’s it. Everywhere across the world people want that, and these governments don’t. There is a way that the system legitimizes itself. When you are successful in this world, you begin to make excuses for how the world works. I think you can be successful and not make excuses. People who have powerful positions in media, politics, economics and even academia are working in structure that are built to keep people out. It’s supposed to be alienating and inaccessible. When people make up words that are like three syllables longer than they really need to be, it’s meant to create a barrior, and if you’re welcome inside that barrier and excel in it and rise to prominence, you never have to interact with the people who are the collateral damage of your policy. You don’t have to see that world. You don’t have a real interest in changing it because you’re comfortable. You’re fine. There’s some suffering, but you’re okay. You’re alienated from the other people who are not in the same position, who do not express things the same way that you express them. That position of power demands that you operate in a certain way. It becomes, “Oh, there are necessary evils, and you can’t win them all. If you want to have a democracy, you have to have a military.” People are just so uncreative about what that could look like. What if we have a military in name, but what if its function instead is conflict negotiation? What if instead of drone bombing them, we were going in and talking to people? The countries that have the highest incidence of terrorism are some of the poorest countries in the world. Terrorists are created. They are not born. A real organized recruiting force that is built to terrorize only happens because there is violence. All you have to do is provide a different narrative. We have to think of a different way if we’re going to get out of this. We have to be creative with solutions and go out on a limb. Often when I was facilitating, I would be talking to people who I didn’t really know, people who I didnt always agree with. Instead of bringing judgment to the situation and instead of deciding that people were going to act a certain way no matter what happened, I leaned into a space where I was like, “These people are going to resolve this. They’re going to listen to each other, and all I have to do is make sure that they hear each other. I’m going to put my faith in them to actually resolve this in a way where it works for both of them. Sometimes Thats hard and doesn’t happen because of the trauma that we are bringing with us, but sometimes it does. All you have to do is believe in the power of what you’re doing to heal people and to respect people to be in their own command, which isnt usually allowed. Most of the time, people don’t allow people to actually be responsible for themselves and figure out their own situation. They just don’t. We need to lean into the space of, “I don’t have the proof for this, but I think there’s another way. Let’s try the mediation way and see what happens instead. I’m confident that would work. It would take time and investment and just believing that the last thing people want to do is go on a rampage and hurt each other. What are the multiple solutions that are available before that? There are many. That’s the only way to reign in the drama because there’s a lot of trauma. If it doesn’t work right away, it’s because of all that we’ve done in the past. The only way to escape it is to really believe that it could be a different way and then make an effort to do it a different way, not just think about it and not just proselytize, but also act and put those solutions, those alternatives into use. Check out many more stories like this at attheheartofanoccupation.blogspot/2013/12/nicole-carty.html I want to see a society where people treat each other well. It looks pretty different than this world. It looks like People being okay with talking to people they don’t know and leaning out of their comfort zone, people being okay with negotiating conflict, dealing with conflict. It’s not a hippy dippy world where no one ever fights. People are going to have conflict, so how are we going to resolve that in a way that’s respectful and one that’s not so outrageously violent? Society is so obviously violent. It’s so interesting how we’re immune to it. People don’t even see how violent our society is because we don’t know anything else. You pass someone who’s homeless on the street every day in New York City, at least one person, and that’s such violence. That’s extreme violence. I’d like to see a world where that doesn’t exist anymore, a world where powerful nations aren’t extracting resources from less powerful nations. Maybe there aren’t even nations. It’s just people kicking it together and hanging out because really that’s what most people want to do. They just want to hang out and live in a world peacefully, without threat or fear. That’s it. Everywhere across the world people want that, and these governments don’t. There is a way that the system legitimizes itself. When you are successful in this world, you begin to make excuses for how the world works. I think you can be successful and not make excuses. People who have powerful positions in media, politics, economics and even academia are working in structure that are built to keep people out. It’s supposed to be alienating and inaccessible. When people make up words that are like three syllables longer than they really need to be, it’s meant to create a barrior, and if you’re welcome inside that barrier and excel in it and rise to prominence, you never have to interact with the people who are the collateral damage of your policy. You don’t have to see that world. You don’t have a real interest in changing it because you’re comfortable. You’re fine. There’s some suffering, but you’re okay. You’re alienated from the other people who are not in the same position, who do not express things the same way that you express them. That position of power demands that you operate in a certain way. It becomes, “Oh, there are necessary evils, and you can’t win them all. If you want to have a democracy, you have to have a military.” People are just so uncreative about what that could look like. What if we have a military in name, but what if its function instead is conflict negotiation? What if instead of drone bombing them, we were going in and talking to people? The countries that have the highest incidence of terrorism are some of the poorest countries in the world. Terrorists are created. They are not born. A real organized recruiting force that is built to terrorize only happens because there is violence. All you have to do is provide a different narrative. We have to think of a different way if we’re going to get out of this. We have to be creative with solutions and go out on a limb. Often when I was facilitating, I would be talking to people who I didn’t really know, people who I didnt always agree with. Instead of bringing judgment to the situation and instead of deciding that people were going to act a certain way no matter what happened, I leaned into a space where I was like, “These people are going to resolve this. They’re going to listen to each other, and all I have to do is make sure that they hear each other. I’m going to put my faith in them to actually resolve this in a way where it works for both of them. Sometimes Thats hard and doesn’t happen because of the trauma that we are bringing with us, but sometimes it does. All you have to do is believe in the power of what you’re doing to heal people and to respect people to be in their own command, which isnt usually allowed. Most of the time, people don’t allow people to actually be responsible for themselves and figure out their own situation. They just don’t. We need to lean into the space of, “I don’t have the proof for this, but I think there’s another way. Let’s try the mediation way and see what happens instead. I’m confident that would work. It would take time and investment and just believing that the last thing people want to do is go on a rampage and hurt each other. What are the multiple solutions that are available before that? There are many. That’s the only way to reign in the drama because there’s a lot of trauma. If it doesn’t work right away, it’s because of all that we’ve done in the past. The only way to escape it is to really believe that it could be a different way and then make an effort to do it a different way, not just think about it and not just proselytize, but also act and put those solutions, those alternatives into use. Check out many more stories like this at attheheartofanoccupation.blogspot/2013/12/nicole-carty.html
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:01:13 +0000
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