An Action Plan |
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A Proposed Plan of Action to Shape Human History
Moving from a culture that accepts violence as a means to resolve conflicts, large and small, to a culture that embraces only nonviolent means of conflict resolution. Making such a move would constitute a massive paradigm shift in human history.
Dr. Judith Hand, Ph.D.
Founder: AFutureWithoutWar.org
Such a shift in how we resolve conflicts will not happen spontaneously. There must be a stimulus to unify the world around nonviolence!
Ending war can be that stimulus. It can be an engine to drive such a paradigm shift.
War is the ultimate expression of the idea that conflicts can be resolved with violence. It is a "dominance" paradigm: a person or group uses physical force to achieve his, her, or their objectives. With respect to war, we've expressed this dominance-by-force paradigm form of conflict resolution for roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years.
Because war is arguably the greatest violence we do to each other, a campaign to put an end to war would be, by its very existence, a powerful statement that the global community no longer accepts the domination-by-violence paradigm.
Moreover, efforts required to end war embrace such an extraordinarily broad array of human endeavors that a campaign to end war, more than any other single thing, will be capable of uniting the global community. In this way the campaign becomes an engine driving an actual global paradigm shift at the level of hearts and minds from violence to nonviolence. Finally, we need to both illustrate and demonstrate for our children our commitment to nonviolence.
Download the full essay (11 pages).
Dr. Judith Hand, Ph.D.
Founder: AFutureWithoutWar.org
Such a shift in how we resolve conflicts will not happen spontaneously. There must be a stimulus to unify the world around nonviolence!
Ending war can be that stimulus. It can be an engine to drive such a paradigm shift.
War is the ultimate expression of the idea that conflicts can be resolved with violence. It is a "dominance" paradigm: a person or group uses physical force to achieve his, her, or their objectives. With respect to war, we've expressed this dominance-by-force paradigm form of conflict resolution for roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years.
Because war is arguably the greatest violence we do to each other, a campaign to put an end to war would be, by its very existence, a powerful statement that the global community no longer accepts the domination-by-violence paradigm.
Moreover, efforts required to end war embrace such an extraordinarily broad array of human endeavors that a campaign to end war, more than any other single thing, will be capable of uniting the global community. In this way the campaign becomes an engine driving an actual global paradigm shift at the level of hearts and minds from violence to nonviolence. Finally, we need to both illustrate and demonstrate for our children our commitment to nonviolence.
Download the full essay (11 pages).