Who we are

	INDIVIDUAL	SOCIETAL / GLOBAL
ROOTS OF VIOLENCE	Alienation Authoritarianism Extreme Authoritarians Evolved Instincts Obedience to Authority Personality: A Veneer Sociopathology Guns & Violence Disparate Opportunities	Humiliation Bad Barrels vs. Bad Apples Nature / Nurture Neo-Imperialism Nationalism Pathological Politics Monotheism and Violence Society Origins and Violence Statistics on Violence
AVENUES TO PEACE	Internal Locus of Control Dialogue: Art of Thinking Becoming Self-Aware Employing Dialogue Celebrating Differences Managing Sociopathology Family Planning Education From the Roots Outreach Activate Your Potential	External Locus of Control Ethnic Integration Democracy of Nations Framing For Dialogue Societal Reformations Nuclear Energy Controls Population Control Education - Core Issues National Action Global Middle Class

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These 49 links and links therefrom capture most of the evidence we have turned up on the origins of violence along with avenues toward peace in our times. There is remarkable continuity. Our natural agressive and hierarchical instincts are the primary barriers to peace; they lead to individual and group Authoritarian behavior which, when co-opted by Sociopathic Personalities, can lead to violence on a limited or grand scale. This theme appears again and again, in virtually every segment and every level of society we have examined. The Stanford Prison Experiment is particularly accurate in profiling the conditions under which humanity reverts to jungle and Abu Ghraib behavior. What makes this experiment so arresting is that the participants were normal North American college kids. Like true Authoritarians, they were at once vulnerable to becoming overly obedient or abusive in their dominance. A second awful surprise from the experiment came from the fact that one participant became a basket case (not permanently) in just 36 hours. Planned for two weeks, the abuse escalated to the point where the experiment had to be ended in six days. To expand on Zimbardo's metaphor in behavior: A few bad apples build Bad Barrels for the many. That is what happened at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

A mere egg shell separates human behavior from its violent jungle/savanna past.

The upside is that just as we have genes for violence, so also we have genes for cooperation, nurturing and compassion. Humanity has come a long way toward achieving a peace that would truly separate us from mere animals always at war with rival species and sometimes with themselves. Many societies are quite peaceful by most common measures. Others are still in feudal or pre-feudal stages. Still others, with advanced technologies and supposedly advanced governance, are among the most violent in terms of murder rates, assaults and undeclared wars. This last group deserves special attention, for they set the examples.

Any peaceful future rests on humanity's ability to coalesce in a governance that embraces all the world's peoples in equality of opportunity, freedom, and liberty while Controlling World Population Level and taming the Nuclear Genie for peaceful uses.

Dialogue and Ethnic Integration at all levels are proven methods for Conflict Resolution.