Violence... The story so far

As used on this site: A belief system adhered to by many in a coherent, concise manner. Communism, Confucianism, capitalism, atheism, extremism, authoritarianism, and monotheism are examples. while this singular word captures one essence of RTP, it is not intuitively abvious enough. Peace will only come as a society-wide peace-ism. Establishing and naming that "ism" remains.

While monoism may be a psychologically more acceptable word for society's ills than Authoritarianism. Since "Authoritarianism" brings to mind dictators and the like, a thought that may arise in one's mind is "I am not like that." and that is the end of it. Monoism brings forth no such defensive reaction in one's mind. Its use allows one to be more objective when considering that the potential for social ills of humanity lie in our genes. Monoism, is not descriptive enough, however. Nevertheless, any better or coined word would benefit from these attributes.

One root problem is that there is only the equivalent of an eggshell between peace and vilonce in the make up of many. And many of us are defensive for that very reason. The studies of Adorno,Milgram and Zimbardo, when coupled with millennia of human violence, make about as tight a case for an "egg shell" as can be made. The metaphor seems apt.

For discussions of how that came to be see:

Adorno
Milgram
Monotheism & Violence and the comment thereto.
Natural History,
Summary of Findings.
Zimbardo

Nevertheless, we can have Hope because we see humanity here and there has discovered some of the secrets. On a basic level, with understanding comes control. In fact understanding some of the elements of violence has already brought peace within certain societies, the Japanese in particular. Some methods with potential for peace are presented in:

Avenues | Build our Future | Integration | Locus of Control | Solutions



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