Peace 101

Principles

• Struggle. The idea of struggle is universal. Whether a personal one, a community, or a global struggle, it is the mechanism that addresses injustice. Sometimes it is a struggle of conscience, a struggle for being heard, for rectitude or for restoration. An escalating struggle can end up in armed struggle, revolutionary war, or sacrifice. We do have control of what form our struggle takes.

  Informed struggle learns, not only facts and conditions, but other perspectives too. Ultimately we are all struggling through life together on one world with similar goals of compromising, conforming, and cooperating.

• Organizing is the way we address the community struggles. Organizing does provide feedback about how wide felt and how heartfelt the struggle can be. It creates priorities and comitments of time and effort. Sustaining the efforts validates the reason for struggle.
  • Vision is the common purpose for community struggle. Even if it is not clearly articulated, it does exist and it does bind a common group in a common purpose. The reason visioning and documenting missions and goals are important is to grow the common purpose beyond those acutely affected and deeply thoughtful, to a broader community that is too busy to contemplate conditions, but who when informed will agree to offer support.
  • Leadership is the means of gaining that support. Leadership allows a filtration of ideas, from a brainstorming session to an organized and presentable articulate manifesto.

• Decision-making can take many forms. All groups have to reach some kind of agreement. The modes of reaching decision are important because these modes of decision-making that is practiced is the ones that become the preferred mode. While certain actions may be necessary and expedient, they should be valued so that they become a permanent fixture in a process that is universal among all groups.
  • Consensus This is a preferred mode of decision-making amongst democratic groups. It takes into consideration all viewpoints and reaches a decision that is compatible with these viewpoints and is acceptable to all participants. This form of decision-making can be cumbersome since it takes much time to learn and understand viewpoints, but the resultant decision becomes stronger because of its wider support and it far-reaching impact.

    Consensus models have been adjusted to allow decision to be made in the face of willfully using the process to subvert any kind of decision-making since any single opponent can simply block all decision-making. When decisions have to be taken, then usually there is a provision for making a supermajority decision.

  • Majority Rule (supermajority, democratic) This is the form of most democratic institutions. Decisions are mostly made by simple majority. 51% of a group can carry a decision. Some decisions that are more serious may require a supermajority like 60% or 70%. Decisions such as changing the process itself may require supermajority agreement so that a simple majority cannot change a process.

  • Executive Control is a form of decision-making where all decision-making power rests in one person or entity. The entity may be a cabinet or an executive committee. Many companies have chief executive officers, presidents, or majority shareholders who have this concentrated power of decision-making.

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Oliver Lawrence, Online Instructor