Peace 101

Critical thinking

• Critical thinking is the hallmark of human change. When we are faced with problems or issues specially issues of injustice, it takes not only knowledge, understanding, but it takes the added dimension of critical thinking and innovative action to cause an effect. Sometimes it takes adversity to tap our deeper resources of mental potential.

• Creativity and Innovation

  Critical thinking is really a high-follutant idea that is always part of people's movements. In the technical sense it is about analyzing using logic and looking at problems from many different angles.

  It is included here because it is an automatic reaction by people to there condition. The important aspect is that if we are lead to believe that it is only the domain of the educated or if we believe that only people trained in logic has valid critical thoughts then we do our own struggles a disservice.

  Rather people must realize that critical thinking is a natural consequence of struggle, that the thoughts and criticisms are valid and that each has an important contribution to add and that is creativity.

  The creative aspect of critical thinking is the additional component that creates successful struggle. The reason is that all the angles have already been analyzed. That's why it is so difficult to change the status quo. the challenge e of change is to bring a new angle that has not yet been considered and that has not already been closed to struggle.

  Every struggle needs the new creative element in order to be successful.

• Non-Violence Non-violence is the concept of opposition without violence. It was well formed in Gandhi's philosophy of SatyAgrah or "Truth Force".

  Difficult to implement, it requires adherents to literally turn the other cheek, but it has proven highly successful as a mass movement, even though individuals are sure to suffer.

  It requires of the individual adherent strict discipline and absolute control through a fundamental belief in the justice of this principle of non-violence.

  Non-violence is a viable alternative to war.

• Pacifism

  Pacifism is the refusal to bear arms usually on religious grounds.

  It is a strategy that is employed within violent societies to accommodate legitimate conflicts to violence. While a state requires conscripts to bear arms, certain religious beliefs are so strongly non-violent that the pacifist position is tolerated where the religious belief supercedes the states requirement to bear arms. This position is a recognition that this priority does exist thought there is a reluctance to allow many to take this position.

• Conflict Resolution is a peace strategy. It is a strategy of peers though. It requires that those involved in the conflict decide in a civil manner to submit to a mediation process. The mediator must be mutually acceptable and the mediation process must process all the major concerns from all affected participants in the conflict.

  Conflict resolution is a guidance in principle. The actual resolution requires a strong and permanent commitment from the representative constituents.

  For conflict resolution to work, there must be an incentive for peace. Sometimes the incentive to peace is a threat of war or a threat of loss, but it does not have to be a negative. The motivation for conflict resolution and peace should be recognition of the positives. The gain of harmony should compel people to peace, but there is much education and there is also much conflict to overcome because our society has so embedded the fruits of violence into the souls of common citizens.

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