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These are regular editorials
produced alongside the corresponding issues on Nonviolent
News. |
Also in this editorial:
The current needs in terms of political, social, ecological
and nonviolent action are always so great, and as great as
ever today, that we can become disheartened by the mountains
which we have to climb. Passivity and inaction are often the
societal norm when massive challenges arise – the ecological
crisis is now clear to all but the most dismissive or unaware
and yet society and our governments are content to fiddle
with the relevant issues from the sidelines without taking
the decisive action which was necessary before now and is
becoming more and more urgent.
Using ‘peace’ in a very broad sense
to cover many of the needs of today, propaganda for peace
comes from two sources – push and pull. The push to
action comes from the very negation of what we strive for;
from global warming and its incumbent causes, from societal
injustice and division, from the worst elements of globalisation
including trade inequalities, from sectarianism and sectarian
separation in Northern Ireland, from war-making and neo-imperialist
actions by governments like the USA and UK. These things push
us to take action through their blatant and inherent injustice
and threat.
Then there are the pull factors which draw us
in to active involvement in changing the world or our little
piece of it. Ecologists, humanitarians, people of political
vision, world justice campaigners, those who strive for human
rights, peace and nonviolence activists, have positive visions
which try to communicate how we can get out of some of the
messes we are currently engaged in and avoid worse disasters
in the future. Sitting and doing nothing is a recipe for disaster
and those who have the drive and the vision to make effective
changes can incite us to positive involvement in a way which
can surprise even ourselves.
When people are searching for answers and becoming
aware of issues, often through the negative ‘push’
factors mentioned above (which may, however, only be visible
because people of vision have made them visible against the
wishes of the powers that be in government or economics) there
has to be a clear ‘pull’ message available for
them so that they can make the transition from negative responses
to the negativity they perceive into positive reactions. In
other words, there must be openness and opportunities for
people to join a community of change.
This is sometimes where a difficulty arises.
People seeking to get involved can have bad experiences where
they feel used and abused and where they become another cog
in a different machine rather than a living, breathing part
of an organic entity. There can be so much work to do that
new activists get dumped with almost impossible tasks. Political
activists of all sorts are not always the best at acknowledging
and meeting the different needs and concerns of those who
get involved with us. This is where openness, honesty, and
an educational and developmental approach come in which may
include a considerable dose of nonviolence training. The latter
needs to be person-centred as well as goal-centred; obviously
when preparing for a particular action there needs to be a
focus on the goal but even here the personal needs to be included
(in the shape of exploration of fears, anger and adequate
personal support). Propaganda for peace without a human and
peaceful heart will eventually communicate negativity and
nihilism.
INNATE is a small network, primarily on the
island of Ireland, committed to exploring nonviolent responses
and action. Some of our work is simply informing people about
what different groups and organisations are doing so cooperation
can take place where possible and wheels do not have to be
reinvented, and individuals can support those they wish to
support. But as well as taking action on our own half and
beliefs we are a committed to helping groups explore what
is possible and how to go about working on a wide range of
issues (not all of which are included on the website under
‘Workshops’). Perhaps we can help you –
please ask if you want to explore something. And perhaps you
can help us, in a variety of ways, including sending us information
or other material which can be included in ‘Nonviolent
News’.
How we work together can be as important as
what we say. In working for ‘peace’ we have to
be aware of this and strive for the openness, honesty and
creative involvement which must be part of the future. Living
the future can be extremely difficult in a society fixated
with consumerism, fossil fuel use and other unsustainable
practices. Creating that future out of the present is not
and will not be easy. But we have to do it with a smile on
our faces, a song in our hearts, and our hearts open to everyone
including those who also wish to explore the same path and
may agree or disagree with how we travel. To alter an old
aphorism, there is a way to peace, and peace is the way. We
hope you are able to find a little bit of that in these pages
but we are aware of how far we all have to travel.
Larry Speight brings us his monthly column:
“This is a very precious place. Look out into the
cosmos, and there’s just this little speck with life
on it. That’s very rare and precious and needs to be
protected by all of us.”
(Maurice Strong, The Irish Times, 22 April 2006)
How seriously are we to take the pro-environmental
messages we receive these days? Most notable are those that
come from Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Chancellor Gordon
Brown, David Cameron leader of the Conservative Party, the
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cahal
Daly who in 2004 devoted a book to the subject called The
Minding of Planet Earth. I reflected on this after a recent
visit to Belfast Zoo, whose glossy broachers inform us that
it is, “carrying out valuable conservation work protecting
the future of many endangered species.” This may be
so, but is its primary function to protect endangered species,
or provide entertainment and earn money for Belfast City Council?
Are the environmental concerns expressed by the political
parties simply a means of winning votes, and is the concern
expressed by the churches a way of trying to be more meaningful
for people? The following observations suggest that the newly
found concern for the health of the environment by the established
institutions is cosmetic rather than the articulation of a
paradigm change.
On my visit to Belfast Zoo the car park
was packed, and the road up to it was lined with parked cars.
In attracting large numbers of people who travel there by
private car, the Zoo is playing a part in destroying the habitat
of the animals it says it is working to protect. If the Zoo
had a deeply rooted eco-ethos it would provide an eco-solution
to the transportation problem, such as reducing the entry
fee for people who had travelled by foot, bicycle or public
bus. As for the conditions in which the animals are kept,
conditions have improved immensely over the past decades,
but I still noticed that some animals, such as the gorillas
are kept in grim conditions. A similar criticism can be made
about the churches. A pillar of their theology is reverence
for God and His/Her/Its creation, yet the very act of people
traveling by private car to take part in acts of worship,
destroys the handiwork of the entity that God is held to have
created. The genuineness of the green-speak of the political
parties can be measured by what they actual do when they have
power to protect the environment. Effectively very little
when judged against the comprehensive nature of what urgently
needs to be done. Tony Blair for instance repeatedly states
the importance of reducing carbon emissions as he continues
to subsidise aviation fuel, and press ahead with road building
and airport expansion. In Northern Ireland the main political
parties - who like those in the rest of these islands claim
to care about the environment, are fighting the eco-centric
planning policy Sustainable Development in the Countryside
(PPS-14), which aims to limit the building of one-off houses
in rural areas. In spite of widespread awareness about the
seriousness of the environmental problems we have created,
the orthodoxy of the establishment, which is to say those
who have real power and influence, is business as usual. As
Andrew Rawnsley notes in The Observer, 23 April, about Gordon
Brown and David Cameron both suggest, “that we can have
our planet and eat it.”
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