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The Peace Report, Issue #5
By Louise Diamond, Ph.D.
Welcome to The Peace Report, an occasional set of reflections on world and national affairs in these times of change and challenge, as seen through a peace lens.
The Peace Game
The World of Warcraft is an internet video game that has, I am told, 9 million players. And then there’s God of War, Command and Conquer, Battlefield 2142, Doom, and so many more. I believe violent video games, in which players often immerse themselves for hours at a time, to be one of the most virulent socializing tools in our violence-addicted society – and we know they have been used by the military to prepare soldiers for killing duty.
Believing Buckminster Fuller’s dictum that "You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete," I have long been passionate about creating a video game that engages players in the story of peace. As part of my commitment to bringing the principles and practices of peace into the mainstream of society, I am now launching this project.
Many years ago I invented a role-play simulation that I’ve used as a training tool for peacebuilders around the world. It involves a fictional island country called Olania in which a long-running ethnic conflict rages. It posits a small group of private and influential citizens engaged in unofficial peace talks that frame and ultimately guide a successful peace process. This story, as people have played it out (sometimes for days at a time), is full of human drama, excitement, creativity, and learning. It is the classic ‘hero’s journey,’ all about the quest, the test, the transformation, and the boon.
Recently I took Olania to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where a group of professors and students in the computer gaming field tested it as the basis for an internet game, of the Live Action Role Playing variety (LARP) which, it turns out, is now all the rage in gaming. It also turns out that these games are not just for teen age boys anymore. Average gamers are now in their 30’s and have graduated from Dungeons and Dragons to 3-D virtual worlds of combat and violent fantasy.
The good news is that Olania was a great success with the RIT folks, and they are eager to take it on and produce a viable (and hopefully wildly popular) peace game from it.
Our culture, especially that of our youth and young adults, is deeply influenced by gaming. It is one of the most powerful leverage points for change in our society. How wonderful it would be if we could flood the gaming field with Olania and other peace-related games! Right now, like so much else in the peace field, this project needs funding to come to fruition. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about that, or if you have a group that would like to role-play Olania for two to five days – 802-453-7194 or diamond@louisediamond.com. Let the play begin!
Building a Culture of Peace Update
A strong momentum is building around the Building a Culture of Peace conference, to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on May 16-17. Registration is starting to fill, people from near and far are calling in to see how they can participate, and a powerful group of peace leaders are committing themselves to be there.
In addition to our plenary speakers (Arun Gandhi and Nobel Peace Laureates Rigoberta Menchu Tum and Jody Williams, plus Swami Beyondanda in an invisible appearance and H.H. the Dalai Lama by special video), we will be joined by Rudy Balles, an ex-gang member who now inspires youth all over the world through the excellent PeaceJam program. Lloyd Jeff Dumas, an expert in the economic conversion of military sites, will be with us, as will Ihaleakala Hew Len, a master of Hawaii’s Ho’o pono pono method of resolving conflicts.
Charles (Chic) Dambaugh, the President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, will be there, and Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, spiritual director of Sunray Meditation Society too. Stephen Longfellow Fiske will grace us with his excellent peace music, and many other exciting peace leaders are still confirming. We have a whole peace team coming from Nigeria (visas permitting). Because of the New Mexico location, we will be blessed with the presence of many Native American and Hispanic peace leaders. Youth delegations are now starting to pour in as well. Our registrants include mediators and meditators; business leaders and politicians; teachers and students; conflict resolution experts and community organizers; spiritual leaders, business entrepreneurs, activists, and many more.
A wide range of the peace community is coming together at this event to launch a series of Peace Councils that we expect will continue way beyond the two conference days as empowered inquiry and action networks. These Councils can galvanize the social change movement for a culture of peace, to make the principles and practices of peace normative in our society.
Please go to www.worldpeaceconference.org for more information and to register, so you can be part of this extraordinary event. I encourage you to register NOW, as the fee goes up on April 15 from $45 to $65 (most conferences of this type cost $250+!) Also, if you want a table at the Peace Fair, you’ll want to reserve it immediately, as most available tables are already taken. See you there!
Fourth Anniversary
We’ve just passed the fourth anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. For me this is a time of great mourning – for all the lives lost and unspeakably damaged by this fiasco; for a country destroyed – its citizens set against one another in a vicious struggle for power; for the inestimable harm done to the soul of the US and to its place in the world; and for the increased danger we all face now as a result.
I weep for a human family that, despite all the lessons of history and common sense, continues to pursue the vastly destructive war path and its escalating cycles of violence and revenge. I weep for the average citizens who never asked for this or any war, yet are caught in its brutal crossfire. I weep too for the leaders of nations, sects, and ideologies who, trapped in their limited views, guarantee, by the way they pursue their narrow visions, an ever-decreasing likelihood of achieving them.
At the same time, I see in this anniversary a glimmer of cause for celebration. I celebrate the dawning awareness of the futility of war. I celebrate the growing clamor to end this disastrous adventure before it gets even worse, and to prevent a similar catastrophe in Iran. I celebrate the rising interest, in Congress and in the public, for holding accountable those who have lied, stolen, tortured, invaded our privacy, profiteered, and otherwise twisted our social contract to use this war to advance a financial, political, or ideological cause. I celebrate the rising tide of peace consciousness, as we start to uncover the sordid realities of this quite unnecessary war and ask ourselves, ‘Isn’t there a better way?’
The answer of course is ‘yes,’ there is a better way, the way of peace. The way of peace is not some flaky pie-in-the-sky ideal; it is a concrete path of action with a huge and as-yet largely untried variety of activities and strategies. The way of peace is the way of diplomacy, of reaching out in dialogue to those we most disagree with, of listening deeply to one another’s experience and needs; of bridging our differences with respect and mutual understanding; and of finding common ground;
The way of peace is the way of accepting the multiplicity of faiths and worldviews as a gift; of diverting military spending to support peace organizations and institutions, to educate our children for peace, and to eliminate poverty and all forms of oppression. It is the way of seeing that this one planet we all call home is a living being, and that all of us in the web of life here are related to one another; that our well-being depends on the well-being of all, including Mother Earth herself.
The way of peace is our destiny and our choice. Perhaps the Iraq war was, in fact, necessary – to wake us up to the time and the need for this choice. My dream is that before the fifth anniversary, enough of us will have awakened and chosen the peace path so that we might salvage and turn around an otherwise gruesome possible future. It’s not too late; we’re just in time, if we act now.
Dear friends of peace, I urge us all, each in our own way, to act for this great peace awakening. The ultimate peacemaker will not descend magically from ethereal realms; s/he is here now, living and moving through each and every one of us. Let this sad anniversary be the moment we begin to celebrate the shift, and live it into manifestation. If enough of us do this, our leaders will follow.
Hummingbird Recommends
The hummingbird is considered by some Native American peoples to be a messenger of The Peacemaker, the man who helped bring peace to the warring nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the principles of which became the basis of our own constitution). As one who can show us the deep recesses where the sweet nectar of peace resides, the hummingbird is a true peace leader in these times, and I have respectfully borrowed her name for this column.
If we don’t end war, war will end us. (H.G. Wells).
I happen to love pithy statements like this one, that ‘say it all’ in a short and memorable way. PEACE Quotations and Aspirations is a book full of such wonderful reminders. Edited by Tammy Ruggles and published by Clear Light Publishing, this collection of quotes is delightfully inspirational.
I especially like that Ruggles has organized the book according to key themes: Visions of Peace, Inner Peace, Proactive Peace (dear to my heart), Peace and Justice, Barriers to Peace, and Peaceful Solutions.
Let me give you a taste and a tease of these wonderful sayings, to brighten your day:
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. (Jimi Hendrix)
You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist. (Indira Gandhi)
There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity. (Elise Boulding)
Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there. (Virginia Burden)
Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source of both inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species. (The Dalai Lama)
Peace is more precious than a peace of land. (Anwar Sadat)
If you want to work for world peace, go home and love your families. (Mother Theresa)
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. (Moyshe Dayan)
True peace is not merely the absence of tension but is the presence of justice and brotherhood. (Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Peace comes within the souls of men when they realize the oneness of the universe. (Black Elk)
Want more? Get the book, and steep in these gems of wisdom. Then move the words from head to heart to hands and make a difference in this world we share.
Interesting Peace Websites
www.wakeuplaughing.com
There are few of us who can examine the travails of this world, including issues of war and peace, with such a light and illuminating touch as Swami Beyondananda. Enjoy Swami’s humorous lens while you explore deep issues. I recommend clicking on ‘Beyonda News’ to read Swami’s 2007 State of the Universe Report (brilliant!), and sign up for his newsletter, ‘Notes from the Trail’ (thought-provoking). This is one funny guy who can find a laugh even in the most distressful of circumstances. (By the way, he will be making an ‘invisible appearance’ at the Building a Culture of Peace conference.)
www.crisisgroup.org
The International Crisis Group is one of my favorite sources for learning what’s really happening around the world. I subscribe to their monthly email update, CrisisWatch, because, though I probably wouldn’t bother to seek this information out, when it comes to me I pay attention. Then, at the very least, I can hold in my heart and prayers those people and places where the suffering is great, and where new hope is blooming. They also have well-researched reports on situations around the globe, for those of us who care to delve beneath the headlines.
www.belovedcommunity.org
Did you know that a peace sign has appeared on the lawn of the US Capitol through the power of prayer? Check out this website for information on this true peace miracle (and harbinger of more to come?), and to learn about James Twyman’s presence as a Peace Troubador on the planet at this time. Some interesting books on this site too, including The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking.
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