What Now? (9/12/01)

As I write these words, the news of the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is still pounding in my brain. It is not the subject about which I intended to speak to you, but it bares some relation. As I witness this historic and unprecedented attack on our land, I am sickened and shocked by the loss of so many innocent lives. Not through all of World War II did we ever suffer such an attack within our homeland. We were spared what Europe and Asia had to endure. And now at the very height of our powers when we have become the supreme military force on this earth, our previously impregnable shores have been breached. Humans can go the moon and send probes to Jupiter and plan a landing on Mars and calculate the age of the universe. But we humans have yet to learn to resolve conflicts without bloodshed. Even as human reason brilliantly moves to uncover nature's best kept secrets, human efforts to secure peace are faltering throughout the world. Northern Ireland and Palestine-Israel come most prominently to mind. Our nation can punish those responsible and might even eliminate the political bodies supporting this terroristic violence. Yet the world will never know peace and security until its people learn the arts of peace. These arts need to be mastered and enhanced by those who now resort to terror as well as those who do not. Now more than ever are we challenged to devote our prodigious intelligence and creativity to harnessing the mighty engines of the peaceful resolution of conflict. Such efforts may extract just as much blood, sweat and tears as military ones do, but in the end the peace achieved is more likely to prevail over challenges into the future. I am not a pacifist and do believe that there are times when military force is the only solution. Yet I believe that we have done much too little toward laying the foundations of nonviolent procedures, practices, and institutions. This is most notably true in our educational system which devotes very little to teaching the arts of nonviolent conflict resolution. What little is done can hardly compete with popular media and the adoration of violence. It's Rambo all the way.

In the end we will either reason with each other or fight with each other. The art of conversing with our enemies is not a simple skill. It requires both intellectual and emotional discipline. It requires us to keep a focus on our own requirements and at the same time be able to hear the needs of our enemies. In this respect, military and nonviolent processes have much in common. Both require enormous discipline and enormous courage. Both require sacrifice and unwavering dedication. If only we had as many resources and public institutions devoted to peace as to the arts of war.

Among the many fields of study which help to develop the engines of peace is the ancient study of philosophy. This discipline began with the art of dialogue. At its best it takes place between people with opposing points of view. Sometimes one side wins. Sometimes another. And sometimes neither and sometimes both. Nevertheless the process is a civil one despite intellectual pyrotechnics. When the process works best, the contestants focus less on winning and more on solving the problem facing them. In order to do this people have to hold onto their emotions but not be overwhelmed by them. They need to hold onto their own point of view but not be imprisoned by it. Most of all, space must be left open for creative solutions. Unfortunately our youth are ill prepared for this process. Conflict is more likely to be resolved through violence or institutional control than through dialogue. Our response to drug use among the young has been similar, alternating between didactic lectures and force. In so doing we deprive young people of the skills they need to intellectually and emotionally find their own way through the snares of a culture that worships force, wealth and instant gratification. We have failed to empower them.

Author: Boe Meyerson, Leader, Ethical Culture Society of Essex County, New Jersey