I am looking to redesign how we do peace work. We can be a lot more effective in the peace movement, with the time and energy that we have.

Some of us have learned some new things about human beings since the great peace thinkers whose shoulders we stand on -- or at least, there are ways to say what they believed about human beings, that can speak more clearly to a 21st century audience.

Basic assumptions make all the difference! The success or failure of an idea (such as Peace on Earth) depends absolutely on our foundation assumptions about what human beings are like.

For example, in horse training (my favorite hobby) we can assume the horse is a "dumb animal" that's "out to ruin our day," whose "spirit needs to be broken" and who "must be shown who's the boss." These assumptions lead us to design a certain training program for horses.

Horses trained from these assumptions tend to be resentful of the rider, not fun to ride, and they often develop dangerous behaviors such as bucking, rearing, kicking, and biting. They get sold frequently to one owner after another, and many end up in a can of dog food.

On the other hand, we can assume the horse is "highly intelligent in the ways needed for its native environment" (herd-style living on the grassy plains); that it has "excellent communication within the herd" so that all may survive; that a horse "enjoys doing its best for a leader it trusts." These assumptions lead us to design a dramatically different training program.

Horses trained from these assumptions are responsive to the rider, safe and pleasant to be around, and don't develop dangerous behaviors. They can progress to higher levels of performance because they stay with one owner and valuable training time is not wasted on "remedial."

Basic assumptions are everything! The peace movement can be effective (and I mean like really getting there) if we deliberately choose a certain point of view on "human nature." Will we stay within the assumptions of the violent/coercive society we live in, or will we use assumptions that lead to a whole different program, which in turn will lead to a different outcome?

As in horse training, I believe we can bypass a lot of wasted time and effort, and have a dramatically better outcome, if we look carefully at our assumptions, pick those that lead to a truly peaceful world, and design a program using these assumptions.

Here are some positive traits of human beings and human communication which, if we emphasize them, can help us design a more effective and successful peace movement.

If we look at a human being on one of her "good" days -- when the violent/coercive economy has not crunched her as hard as usual -- we can see someone who, in her own unique way,

-- has a deep desire to be alive and to enjoy what life brings,

-- respects the existence and point of view of other people,

-- makes friends easily, including with people very "different" from her.

On someone's "good days" we can observe that human beings desire and enjoy communication with other humans, and find great delight and fulfillment in working together to overcome challenging situations.

If we look at the same human being on a "bad day," when maybe the mega-corporation she works in has bashed and humiliated her, we are not going to see these traits show up so clearly. (Some humans have been bashed and humiliated extensively, and most of their days seem to be "bad days." This is a plausible alternate reason for the "hard cases" we sometimes run across and I hope you will consider it seriously.)

The possibilities for change are more interesting if, instead of looking at a "hard case" and saying "evil" (and therefore hopeless), we look at that person and say "bashed and having many bad days in a row" (and therefore available for change if we approach her as an ally).

I propose that we transfer the frustration and dismay that we often feel about "human nature" onto the war society and the profit-based economy that we live in. We are kind of brain-washed to think that the particular social/economic "air we breathe," at this moment in history, is good for human beings, that it's the best way humans can possibly live. But if we look at our own lives carefully, and the lives of the people around us, there are lots of places where the war society rubs like a badly fitting shoe, and makes us miserable -- and miserable people don't always treat each other the best they know how.

This transfer of our dismay away from human beings, onto the war society, leaves the drawing board clean and clear, as to "human nature." It means we can look for and build on the very best that human beings can be.

I grew up in a Quaker family. There is a saying from George Fox, who started the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) about 350 years ago: "Walk cheerfully over the Earth, speaking to that-of-God in every one." In present-day language, we might say, "Every human has a core of goodness which is reachable by the core of goodness in another human." As a child in the 1950's, I heard many stories of incidents where Quakers did this successfully, in situations that looked impossible, including some with officials in Nazi Germany.

Of course, you have to believe in your own core of goodness before you can reach someone else's. That's a lot of what this website is about -- your own core of goodness.

I can hear nearly every peace activist groan when I talk about spreading our vision by making friends. "Making friends is my hardest thing." "I'm no good at that -- I'll just have to keep on using the old, ineffective methods."

Well guess what -- you're not alone, and there's a good reason why you feel this way.

Remember the old saying of the empire-builders, "Divide and conquer"? Looking around us at the actual situation in the violent/coercive society, what do we see?

-- People of color and whites are not supposed to be friends.

-- Young people, adults, and elders are not supposed to make friends across the lines of age.

-- Women and men are supposed to feel that they are so different they can never understand each other.

-- People of different religions, of different countries, of different ethnic groups, of different classes, are not supposed to make friends across these lines.

The violent/coercive society has put up a criss-cross of barriers, using any real or imagined difference it can get its hands on, to rope off the kinds of people we are "allowed" to be friends with. We're not supposed to be friends with this kind, or this kind, or this kind -- it doesn't leave many that we are "allowed" to know. The war society can't afford for you and me to compare notes on what it does to our lives!

So, when we look out and see lots of people around us who are "off limits," of course we feel that we aren't good at making friends!

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