Good afternoon friends

I was asked to come here by my comrade in words to discuss conflict resolution since I just finished a formal discipline in the course of peace studies and conflict resolution at what is essentially the opposite of a military academy.

What I learned there reinforced what I already knew – that there is a preponderance of peace in the world and their has been a radical, revolutionary shift in both action and consciousness of the entire human race in a very short amount of time. These do seem like troubled times – and they are – but that is only because this solution is teeming with energy and seeking resolve, there is a lot of chemistry going on so the solution is hot, but let us not be confused or deterred by what is really taking place here – in an historical, moral, philosophical, spiritual, intellectual, legal, practical and realistic sense.

What is going on here is that the awareness of the struggle for liberation of the individual, the liberation of the species, the liberation of all species, and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all life and the systems upon which life relies, are all coming to a head. The signs of seeming chaos teeming in social, political, moral, philosophical, artistic, scientific and environmental endeavors is a clear indication of the voluminous amounts of activity going on in the world. It has been said that “all creation comes from sub – lethal trauma” and we can take this trauma induced by change to be a sign of a creative process as well as a sign of the destructive process.

However, we have to differentiate the two. We have to sort out what is destruction and what is creation. In situation we can observe that there are a great number of conflicts going on in the world. The nature of these conflicts is complex and the origin of these conflicts is often dubious and generated by external forces seeking to manipulate and gain control of “American interests abroad” for military strategic hegemony, economic hegemony and all the other wonderful things that the scumbags of the world are trying to manipulate. And, of course, the media broadcasts a strong message of conflict and the ensuing global disaster. And, please, don’t get me wrong, I am not about to suggest that globall climate change is not a pending disaster on the threshold waiting to take us all down, that the neocons and liberal hawks are not blood thirsty sorcerers who thrive, somehow, in the sick and sadisticdestructionn of innocent lives, children, their mothers, and the extant flora and fauna of the beautiful web of life. No, I don’t intend to suggest that at all.

Yet, it is very important for those of us who are trying to turn this mother ship around – to steer clear of the impending cataclysm, the apocalypse now – to note that there is a simultaneous event going on where we can draw our energy from, where we can find solidarity so that we can harness and cultivate the energy we need to stay strong, organized and vigilant in our cause of change for a world of virtues rather than a world in which we have to fight for what is inherent and inalienable to our very existence.

The alternative facts to the fear, conflict and trauma that we are all so well endowed with is that the long, disturbing, struggle for equality justice and a lasting peace have made incredible gains in the last century. All of the struggles for self-determination, all of the wars, all of the conflicts, have so rapidly advanced the establishment of an international order, a new world order, to elucidate and protect, at least in intention, all persons rights to self-determine.

Think about it, for a few thousand years since the agricultural revolution, people were dispossessed of their land and subjugated to patriarchs, oligarchs, dictators, and essentially criminal oppressors at the highest levels of authority in government, religious and educational institutions and only in the last hundred or so years did a preponderance of philosophical inquiry and discourse into history, morality, and the nature of existence take place so that, since the end of the 19^th century did an international body form to prevent war, to protect civil society, to construct a system of order to protect and defend inalienable rights and codes of conduct between countries to settle disputes. Of course, by mentioning this I am not intending to imply that this international system of order for goodliness is effective. It is far from effective, but that is not the issue of our inquiry. We are simply noting that there has been an incredible and, what I consider to be beautiful and overwhelming acknowledgment and manifestation that we all have the inherent inalienable right to self -determine. These rights are enshrined in the charters, conventions, declarations, protocols and the like on human rights, womens rights, childrens rights, indigenous rights, environmental rights and so on. So while we can clearly see things are a bit fucked up in Africa, the middle east, south America, north America, Europe and the entire fucking mother ship, we can also see that there is a global convergence of heart, mind, and spirit and a recognition that we all are equal in the eyes of a common morality developed in a state of seeming dormancy and flowering, magnificently in the last century. So the principles are in place. Now we have to master the practices of peace so that we can align our actions with the outcome we seek… with our intentions.

The other aspect that is critical to understand and from which we can draw strength and solidarity is that while it is clear and certain that there are quite a number of severe conflicts going on on the mother ship, there is also a preponderance of peace. If you were to map out the conflicts in the world you would note that they are scattered and few compared to the zones of peace and relative tranquility. Most of the world is in a state of relative peace.

Further, in the last say 40 years, 20 years, 10 years and yesterday, most of the struggles for liberation from oppression took place peacefully: the orange revolution, the crimson revolution, the rose revolution, the bulldozer revolution, the velvet revolution, the cedar revolution, the carnation revolution, the Arab spring, and so on. There is in fact a long list of non-violent revolutions that have occurred that we are not informed of, lest we should realize the power in organizing according to the principles of non-violent revolution so that we might implement these powerful techniques. Needless to say, there have been many bloody and violent revolutions and oppressive military incursions which tend to get more media attention and tend to find there way into history books that find their way into our educational prison systems. So we do have to do a little searching and, on occasion, go to school at a peace academy to learn about the real struggles, the real heroes, the real conquests of head heart and spirit that brought us to this critical juncture in history where, in fact, everything is in place for a global revolution to once and for all finally dismantle the pillars of injustice and construct the pillars of peace. To this end I highly recommend people get a hold of any work by Gene Sharp – a great starting point to lead you to all of histories heroes – and there are many, and we can count ourselves among them, who have pushed, sometimes successfully and sometimes not, but always paving the way for the grand unification and the grand liberation towards self – determination and then, as a species we can deal with the more impending tasks such as climate change and equality of resource acquisition and distribution.

So, and again, when you’re looking at how fucked up the world might seem, remember how far we have come in the past century and look at how much relative peace there is in the world. There you may find your strength so that we can all continue the struggle for a one-ness of spirit and intention as stewards of this entire planet of life and the environment.