Once more, welcome to my blog!
Our world is chock-full of conflicts of all kinds. Right now a number of political conflicts on the Aquarian theme of democracy and equality are bursting open in a belt of Arab countries in a way that looks like a contagious mental-emotional epidemic, unless they have been cleverly orchestrated from some occult command center. But that is not the case this time. As an astrologer, I am not at all surprised, of course. I predicted it long ago – though not specified to Arab countries – and wrote about it in one of my first sporadic blogs, on June 14 last year. You can read it, if you scroll down to the second last post, titled PLUTONICS.
Many conflicts result in bloody and destructive wars that cause indescribable suffering and loss of human lives, dreams and endeavors.
Johan Galtung is a Norwegian pioneer in peace and conflict resolution, who has made a career of finding what he calls the fifth way. He recognizes that every conflict has five possible resolutions:
1) I win. You lose.
2) You win. I lose.
3) Negative Transcendence in which the problem is left unsolved, ignored or postponed.
4) Compromise in which both parties agree to lose a little.
5) Transcendence, which produces a resolution above and beyond the problem.
Conventional politics seeks to resolve issues either through the first of these resolution models, using repression and force, or through compromise which, at best, leaves everybody equally dissatisfied.
The transcendent fifth solution model, on the other hand, will result satisfactory to both parties. The first step in creating a transcendant solution is an agreement between the two opponents to join forces and move forward together toward a solution that adds value for both parties.
This means creatively lifting the whole question to a higher level, where the original clash or conflict no longer occurs, but where the two conflicting interests can be united in a superior solution that is more satisfying for both parties than any compromise on the previous level could ever be.
This is very much Aquarian Paradigm thinking: cooperate rather than compete. Work together rather than sabotaging each other. The Whole is more than the sum of its parts.
It´s a question of holistic thinking or system thinking, and it echoes Einstein´s mantra that no problem can be solved on the level where it arose, or with the same sort of thinking.that produced it in the first place.
Galtung has employed the “Transcendent” method while serving as a negotiator in a number of international conflicts. He says he first helps the parties clarify their objectives, and then work to come up with solutions that meet the objectives of all parties. He presents them with concrete proposals that are intended to give both sides the sense that they are winners. A so called win/win solution.
The 1995 negotiations between Ecuador and Peru provides an example of the success of these methods: the two countries had fought three wars since 1941 over an uninhabited and resource-poor border region. Galtung proposed converting the area into a bi-national park, and both sides found this a beneficial solution they could be proud of.
Obviously, this kind of solution is more difficult to achieve, if the disputed land – as is often the case – is full of oil, gold or some other asset perceived as valuable, and that both parties greedily covet. An ideal solution in such case might be if the two adversaries can make a joint venture of it, where the party that ends up without (most of) the physical asset, can provide a necessary service or complement, that enhances the worth of the physical asset, so that both parties enjoy a better overall result than if they had refused to cooperate and remained confrontational
To sum up: What is required for such a higher level solution to work?
- A holistic, dynamic perspective, where the dividing line between the two parties is flexed and expanded significantly in a spirit of cooperation and generosity for long term overall results.
- Awareness that the complete WHOLE, consisting of the two sides combined, always amounts to much more than the sum of its parts taken in isolation.
- This is akin to the idea of inter-disciplinary work, where fruitful cross-fertilization occurs, by which much more can be achieved than if each discipline works alone and keeps its knowledge and experience to itself.
- It also suggests a switch from operating with one set of dimensions to operating with a higher or more complete set of dimensions. For instance, if I enter a dead-end street I get to a point where I can no longer advance on the two-dimensional street level but end up in front of a wall. What is the solution, if I don´t want to go back but continue? What about moving into a third dimension, to rise above the limiting obstacle of the closed street? One way of doing this might be to ask a helicopter to lift me above and beyond the house that blocks my way. Or, if I don´t have that option, perhaps enter the building, take the lift up to the roof, and from there evaluate the possibilities of continuing on the other side of that blocking building. At least I will get a very different perspective of everything than I had down in the dead end street.
It´s interesting to contemplate that Johan Galtung has not received the Nobel Peace Prize, that is awarded by his Norwegian compatriots every year (with some exceptions, when they apparently did not find a worthy candidate), while a series of war-mongering politicians, such as Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Barack Obama have been awarded the Prize in spite of having millions and millions of deaths on their combined consciences, and never achieved any worthwhile and lasting peace anywhere.
To round this up, it never ceases to amaze me how much intense and sincere, even passionate, efforts have been wasted, maybe throughout human history, certainly for the last couple of centuries, on working for peace. There is an endless number of peace organizations that write and lecture, pray and meditate, preach and sing, involving millions of sincere peace-loving people around the world. To what effect?
Bertha von Suttner fought tirelessly for 25 years for peace, beginning with a book named “Lay Down Your Arms” published in 1889. She became world famous for her peace movement, and she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905. She was intensely active till she died in 1914, but what was the result? She barely missed experiencing the outbreak of World War I, by far the most devastating war till then.
Wars today cause infinitely more deaths, damage and destruction than ever before in Humanity´s known history, even without nuclear weapons. And the so called “Depleted Uranium” ammunition (DU) is a nuclear weapon, leaving in its wake radiation that causes cancers and other serious illness on both sides, along with genetic mutations producing grave birth defects for generations to come, perhaps for ever. And DU has been used profusely by the Anglo-American forces in all their wars during the last two decades, ever since the first so called Gulf War against Iraq in 1990, in spite of being illegal and outlawed by all international treaties and standards. And in spite of full knowledge of its horrendous effects. This is clearly a crime against humanity.
Conclusion: No peace efforts will have any effect whatsoever, as long as one of the favorite pastimes of ruling politicians is to intentionally provoke wars. There may be a number of power plays involved, as well as plain piracy to rob another country of its assets, for instance oil, but one of the principal reasons is the phenomenal profits made by the weapons industry, mostly at the expense of tax payers. Most US politicians, and among them the Bush family, are heavily invested in the armament industry, and they make millions, if not billions, when there are wars going on. So it makes sense that George W. Bush declared a permanent war that can never be won, and that knows no borders, his phony war against terrorism.
The late former president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, is reported to have revealed in an interview, not long before he died, a comment that George W. Bush made to him during a private conversation. Without vouching for the exact words, this is what he claimed Bush said: “There is no better way of blowing life into a sagging economy than a war!”
Welcome back next week for more, but not necessarily of the same!
Yours,
Dr. Jens
