Beyond War

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

A question was recently sent to the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council: “Are there going to be any more protests at Five Corners like there were when Bush was in office?” The writer had previously expressed his criticisms more directly, so I had an idea what he meant. My answer was a laconic, “There might be, but we’re also taking other actions that promise to be more effective.”

Too many political exchanges amount to no more than standing on opposite corners saying, “You’re wrong!” But his response was: “What actions will promise to be more effective? Afghanistan, Libya and a couple other spots are getting hotter and hotter, not to mention the terrorist trials and the Guantanamo situation. Are you satisfied with the way things are going? Could you explain what actions will promise to be more effective?”

We may still be talking past each other, but I read some real concerns there. I tried to respond in kind. This is what I said:

My friend:

There are no instant solutions. However, there are some principles that are clear: War is obsolete. (Note that there are many things that still exist despite being obsolete.)

This is one small planet with one population of humans. (Perceptions of divisions and polarization among us are fundamentally mistaken.)

The means are the ends in the making. (Good ends do not justify ill means.)

Living from these principles changes the way I address those things that I can affect, my feelings about those things that I have no control over, and my discernment of the extent of my influence. I believe this is so for others as well. I am, of course, paraphrasing the well-known serenity prayer (you know . . . serenity to accept that which cannot be changed, courage to change that which can, and the wisdom to know the difference).

These principles are elaborated in Winslow Myers’s book Living Beyond War: A Citizen’s Guide, which I can warmly recommend. This book is a summation of work that began in the 1960s at Stanford in an organization called Creative Initiative, which grew to 1,000 people who worked for 20 years in an intense study of how humans change. (The roots of this work are far older, of course.) From this in the 1980s emerged an international movement called Beyond War, which by 1986 had over 24,000 members active in 23 states and a number of countries. Their main focus was on the prevention of nuclear war. They raised awareness of what was called nuclear winter. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this transformed into the Foundation for Global Community, with a broader mission. Then after 9/11 Beyond War was re-initiated in Seattle, and the people involved were the immediate sources of material in this book, drawing on all the work of the years before.

War is obsolete. But it’s not ending by itself. What is clearly needed is for us human beings on this planet to change. It is important, then, to understand how people change. Research has shown that if only five per cent of the population adopts a new idea, it’s here to stay and will continue to be developed and spread by innovators. For that five per cent to adopt it, 50 per cent must become aware of it. Over time, more and more of them may adopt it. When the percentage grows to 20 per cent — just one out of five people in the population — then the idea is unstoppable until it finally levels off in the 90 per cent range.

It is this sort of perspective on change that enables us to have courage and patience.

Both courage and patience are essential. One root of conservatism is fear, and rapid change is a fearful thing to many people. When 20 per cent of the people have adopted the awareness that war is obsolete, that we are one on this planet, and that we need to embody the ends that we wish in the very means that we employ to attain those ends, it will be because a larger majority — 80 per cent let’s say, just to invoke the 80-20 rule — are aware of it. Even if they don’t fully endorse it, it’s familiar, and the familiar is not so scary.

Mr. Myers will be on the Island to talk about this in less than two weeks, cosponsored by the Peace Council, the Unitarians, and Martha’s Vineyard Friends Meeting (Quakers). The date is Sunday, May 22, at 5 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Chapel on Main street in Vineyard Haven.

Bruce Nevin

Edgartown

The writer is treasurer of the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council and clerk to the Martha’s Vineyard Friends Meeting.

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History Speaks

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

According to Homer, the Greek hero Achilles killed Trojan Hector with a spear thrust through what he had learned was a weak point in his armor. (Good intelligence work!) He then did a victory lap under the walls of Troy, dragging the dead body behind his chariot. President Obama has refused publication of a picture of the dead body of bin Laden. Progress!

W.R. Deeble

West Tisbury

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Folly of War

Editors, Vineyard Gazette:

I wonder what Winslow Myers will say about killing (even as bad a man as Osama bin Laden.) Mr. Myers is the author of the book Living Beyond War and will be discussing it at the Unitarian Chapel Sunday, May 22 at 5 p.m. He quotes Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and many others on the follies of war, that violence begets violence, and on the extreme cost of our massive military machine — way beyond that of all other countries combined.

Roger Thayer

Edgartown