{"id":111993,"date":"2018-05-28T12:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T11:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=111993"},"modified":"2018-05-30T10:33:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-30T09:33:05","slug":"conflict-theory-and-biosphere-annihilation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/conflict-theory-and-biosphere-annihilation\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflict Theory and Biosphere Annihilation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a recent article titled \u2018Challenges for Resolving Complex Conflicts\u2019<\/a>, I pointed out that existing conflict theory pays little attention to the extinction-causing conflict being ongoingly generated by human over-consumption in the finite planetary biosphere (and, among other outcomes, currently resulting in 200 species extinctions daily). I also mentioned that this conflict is sometimes inadequately identified as a conflict caused by capitalism\u2019s drive for unending economic growth in a finite environment.<\/p>\n

I would like to explain the psychological origin of this biosphere-annihilating conflict and how this origin has nurtured the incredibly destructive aspects of capitalism (and socialism, for that matter) from the beginning. I would also like to explain what we can do about it.<\/p>\n

Before I do, however, let me briefly illustrate why this particular conflict configuration is so important by offering you a taste of the most recent research evidence in relation to the climate catastrophe and biosphere annihilation and why the time to resolve this conflict is rapidly running out (assuming, problematically, that we can avert nuclear war in the meantime).<\/p>\n

In an article reporting a recent speech by Prof. James G. Anderson of Harvard University, whose research led to the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to mitigate CFC damage to the Ozone Layer, environmental journalist Robert Hunizker summarizes Anderson\u2019s position as follows: \u2018the chance of permanent ice remaining in the Arctic after 2022 is zero. Already, 80% is gone. The problem: Without an ice shield to protect frozen methane hydrates in place for millennia, the Arctic turns into a methane nightmare.\u2019 See \u2018There Is No Time Left\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But if you think that sounds drastic, other recent research has drawn attention to the fact that the \u2018alarming loss of insects will likely take down humanity before global warming hits maximum velocity…. The worldwide loss of insects is simply staggering with some reports of 75% up to 90%, happening much faster than the paleoclimate record rate of the past five major extinction events\u2019. Without insects \u2018burrowing, forming new soil, aerating soil, pollinating food crops…\u2019 and providing food for many bird species, the biosphere simply collapses. See \u2018Insect Decimation Upstages Global Warming\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, if we are in the process of annihilating Earth\u2019s biosphere, which will precipitate human extinction in the near term, why aren\u2019t we paying much more attention to the origin of this fundamental conflict? And then developing a precisely focused strategy for transcending it?<\/p>\n

The answer to these two questions is simply this: the origin of this conflict is particularly unpalatable and, from my careful observation, most people, including conflict theorists, aren\u2019t anxious to focus on it.<\/p>\n

So why are human beings over-consuming in the finite planetary biosphere? Or more accurately, why are human beings who have the opportunity to do so (which doesn\u2019t include those impoverished people living in Africa, Asia, Central\/South America or anywhere else) over-consuming in the finite planetary biosphere?<\/p>\n

They are doing so because they were terrorized into unconsciously equating consumption with a meaningful life by parents and other adults who had already internalized this same \u2018learning\u2019.<\/p>\n

Let me explain how this happens.<\/p>\n

At the moment of birth, a baby is genetically programmed to feel and express their feelings in response to the stimuli, both internal and external, that the baby registers. For example, as soon after birth as a baby feels hungry, they will signal that need, usually by crying or screaming. An attentive parent (or other suitable adult) will usually respond to this need by feeding the baby and the baby will express their satisfaction with this outcome, perhaps with a facial expression, in a way that most aware parents and adults will have no difficulty identifying. Similarly, if the baby is cold, in pain or experiencing any other stimulus, the baby will express their need, probably by making a loud noise. Given that babies cannot immediately use a cultural language, they use the language that was given to them by evolution: particularly audibly expressed noise of various types that an aware adult will quickly learn to interpret.<\/p>\n

Of course, from the initial moments after birth and throughout the next few months, a baby will experience an increasing range of stimuli \u2013 including internal stimuli such as the needs for listening, understanding and love, as well as external stimuli ranging from a wet nappy to a diverse set of parental, social, climate and environmental stimuli \u2013 and will develop a diverse and expanding range of ways, now including a wider range of emotional expression but eventually starting to include spoken language, of expressing their responses, including satisfaction and enjoyment if appropriate, to these stimuli.<\/p>\n

At some vital point, however, and certainly within the child\u2019s first eighteen months, the child\u2019s parents and the other significant adults in the child\u2019s life, will start to routinely and actively interfere with the child\u2019s emotional expression (and thus deny them satisfaction of the unique needs being expressed in each case) in order to compel the child to do as the parent\/adult wishes. Of course, this is essential if you want the child to be obedient \u2013 a socially compliant slave \u2013 rather than to follow their own Self-will.<\/p>\n

One of the critically important ways in which this denial of emotional expression occurs seems benign enough: Children who are crying, angry or frightened are scared into not expressing their feelings and offered material items \u2013 such as food or a toy \u2013 to distract them instead. Unfortunately, the distractive items become addictive drugs. Unable to have their emotional needs met, the child learns to seek relief by acquiring the material substitutes offered by the parent. But as this emotional deprivation endlessly expands because the child has been denied the listening, understanding and love to develop the capacity to listen to, love and understand themself, so too does the \u2018need\u2019 for material acquisition endlessly expand.<\/p>\n

As an aside, this explains why most violence is overtly directed at gaining control of material, rather than emotional, resources. The material resource becomes a dysfunctional and quite inadequate replacement for satisfaction of the emotional need. And, because the material resource cannot \u2018work\u2019 to meet an emotional need, the individual is most likely to keep using direct and\/or structural violence to gain control of more material resources in an unconscious and utterly futile attempt to meet unidentified emotional needs.<\/p>\n

In essence, no amount of money and other assets can replace the love denied a child that would allow them to feel and act on their feelings.<\/em><\/p>\n

Of course, the individual who consumes more than they need and uses direct violence, or simply takes advantage of structural violence, to do so is never aware of their deeply suppressed emotional needs and of the functional ways of having these needs met. Although, I admit, this is not easy to do given that listening, understanding and love are not readily available from others who have themselves been denied these needs. Consequently, with their emotional needs now unconsciously \u2018hidden\u2019 from the individual, they will endlessly project that the needs they want met are, in fact, material.<\/p>\n

This is the reason why members of the Rothschild family, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortega, Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim, the Walton family and the Koch brothers, as well as the world\u2019s other billionaires and millionaires, seek material wealth and are willing to do so by taking advantage of structures of exploitation held in place by the US military. They are certainly wealthy in the material sense; unfortunately, they are emotional voids who were never loved and do not know how to love themself or others now.<\/p>\n

Tragically, however, this fate is not exclusive to the world\u2019s wealthy even if they illustrate the point most graphically. As indicated above, virtually all people who live in material cultures have suffered this fate and this is readily illustrated by their ongoing excessive consumption \u2013 especially their meat-eating, fossil-fueled travel and acquisition of an endless stream of assets \u2013 in a planetary biosphere that has long been signaling \u2018Enough!\u2019<\/p>\n

As an aside, governments that use military violence to gain control of material resources are simply governments composed of many individuals with this dysfunctionality, which is very common in industrialized countries that promote materialism. Thus, cultures that unconsciously allow and encourage this dysfunctional projection (that an emotional need is met by material acquisition) are the most violent both domestically and internationally. This also explains why industrialized (material) countries use military violence to maintain political and economic structures that allow ongoing exploitation of non-industrialized countries in Africa, Asia and Central\/South America.<\/p>\n

In summary, the individual who has all of their emotional needs met requires only the intellectual and few material resources necessary to maintain this fulfilling life: anything beyond this is not only useless, it is a burden.<\/p>\n

If you want to read (a great deal) more detail of the explanation presented above, you will find it in \u2018Why Violence?\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So what can we do?<\/p>\n

Well, I would start by profoundly changing our conception of sound parenting by emphasizing the importance of nisteling to children \u2013 see \u2018Nisteling: The Art of Deep Listening\u2019<\/a> \u2013 and making \u2018My Promise to Children\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For those adults who feel incapable of nisteling or living out such a promise, I encourage you to consider doing the emotional healing necessary by \u2018Putting Feelings First\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you already feel capable of responding powerfully to this extinction-threatening conflict between human consumption and the Earth\u2019s biosphere, you are welcome to consider joining those who are participating in the fifteen-year strategy to reduce consumption and achieve self-reliance explained in \u2018The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth\u2019<\/a> and\/or to consider using sound nonviolent strategy to conduct your climate or environment campaign. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You are also welcome to consider signing the online pledge of \u2018The People\u2019s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the material simplicity of Mohandas K. Gandhi demonstrated: Consumption is not life.<\/p>\n

If you are not able to emulate Gandhi (at least \u2018in spirit\u2019) by living modestly, it is your own emotional dysfunctionality \u2013 particularly unconscious fear \u2013 that is the problem that needs to be addressed.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a> and has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of <\/em>Why Violence?<\/a> Websites: (Charter<\/a>)\u00a0 (Flame Tree Project<\/a>)\u00a0 (Songs of Nonviolence<\/a>) (<\/em>Nonviolent Campaign Strategy<\/em><\/a>) (Nonviolent Defense\/Liberation Strategy<\/em><\/a>) (<\/em>Robert J. Burrowes<\/a><\/em>) (<\/em>Feelings First<\/em><\/a>)\u00a0Email: flametree@riseup.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to explain the psychological origin of this biosphere-annihilating conflict and how this origin has nurtured the incredibly destructive aspects of capitalism (and socialism, for that matter) from the beginning. I would also like to explain what we can do about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}