From Frankfurt am Main, Caritas<\/i><\/p>\n
How do social structures and handicaps–mental or physical, spiritual or material–relate to each other?<\/p>\n
Answer<\/i>: about the same way as social structures relate to other marginalized, even stigmatized, groups: women and non-whites, younger and older, workers, the physically and mentally ill, the handicapped, and other “deviants”.\u00a0 And at the world level the colonized and the imperialized, the less and the least developed countries, the pariahs.<\/p>\n
What do they have in common?\u00a0 That somebody is on top of them in a hierarchy.\u00a0 They are different, hierarchies make them unequal, and hierarchies are strong and tend to be reborn<\/i>.\u00a0 Those on top exclude those lower down as “deviant” from “normal”, included, society.\u00a0 They may even exploit them economically, use force militarily, decide over them politically, imprint their way of thinking on them culturally.\u00a0 Four types of power, four ways of exercising structural violence in hierarchies.\u00a0 Not strangely, we have had amazing revolts against such hierarchies in the last centuries under the banner of the human right to be different, yet equal<\/i>.\u00a0 From the American revolution leaving clergy and aristocracy behind and the French beheading them via working class struggle for decent livelihood, colonies for freedom, countries to shake off capitalist or communist imperial yokes to poor countries for their share, women for parity, younger people to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
And age: it carries stigma as in white\/gray hair, care when walking. 15 years beyond retirement age, I should be in Ruhestand<\/i>, quietude, on a side-track, Abstellgleis<\/i>; materially well but spiritually limited to hobbies like children to playing, excluded from the challenges of real work, for individual and social development, for new syntheses.\u00a0 Next stop: the cemetery.\u00a0 So I refused to retire, to become re-tired, tired again and again for lack of challenge; like exploring how concepts close to me may explain the hindrances, Behinderung<\/i>, for handicapped.<\/p>\n
Great advances have been made, seeing handicapped as three percent “deviant” and 97 percent “normal”.\u00a0 Material structures have been changed dramatically, making access for those in wheelchairs, children, the infirm and the aged so much easier, creating paths for the blind, sign languages for the deaf.\u00a0 However, an evened track may still be a side-track.<\/p>\n
How about the human right to be included, to contribute<\/i>?\u00a0 For the handicapped not only to be accepted as different–not “deviant”–yet equal in rights, but to take on the challenge of defining their own situation, and make their inputs to life and society?\u00a0 The blind may have rich inner visions and the deaf inner sounds; the wheel-chaired have other angles on all.\u00a0 White middle-aged, middle and upper class, Western, “normal” males have monopolized challenges much too long, telling others how to think. Major challenges ought to be shared.<\/p>\n
Challenges are like sunshine<\/i>, sources of health; like exercise, food and care.\u00a0 Look at nature: flowers and trees take roots, grow, stretch and twist for water, nutrients, fresh air, oxygen, sunshine.\u00a0 Deprived of that they fall ill, wilt, die.\u00a0 Foresters and gardeners can help, weeding, clearing.\u00a0 And plants and trees perform miracles with water and oxygen; photosynthesis, creating new realities.<\/p>\n
The marginalized–merchants with no pedigree, workers exploited by merchants, non-whites, women, the younger and the older placed in ghettos, colonies, countries of the South–organize around the right to decide who they are and what they want: a place in the sun for all.<\/p>\n
A hierarchy becomes a polyarchy<\/i>, vertical, but with horizontal ties uniting workers, women, non-whites, young, old, the handicapped.\u00a0 Periphery countries start trading among themselves: up they come; adolescents do the same, workers start cooperatives.\u00a0 The handicapped will increasingly find each other, define their place in society and demand their right to shape that society, not only be shaped by well-intended others.\u00a0 Like nations wanting autonomy to rule themselves.<\/p>\n
There is a price to pay: structural overload.\u00a0 Some may simplify to self-sufficiency in horizontal equiarchies<\/i>; like South-South-South trade among the Third World continents; the younger taking off from the parents, etc.\u00a0 At the risk of becoming isolated.\u00a0 And some may even prefer individual self-sufficiency in a postmodern anarchy<\/i>, with all structural tissue removed.\u00a0 At the risk of structural underload.<\/p>\n
And the handicapped<\/i>?\u00a0 The World Health Organization\u2019s Schizophrenia Study from the 1970s showed that this major mental handicap was less frequent, less deep and less long-lasting in less developed counties.\u00a0 Like other “deviants” they were not institutionalized, but parts of village life to the extent they managed; some as “the village idiot”.\u00a0 As in more developed countries sociopaths may be kicked upstairs, these countries\u2019 extremism is an indicative of a force bordering on the divine.\u00a0 And no doubt some are treated harshly, killed, banished.\u00a0 But their local societies are less stratified, less hierarchical, more inclusive.<\/p>\n
“Development” from traditional villages to modern states means building hierarchies around omnipotent State logic, omnipresent Capital logic and omniscient Science logic.\u00a0 God’s successors all, monopolizing challenges.\u00a0 Not strange that many migrate to villages.<\/p>\n
First conclusion<\/i>: Handicapped of all kinds unite! You have only your “normals” to lose.\u00a0 Second<\/i>: relate to “normal” people on as equal terms as possible.\u00a0 Third<\/i>: take on the challenge to construct a more inclusive society where your way of being different is an enrichment, a plus.<\/p>\n
And the fourth<\/i>: use all four structures.\u00a0 Some hierarchy deciding what is best, monopolizing challenges, may be necessary.\u00a0 But organize, become strong enough to challenge.\u00a0 Sometimes try to manage alone as handicapped, sometimes on equal terms with “normals”.\u00a0 And alone.\u00a0 The structures do not exclude each other.\u00a0 Rotation may be useful.\u00a0 The answer to human diversity is structural diversity, consciousness about them, and the right choice at the right time for the right inclusion.<\/p>\n
___________________________<\/p>\n
Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is rector of the TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU<\/a>. He is author of over 150 books on peace and related issues, including \u2018<\/i>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives,\u2019 published by the TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgment and link to the source, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS, is included. Thank you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Development” from traditional villages to modern states means building hierarchies around omnipotent State logic, omnipresent Capital logic and omniscient Science logic. God’s successors all, monopolizing challenges. Not strange that many migrate to villages. First conclusion: Handicapped of all kinds unite! You have only your “normals” to lose. Second: relate to “normal” people on as equal terms as possible. Third: take on the challenge to construct a more inclusive society where your way of being different is an enrichment, a plus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,206],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-coops-cooperation-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24154","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=24154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}