{"id":84847,"date":"2017-01-02T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84847"},"modified":"2017-09-13T08:41:53","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T07:41:53","slug":"new-year-old-wishes-left-and-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/new-year-old-wishes-left-and-right\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year Old Wishes Left and Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

This New Year announces itself with bangs all over, not whimpers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pope Francis made a tour d’horizon<\/em> on all continents, strongly denouncing the violence in favor of his alternative: negotiation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Much violence is copycat or copyrat; violence being a la mode<\/em>. Copying–aka learning–is not wrong. But it depends on what is copied.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 1<\/strong>: copying peace rather than violence, for instance from ASEAN and the Nordic Community, making peace self-reinforcing.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 2<\/strong>: reporting violence less prominently, more toward the end of newspapers-TV-radio news, and reporting peace upfront.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 3<\/strong>:\u00a0 understanding war better, not only how many killed but how many bereaved; understanding peace better as model for others.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 4<\/strong>: introducing Yin\/Yang in Western thought: no totally good or bad humans or states around; they are all improvable mixtures.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 5<\/strong>: linking the good in ourselves to the good in others for peaceful cooperation, yet keeping the bad in mind, for security.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 6<\/strong>: identifying unsolved conflicts and unconciled traumas that may lead to violence; solving the conflicts, healing the traumas.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 7<\/strong>: globalizing traditional intra-state human rights to rule out killing and exploitation across state borders.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 8<\/strong>: adding animal to human rights to reflect how much we have in common, like families, joy and grief, cooperation, symbiosis.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 9<\/strong>: globalizing democracy giving voice to all affected by a decision, via UN, or directly by referenda across state borders.<\/p>\n

Wish no. 10<\/strong>: dialoguing with the most belligerent–USA-Israel-UK-Turkey–to identify their legitimate goals and how they can be met.<\/p>\n

And the erratic climate?<\/strong> A modest wish: a deeper understanding than a one-factor linear relation in a very complex finite world.<\/p>\n

Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy<\/strong><\/p>\n

A focus on nonviolent remedies, not only critical analysis, makes us think-speak-act more positively.<\/p>\n

This is not an all-or-nothing package. Any wish met somewhere is a move for peace and that person-medium-nation-state will be rewarded. The list is not “unrealistic”; the opposites often are. A closer look:<\/p>\n

The first is an act of will; emphasizing how well we feel after a good meal or<\/em> taking the meal for granted, waiting for hunger. Or both, but more on the former. Recommended.\u00a0 Be conscious. You have a choice.<\/p>\n

The same goes for No. 2 about the media. I think I can even guarantee that more peace-positive media will sell better unless it is simply unfounded naivet\u00e9. Look around, they will find a lot of peace.<\/p>\n

Violence breeds violence.\u00a0 Peace may breed peace by setting the tone and mobilizing copycats. That makes violence a source of sorrow and peace a source of joy, with multiple punishments for the violent and rewards for the peaceful.\u00a0 But watch out: there may be peace in violence, using it as the Pope does to argue for peace, and violence in peace if taken for granted, not maintained like in a good marriage.<\/p>\n

There is nothing wrong in wanting security, meaning no violence. But there is something wrong in focusing only on security: paranoia.<\/p>\n

For wish no. 6 the word “root” is now frequently used, the media also asking what is at the root of this violence.\u00a0 Next question; what is at the root of conflict: incompatibility<\/em>, of trauma: past violence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wishes nos. 7 and 9 are globalizing and easily understood: intra-state human rights and democracy should be extended to inter-state.<\/p>\n

No. 8 reflects what we have recently learned about animals from female researchers: how similar they are to us, with life expectancies from 20 (many) to 50-60 years.\u00a0 However, how about our food habits?<\/p>\n

Wish no. 10 focuses on helping the most belligerent states, not only criticizing them.\u00a0 The method in Wish no. 6 has to be used, maybe with 5-10 countries volunteering for each one, not only the UN.<\/p>\n

To repeat: not an all-or-nothing package, but a list of ideas shaped as wishes for 2017.\u00a0 Anyone with other ideas, please stand up!<\/p>\n

What do those old political riders, “left\u201d and “right”, have to do with all of this?\u00a0 They often stand for progressive vs reactionary.\u00a0 To go straight to the conclusion: time has come to drop those terms.\u00a0 Or, to give them a new content: left, progressive is to meet the basic needs of humans and nature; right, reactionary insult these needs.<\/p>\n

Let us look more closely at those old terms.\u00a0 Traditionally, left has been linked to solidarity with the working class, or generally with employees rather than employers. But watch out: Thatcher had a point about employers as the “hard working classes”, and employees as trade unionized into the opposite.<\/p>\n

Left is also used for favoring the public sector, state-run, and right for favoring the private-sector. This became Plan vs Market, which has an old taste of the 19th century carried into the 20th. However, there are those who fare much worse than workers-employees, like lonely, old ladies, not captured by the left-right discourse.\u00a0 Whether their interests are better served by the public or the private sectors of the economy may be difficult to tell in general terms. Maybe a mix, maybe in phases, now one, then the other; pragmatic?<\/p>\n

Again, watch out. There is a basic point about the public sector, the state: in principle it has to answer to the parliament, which in turn has to answer to the people.\u00a0 The more privatization, the more the country is deprived–deprivare<\/em>–of democracy.\u00a0 No doubt a major purpose of the privatization all over; there are laws about companies, enterprises, but not the direct control by a parliament.<\/p>\n

Proposal: give left and right a new meaning. Left wing politics meets the basic needs of humans and nature, right wing insults them. Or drop the terms “left” and “right” as outmoded.<\/p>\n

And deepen democracy by having elections not only nationally, but also, for instance in companies, enterprises. With general assemblies. And round tables. And people: as people-ism, populism, not only elitism.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> and rector of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Peace University-TPU<\/a>. Prof. Galtung <\/em>has published 1670\u00a0articles\u00a0and book\u00a0chapters, over 450 Editorials for <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a>, and 167 books on peace and related issues<\/em>, of which 41 have been translated into 35 languages, for a total of 135 book translations<\/em>, including \u2018<\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives<\/a>,\u2019 published by the <\/em>TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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