[FRIAM] The year ahead

[Merle Lefkoff]

Your candor and honest reflection is refreshing, Gary.  And I agree with
you. I'm a recovering international mediator, and in addition to teaching
graduate students in Canada in a course titled "Complexity Thinking for
Integrative Peacebuilding", I also teach in the Buddhist chaplaincy program
at Upaya Zen Center--so I try never to see "the other" as evil.  Some of
the men I've had at the table over the years in negotiations had committed
truly evil acts, but they are human beings nonetheless.  I've become quite
radical as our trusted systems at every level are collapsing, and that's
what is promoting revolutionary resistance.  In order for social movements
to be successful they must remain relentlessly non-violent, and they must
have as part of the self-organizing process some sense of how to replace
the structures underlying the failed systems that they have disabled.
Facilitating that process is, I believe, part of our political work as
Complexity thinkers.  If you're interested, a paper I wrote on applying CAS
principles to social movements has just been published in an academic
Canadian peace journal.  I'll send it if you like.

On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 1:24 PM, Gary Schiltz <gary at naturesvisualarts.com>
wrote:

> What really worries me about the USA is how polarized the society there
> is, so "mass resistance" will certainly, at least in the short term,
> increase this polarization. From the standpoint of this on-the-fence
> liberal, it would be nice to have the luxury to be able to see the "other
> side" as being evil, so that I wouldn't care how they feel. The problem for
> me is that I can't, since many of the people I grew up with, including
> nearly all of my family, are part of that other side. And I see their point
> of view on a lot of issues. No way could I ever support Trump, but a lot of
> good people really do. And I don't know how to deal with this. I sure as
> hell don't want to see another civil war, but sometimes I think the
> passions are strong enough to instigate one.
>
> On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 2:54 PM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> <https://www.facebook.com/bekah.wolf.5>
>> Bekah Wolf <https://www.facebook.com/bekah.wolf.5>
>> January 8 at 7:17am
>>
>> A year ago, an action against deportations:
>> https://www.facebook.com/toni.arenstein/videos/10208311021676102/
>>
>> 2017 is going to be the year of mass resistance.  This is only thing that
>> works now to overcome our slide toward endless war and increasing social
>> injustice.  These protests and the larger social movements emerging all
>> over the world are self-organizing systems with much to say about applied
>> Complexity.   Visit our website:  ecosgathering.org.  Enough blah,
>> blah.  Time for action.
>>
>> --
>> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
>> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>> merlelef
>> ​k​
>> off at gmail.com <merlelefoff at gmail.com>
>> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
>> skype:  merle.lefkoff2
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
merlelefoff at gmail.com
mobile:  (303) 859-5609
skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
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