On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, of 1918, the guns on the western front fell silent. The Great War, the war to end all wars, ended. Every year on this day we remember the fallen from the Great War and from more recent conflicts too. We wear poppies as a sign of our thanks to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. For they are a fitting symbol of blood and darkness. World War I, as it is now known, left an indelible mark on this country. In that conflict there were almost 900,000 British deaths, more than twice the number of those lost in World War II. The images of utter desolation on the western front still act as a symbol for the futility of war. Though we do aim to remember, it seems like our memories are short. According to Uppsala University in Sweden there have been 285 distinct armed conflicts since the end of World War II. Today Russia’s war still rages in Ukraine, and a new conflict in the Middle East, based on old enmities, now threatens that fractious region once more. Are these two wars harbingers of a broader world conflict? Let’s hope not. This month I also saw an article about violent conflict within Neolithic peoples in Spain 5,000 years ago. Is this violent, homicidal behaviour just the way humans are? It might surprise you to learn that the answer is no, this is not who we are. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) teaches us that everyone is more that their behaviour. Violence is a behaviour we do; it isn’t who we are.
But this isn’t the main reason to reject the argument that we humans are destined to fight each other until we destroy ourselves and the planet. Pioneering research conducted in the 1950’s and 1960’s by psychologist Clare Graves, demonstrated that humans have a pre-set evolutionary pathway, which constantly takes us into more and more complex forms of thinking. As we individually and collectively climb this Gravesian Spiral we look at the world differently, we solve problems in different ways, and what we value changes too. Violence comes from lower-level ways of less complex thinking. Now this doesn’t make the conflict and the suffering any less real for the people caught up in it. Nevertheless, the ways of thinking we need which will take us on a more positive path already exist today, albeit in a small number of people. But this step in our development is a possibility for the future. This way of thinking recognises that all human life, indeed all life, is equally valuable, that at some level we are all connected, and we are all an expression of one thing. The Russian, the Ukrainian, the Jew, and the Palestinian are all fingers on the same hand. They may all look different and move independently, but they are all part of the same one thing. This way of thinking is about letting go of fear. The fear of not being liked, the fear of not being good enough, the fear of God (or other authority), the fear of predatory man, the fear of not fitting in, and the fear of lack. It is about authentically being yourself and allowing others to do likewise. It is a prosper and let prosper mentality, so that we can all grow together. Fine words you may think, but how will this alone stop wars. It is true that most people do not think and act this way, and it is true that no political leaders are currently expressing this opinion. If we want to stop violence, all violence, we can, but we will need to remake our society to do so. It will take new political leadership to create new social structures. Sometime soon we will need to find the courage to step up and start making the necessary changes. This is not the courage to rise from a muddy hole and run into a hail of machine gun bullets and shrapnel. Instead, we will need to find the courage to say no to resolving our human conflicts through violence, and yes to significant social change. If we do, then future generations will be giving thanks to us for the courage we displayed not in the muddy fields of battle but in the trenches of social transformation. We can eventually make the Great War the war to end all wars. If we keep remembering and if we begin to change that is.
“We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims.” Buckminster Fuller
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