Want peace? Work for radical inclusion.
Every person is included in our human family - in our compassion, and in our striving for accountability and justice.
Dear friends: I hope the change of season has been helping your world feel lighter and more optimistic. These times challenge our endurance, and we all need to follow the wisdom of nature: focus on our roots, make sure they are strong and healthy, stretch our leaves to the sun, and let growth take its time.
As we try to keep track of all the happenings swirling in our world, a pattern emerges. The vile attacks on Judge Jackson during her confirmation hearings, the vicious war against a sovereign Ukraine, and the increasing challenges to settled human and civil rights laws: all have their roots in a world view of elitism, supremacy, and power over others. (See sources after the photo.)
And that world view, in turn, grows from a deep-seated fear of scarcity. If there is not enough for all of us, we must separate ourselves into classes, and then defend and expand what ‘we’ have, even if it means taking what ‘others’ have away from them.
Christians, Whites, Europeans, conquerors, ‘winners,’ males, the wealthy: all have historically been positioned as those who deserve power because they will ‘protect’ the rest of us.
It’s to the point, friends, where some powerful leaders insist that our children need to be protected from their own gender-informed healthcare, that our votes need to be protected from our ability to cast them, that our bodies need to be protected from our self-determination.
At their roots, the war to dominate Ukraine and the laws seeking to dominate individuals (mostly women, children, LGBTQ+ folk, global majority folk, poor folk) grow from this same source: fear.
And thus, all attempts to dominate reveal the weakness behind them. It is only fear of weakness that pushes us to violence in word and deed. When we understand the strength that comes from love, compassion, and understanding, there is no more motivation to dominate anyone or anything. Instead, we crave harmony and inclusion.
Over and over, we learn and re-learn the lesson that inclusive communities are stronger, safer, and more sustainable. Sciences from ecology to neuropsychology reinforce the notion that connection and interdependency are both inevitable and make us stronger.
So what, you ask (as I do), what can we do?
The work of peace is the work of radical inclusion: inclusion at the roots. Every person is included in our human family - in our compassion, and in our striving for accountability and justice. The pilot dropping bombs must be included, as must the families hiding in bomb shelters; the dictator directing the attacks as well as those suffering. All of us, human.
We insist on every person being treated as fully and complexly human. It is the only path to full justice and full peace, our most potent resistance to all forms of supremacy, violence, and the misuse of power.
When in doubt about what to do, work for radical inclusion.
As always, I am so grateful for your company on this journey.
The connection between the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice and the attempts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/virginia-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/
The subtext (and overt content) of race in the hearings for Judge Jackson’s appointment: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/race-jackson-confirmation-hearing/
Analysis of Biden’s speech on the battle of autocracy vs. democracy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/26/biden-putin-poland-speech-ukraine-democracy/
How autocrats are connected worldwide: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/02/its-not-just-putin-problem-autocrats-are-behind-much-worlds-bad-behavior/
Right-wing talking points echoing Putin: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/25/tucker-carlson-russia-views-evolution/