Bare with me folk, I am not pessimistic, and my quest for peace is not rhetorical.

I have hopped on this site from another, where we have had long discussions about Middle East peace, involving all possible parties, and the discussion took the very usual pattern:

You started it, no you started it.
We were here first, no we were here first.
Peace is giving us our rights, no, peace is giving us our rights.
Recognize us first, no, you recognize us first.
Killing your people is justified when you kill ours.
Killing your people is justified since we have been killed before.
Your children are taught how to hate.
Your children are taught how to hate.

At the end, all peace activists end up echoing corrupt politicians, war lords, and quote the propaganda machines to get their point across. Peace equals winning, no compromise.

I quit that site and came here, hoping to find people who can really step out of themselves, and be self-critical in a proactive sense, people dedicated to conflict prevention rather than take responsive measures (not undermining the latter, but it proved to be impotent against the interests of the arms industry).

I live in Sweden, a nation that gives jews and arabs all support and aid, and sell weapons to both at the same time. This double standard is nothing new.

Why talk among us peace activists? Where does this lead? We need to talk to the war machine and propagandists. I am new here, and I admittedly come with stereotypes about peace activism.

You will find me throwing flowers at guns flashing back at me, you'll find me having a beer with an Israeli soldier to persuade him to give up his weapon, and the next day I will undress a Palestinian jihadist of his suicide belt. You will find me pushing politicians in the corners of great halls and press conference rooms, facing them with their own lies. You will find me in lecture rooms and universities teaching about the propaganda machines to journalism students. But I am tired of those online discussions, and I embark here on a last chance of having a discussion that leads to actual projects on the ground, otherwise, I won't be here either.

Am not making a martyr out of myself already, and I risked sounding a tad bit too serious. I am just cutting to the chase as I come here to meet you wonderful folk.

So what is the point of such discussions really? if we only talk among ourselves.

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Mike,

So long as we think in terms of us and them, we are viewing the world in two dimensions and the world remains a struggle between groups for control of scarce resources. The only way to peace is to begin to understand our essential unity.

Each of us commonly holds one or more of the three assumptions that prevent us from creating the world we want:

1) someone else is responsible,

2) resources are scarce, and

3) the market can solve all our problems
We all need to be responsible to ourselves, to our families, to our neighborhoods, to our communities, you our inter-community relationships (regional, inter-regional, world-wide). We need to be responsible to the future.

Economic resources ARE scarce. Equity may not be scarce, but assets have been so grossly mis-allocated to destructive, inequitalble, in-humane, and unsustainable production and distribution systems to the point of acute scarcity. I also wonder about the effects of borrowing (i.e. liabilities) on the situation with respect of scarceness of equity. Perhaps this problem can be solved by forgiving debt, but this should be done only under the aegis and agreement upon a larger ecological economic plan. Certainly, a reformed financial system would preclude all forms of debt.

Natural resources are even scarcer. We live on a finite planet. If we keep going like we're going, there will be no planet left for the children.

The market is not the answer, that should be clear to most by now. People are the answer. We need a planned economy based on an explicit mission, principles, strategies, and tactics.

I'm a Work kin for peace and cooperation.


With much love and care,

Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Mike said:

Resources are scarce and people must stop using them the way they are.

That articulation of 'someone else is responsible' and 'resources are scarce' is common among those concerned with social and environmental justice - and what I am saying is that it is these assumptions that keep us from exercising our own power to create the world we want.

In fact, those things that people need to thrive - food, clothing, shelter, education and health care, are not scarce. The reason these basic things are not available to everyone is that the market is incapable of producing abundance. It is not that we need to replace the market with something else, it is that we need to add additional systems to accomplish that which the market cannot. And this is a three dimensional view of the world in which every one gets to make their own decisions . . .

How Humans Came to Live in Peace and Plenty
First of all, you misquoted me, took my words out of context.

You seem to have a US-Centric worldview that is short-ranged and not consistent with the concerns of sustainability and equity. Perhaps, I am mis-understanding thee.

If food, clothing,shelter, health care, and education are not scarce then they are mal-distributed and are often oriented towards the wrong mission, principles, goals, strategies, tactics, and beneficiaries.

Capitalism and supply-side economics has produced an abundance, an over-abundance in some "markets", but a scarcity in others. Market economics and particularly supply side market economics are particularly irrational and inequitable in the way that they distribute goods and services. It is also unsustatinable both from an economic and natural resource standpoint.

Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
I do not mean to mis quote you - I do want to challenge your conception about why basic necessities are "mal-distributed". It is not that someone else is intending to deprive others - we are all just doing the best we can defending our own bridges. The best we can do - looking out for the interests of our selves and our "group" - operating in the first and the second dimensions - leaves out certain people, plants and creatures.

Those left out have the potential to contribute value to the system. In two dimensions we call this (unused human and biological potential) poverty and environmental degradation and treat it as a problem instead of as a resource. I am suggesting that it is not about changing the way the existing system works - it is about implementing new systems to realize that unused human and biological potential.
So, what can we do ???
Just keep watching people killing people ??
Interesting point you show, but a bit pessimistic, you know.
Yes, we agree almost totally.

There is only point on your last post that I would try to clarify.

David Braden wrote:

I am suggesting that it is not about changing the way the existing system works - it is about implementing new systems to realize that unused human and biological potential.

Mike Morin responds:

It is about both. It is first important to conceptualize the alternative, but then we must also come up with strategies that meet the mission and goals that EVERYBUDDY wins.


With much love and care,

Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Beau travail que vous faites.
I do not know what any of us as individuals can do to change the situation in Gaza today. I like Mike's thought . . . conceptualize the alternative and come up with strategies . . .

We must first see that no "group" (institution, nation, corporation, religion . . . ) exists except for the participation of individual human beings. We each choose those groups in which we participate - consciously or by default. Where each of us has influence is where our group interacts with other groups and where our group interacts with nature . . .

It is in the interest of all of us to realize the unused human and biological potential of the planet and to do that we can use our influence . . . to conceptualize alternatives and develop strategies . . . where we have influence . . .
Derived from the teachings of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, I submit to you all the following:

"God" is love. "God" is the intention and actions to do good. Fox said that there is good and bad in everyone and it is incumbent upon us to cultivate the good within ourselves and help others to do the same.

The Buddhists' Four Noble Truths can be summed up as:

- all life is suffering
- it is incumbent upon us all to do what we can to relieve that suffering.

The nine-fold path (I've added one) of Buddhism is:

-right intentions
-right thought
-right speech
-right action
-right livelihood
-right effort
-right mindfulness
-right concentration.


When I write "right", I am using it in the connotation of correct.

In US politics some of us say, Left is right (correct) and Right is might (take it by economic dominance and agression and/or force).

I'm a Work kin for peace and cooperation.


With much love and care,

Mike Morin
www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com
Michael Smith and Mike Morin,

It appears we agree that the world we have is created by the choices each of us make. With that realization comes the obligation to find ways to make better choices. In the terms I am using, that means being conscious of the bridges we maintain - and looking to create new bridges with the people, plants and creatures left out the current system. Mike Morin also has ideas about how to do that in his People's Equity Union that I would like to explore fuarther.

To me, peace - or the lack of it - is related to poverty and environmental degradation. If we eliminate those two things, peace will follow. People will live in poverty until such time as we have systems of production in which everyone can participate. The environment will be at risk until such time as humans obtain what they need and desire from systems of production that work with nature's processes - enhancing biological diversity instead of diminishing it. See Greening the Desert.

The next step then is finding a way for more and more people to realize their power to design and implement these new ways of producing what we need. There is a group working on "how we spread the word" at the Global Brain Application Set Up and I invite any one interested in how we go about creating the world we want to join us there.
Amen, Friend David, and thank you for making reference to my web log, and including me in your plans for further communication and action.

I whole-heartedly and mindfully accept the offer of association.

With regards to "Greening the Desert", I am all in favor of doing so where existing or potential existing settlments exist, given that there are adequate water resources to so...

Thanks for your good work.


With much love and care,

Mike Morin

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