With the current "Normal" - Killing, Bloodshed, Exploitation, Environmental
Destruction are NORMAL, TO BE EXPECTED, THE LIKELY OUTCOME OF
OUR "NORMAL" WAY OF BEING - I MEAN, OUR "SELFISH" WAY OF BEING.
"Few people chose war. They chose SELFISHNESS and the result
was war." David Dellinger.
Note: Regarding the following, reflect on our major movements toward
Peace, Humanity, Health - Civil Rights, Suffrage, Anti-Apartheid, EARLY
Christianity... and you may see the usefulness of the following framework
of understanding.
"Example is not the major thing in influencing people. It is the only
thing." Albert Schweitzer.
Peace Work, or in "religious" terms, Saving folks and societies, is:
1. Being the "Change," the New Normal, that is, the Universal Love
incarnate we need to see in the world.
2. Establishing the New Normal: By virtue of Being the
New Normal, SOME ONLOOKERS MAY "SEE" THAT THEY
ARE NOT NORMAL, NOT "HEALTHY," NOT THE "NEW NORMAL," AND
WISH TO BE "HEALED," TO BECOME "HEALTHY" TOO. Peace Work,
Saving involves explicitly facilitating this awakening to the new normal.
KEY: Folks don't Change unless they "see" that they are Not Normal,
"Un-Healthy," Un-Human..." in whatever terms [again, think civil rights,
suffrage, early Christianity, anti-apartheid....] This stage of the
process involves the establishment of a critical mass, as small as that
may be - a nucleus of those that have become the "New Normal," the
change we need to see; the EMBODIMENT of the New Normal, the
New Way of Being Human.
3. Building the New Normal using 1 and 2 above as the foundation
and template, using new "institutions" to proliferate the New Normal
WHILE avoiding the almost inevitable, ENTIRELY FATAL step of
Institutional-IZING the New Normal - which is certain Death, and
certain STRENGTHEN the Old Normal - that has us on the edge of
destroying what Civilization there is, once and for all.
SL