Creating a Culture of Peace

The CCP circle of truths exercise is a transforming experience that engenders surprising respect and understanding toward opponents. It also is an effective tool for planning nonviolent actions. We know that a growing child eventually develops the cognitive and emotional maturity to conceptually "put herself in someone else's shoes." It is this ability to role-take that is practiced and refined in the circle of truths exercise.

Role-taking is a skill that oppressed people master in order to deal effectively and nonviolently with their oppressors. This same skill can help us develop humane responses in situations where there are inequalities of power--through knowing the heart and mind of others, a concern for how we will appear to them, and a motivation for cooperation.

Many historians fail to portray the intense preparation and training which precede the dramatic and courageous actions of nonviolent social movements. Richard Deats, himself a peace activist and teacher, is an exception. His new book, Marked for Life (New City Press), describes the life and work of Hildegard Goss-Mayr, a midwife to people power movements across Africa, Europe, North American, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.

Mahatma Gandhi envisioned the shanti sena, a trained corps of Peacekeepers. They would be able to intervene as an impartial third party in areas of violent conflict. This Peacekeeping would create Safe Space for adversaries to engage nonviolently and fashion for themselves new relationships in a more just and peaceful culture. It would provide a foundation on which both Peacemaking (negotiation and the creation of solutions) and Peacebuilding (constructing alternatives) might proceed. Today we recognize that Peacekeeping can be effective in countries and communities, in organizations and homes.