1 hr 22 min
Ep 48: Rabia Roberts - Herstory, Part B The Peacebuilding Podcast : From Conflict To Common Ground
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- Technology
Dear Podcast Friends,Happy 2021!We came so close in the United States of America.We came right up to the edge, looking into a very deep and bleak abyss. But we didn’t fall in, we pulled ourselves back, and democracy – at least to the extent we have realized it -- has prevailed. I, along with so many of my fellow citizens, am thrilled.I have not generally been a person to wave the flag of the U.S. and tout our exceptionalism, though I love my country like I love my family.I was one of those kids that resisted saying the Pledge of Allegiance as early as 14 because I was already very aware of what my country was doing in Southeast Asia. Fast forward to this podcast, I am all too aware that the U.S. spends more on our military than the next 10 countries combined, and uses our military might to dominate the world in very much the same way the wealthy have used our police to dominate poor black neighborhoods to keep assets pouring into the hands of a small, mostly white, male few of Wall Streeter types – some of them my family members.But today I feel more patriotic and proud of my country than ever before.It feels like we have just gone through a hazing, a reckoning and perhaps Donald Trump has done us a favor to wake us up. Like the saying goes – it takes a lot of pounding to create a good bar of steel.I read a book a long while back called the People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck, the same guy who wrote The Road Less Traveled if you remember it. The premise of the book is that lies are the core of human evil. Seeing ourselves clearly -- as a person, as a country, as a world -- is the beginning of healing and real positive change. As we say in the gestalt world -- awareness works: It’s a paradox that change happens most quickly when we can by see the fullness of 'what is' in the present moment.A few weeks back, when the run-off elections in the State of Georgia tipped the balance in the U.S. Senate to a Democratic majority I tweeted:I am so deeply moved by what has just happened in Georgia. Thank you Stacy Abrams. Change Georgia, change the country, change the world. And “bing” -- I immediately got a like from a young woman in Asia who is an activist for democracy in her own country. I love how connected we are, and how movements for justice and democracy inspire each other around the world. After living with the Trump administration for the last four year that used bullying and the fantasy of a lost, white, Christian and patriarchal America, it was so super moving to see, in the words of one of my friends“A glorious display of inclusivity including all the raw feminine power. . . -- How bright & radiant”and knowing that that was brought about, in part, by the activism of so many of us, of which I am proud to be a part. One turning point was on January 21, 2017, when women, with our pussy hats on, marched on Washington in the largest single-day protest in American history that dwarfed Trump’s inauguration numbers of the previous day. So, I am feeling optimistic, but there is so much to do and the climate clock is ticking The contribution I have chosen to make toward a deeper democracy is focusing on empowering women by building our negotiation capacity, and showcasing through the podcast some cool content about interventions to build common ground in complex systems. One CAN bring very polarized groups, even warring factions, together to build common ground.I have done it.I have seen it.But so many of our world governments, including my own, are still so steeped in win-lose, adversarial, “power-struggle” methodologies, egged on by a media that leads with what bleeds. Making better use of the collaborative – and yes, more feminine – processes we know work would help us become less polarized, and more creative and relational. Humans are very capable of dealing with complexity and problem solving if given the right process “containers”. Power over v power with. . .Win-lose, w
Dear Podcast Friends,Happy 2021!We came so close in the United States of America.We came right up to the edge, looking into a very deep and bleak abyss. But we didn’t fall in, we pulled ourselves back, and democracy – at least to the extent we have realized it -- has prevailed. I, along with so many of my fellow citizens, am thrilled.I have not generally been a person to wave the flag of the U.S. and tout our exceptionalism, though I love my country like I love my family.I was one of those kids that resisted saying the Pledge of Allegiance as early as 14 because I was already very aware of what my country was doing in Southeast Asia. Fast forward to this podcast, I am all too aware that the U.S. spends more on our military than the next 10 countries combined, and uses our military might to dominate the world in very much the same way the wealthy have used our police to dominate poor black neighborhoods to keep assets pouring into the hands of a small, mostly white, male few of Wall Streeter types – some of them my family members.But today I feel more patriotic and proud of my country than ever before.It feels like we have just gone through a hazing, a reckoning and perhaps Donald Trump has done us a favor to wake us up. Like the saying goes – it takes a lot of pounding to create a good bar of steel.I read a book a long while back called the People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck, the same guy who wrote The Road Less Traveled if you remember it. The premise of the book is that lies are the core of human evil. Seeing ourselves clearly -- as a person, as a country, as a world -- is the beginning of healing and real positive change. As we say in the gestalt world -- awareness works: It’s a paradox that change happens most quickly when we can by see the fullness of 'what is' in the present moment.A few weeks back, when the run-off elections in the State of Georgia tipped the balance in the U.S. Senate to a Democratic majority I tweeted:I am so deeply moved by what has just happened in Georgia. Thank you Stacy Abrams. Change Georgia, change the country, change the world. And “bing” -- I immediately got a like from a young woman in Asia who is an activist for democracy in her own country. I love how connected we are, and how movements for justice and democracy inspire each other around the world. After living with the Trump administration for the last four year that used bullying and the fantasy of a lost, white, Christian and patriarchal America, it was so super moving to see, in the words of one of my friends“A glorious display of inclusivity including all the raw feminine power. . . -- How bright & radiant”and knowing that that was brought about, in part, by the activism of so many of us, of which I am proud to be a part. One turning point was on January 21, 2017, when women, with our pussy hats on, marched on Washington in the largest single-day protest in American history that dwarfed Trump’s inauguration numbers of the previous day. So, I am feeling optimistic, but there is so much to do and the climate clock is ticking The contribution I have chosen to make toward a deeper democracy is focusing on empowering women by building our negotiation capacity, and showcasing through the podcast some cool content about interventions to build common ground in complex systems. One CAN bring very polarized groups, even warring factions, together to build common ground.I have done it.I have seen it.But so many of our world governments, including my own, are still so steeped in win-lose, adversarial, “power-struggle” methodologies, egged on by a media that leads with what bleeds. Making better use of the collaborative – and yes, more feminine – processes we know work would help us become less polarized, and more creative and relational. Humans are very capable of dealing with complexity and problem solving if given the right process “containers”. Power over v power with. . .Win-lose, w
1 hr 22 min