JOURNAL 7

Nellie Gotebeski

October 13, 2009

Moral Development

If my culture has taught me to believe one thing (humans are violent and war is inevitable), can I change to the opposing view (humans are peaceful and war is preventable)? What would it mean to hold the second view? How might the society change?

In The Human Potential for Peace, Fry discussed the ability of a peaceful culture to become violent and a violent culture to become peaceful. The flexibility and changeability of peaceful and violent statuses can impact the way we view human nature. To support this statement that societies can change, we can refer to history data. Sweden is a great example to prove the transition from a violent to a peaceful society. During the time of the Vikings, Sweden was considered a violent and bloodthirsty culture. However, today Sweden is a peaceful society with very view instances of violence. If societies can change their behavior from violence to peace, I believe it is very likely for individuals to change their beliefs about this issue. Over the past several years, the mass media has influenced our view point by showing humans behaving violently and emphasizing the inevitability of war. This viewpoint has become ingrained in our own cultural beliefs and has led to “group think.” However, humans are capable of moving away from this rigid mold and should strive to break the mold instead of remaining stuck in a pessimistic outlook on life. 

In history, we can find several examples to support the ability of society to change their belief systems. For example, we once believed the world was flat and that was slavery was justifiable, but we were able to move away from these beliefs once we held an open mind and explored the world for ourselves. We can become our own investigators of truth. Once we begin searching for answers, we can find several instances of peaceful societies and find the evidence to support the ability of societies to transition toward peace.

Once we accept the belief about the peaceful nature of humans and the preventability of war, we must then accept the possibility of a more peaceful world. This possibility will have numerous implications at the individual level and at the national level. For example, we can no longer use excuses to justify our violent actions or the actions of others. We no longer can say, “That's just human nature” after someone commits an act of violence and when deciding whether to enter a war, we can no longer claim, “There has always been war and there always will be war.” We are forced to consider alternatives. We must acknowledge the more peaceful side of humanity and should take into our own hands the human potential for peace. We should search for possible solutions and more ways to achieve peace, because violence and war are no longer acceptable alternatives. 

Using the evidence from the societies that have changed from violent to peaceful, we can develop our own process towards peace. These societies can act as models for our own culture. When we examine Sweden’s success, we come across a possible method to change a society. Sweden guarantees every mother three years of maternity leave to care for their newborn baby. This is essential for the child because there is evidence to support that the additional care during this key period of development will have a positive impact on their behavior later in life. Psychologists stress the importance of early childhood development. Another possibility to achieve world peace, mentioned in Fry’s book, is the application of judicial principles at a nationwide level. This will force cultures to move away from global self-redress and become more oriented toward more peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. Fry discusses the five approaches to conflict management, which include: negotiation, toleration, settlement, mediation, and adjudication. When we accept the belief that humans are peaceful and war is inevitable, we must begin to practice these approaches to conflict management and work toward a more peaceful society. One of the issues Fry believes influences violence is social organization. The United States is, without a doubt, a state level society with a complex government and divisions between classes. What can we do as a complex society? We can start by accepting the belief that humans are peaceful and deny war as a method to resolve conflicts. We can find other more peaceful alternatives to resolve conflicts and enforce this peaceful way of life in our own culture.