Let There Be Peace

There is an elementary school that right after the terror attack in New York Cit
y place on its marquee the message, "Let there be peace and let it begin with me
." What the people who put that message up didn't seem to realize is we were at
peace. Not only were we at peace but we were working for peace and justice for o
ther people all over the world. The trade center attack was made by people who d
isagree with our version of what form that peace and justice should take.
The people responsible for the sign are in favor of gun control. If you had them
over to your house and announced that there was a gun in the other room they wo
uld be very uncomfortable and want to leave.
On the surface this appears to be unreasoning fear. It is not unreasoning but ra
ther primitive fear and reasoning. The name for this is animism. If you look at
the chart I had once given you that cross references the various developmental t
heories you can see that belief in the supernatural is part of human intellectua
l development. Primitive people functioned on the intellectual level of a six-ye
ar-old. They did not know what was alive and what wasn't. Other people were aliv
e, animals looked somewhat like people and were alive. Plants were capable of gr
owth and change and even rocks could move. What made things move? The answer, th
ere is another little animal inside moving it, a spirit or soul that can't be fo
und when you open a thing up to look for the little animal because it is part of
the unseen spirit world. This means the gun spirit could decide to come in from
the other room and start shooting people.
Why so much fear of the gun spirit? If these people were told there is a gun in
the next room and a table saw in the garage they would not react with the same f
ear to the table saw. A simple first answer for this is there is no political mo
vement for banning table saws. As teachers these people would feel justified in
imparting that fear into their students. Similarly, our police force has been in
doctrinated into the belief that if they use their firearms they will be traumat
ized and require counseling and therapy. On reflection it seems they are not jus
t suffering a psychological condition but enacting a cultural ritual.
It appears the peace movement in all its manifestations is not simply a politica
l movement but a phenomena in a dynamic, changing and maturing culture situated
among other cultures. One of these other cultures are the Moro. Descended from M
uslim pirates their tradition teaches there is pleasure to be had in killing an
enemy with a knife, feeling their guts twist and having that enemy exhale his la
st breath in their face. It was for knocking down these killers hopped up on rel
igion and drugs into a killing frenzy that the American Army began arming its of
ficers with 45s.
A traditional enemy and competitor of the Moro are the headhunting Dyak. The Dya
k believe that in taking a head they are trapping that person's soul and use it
to make sure their rice grows. Because the soul will leak out and eventually be
free it was necessary to have a supply on hand that continually needed to be ren
ewed. Should a van load of these Dyaks drive past the school mentioned earlier t
hey would not read it and agree. They would think, "Here is an easy harvest."
Such cultures could not be tolerated among us or as neighbors. They would have t
o be subdued by military might and reeducated. The Dyak are now Christians but t
hey remember their traditions and have among them, held in high honor, some who
have taken heads.
The pacifism represented by the previously mentioned school marquee is clearly t
he wrong thing to be teaching our children. It does not fit into the world and m
ay well result in an obscenity similar to the one that occurred in Japan. At the
same time it is representative of a culture growing and changing much as an ind
ividual develops and grows through developmental changes. What we need to be tea
ching our children then is courage, honor, valor and that they can be healed.
The current method of healing wounded souls, of treating violence traumatized po
lice and warriors is to provide them with counseling and therapy. The effectiven
ess of this approach is unsatisfactory. It is impersonal, conducted by strangers
, ends when the ability to pay runs out and is of varying effectiveness.
To correct this problem it is useful to see how other cultures may have solved t
his problem. One that has is the Navajo or as they call themselves, De'ne. These
 people, cousins to the Apache, cultural slogan is essentially "walk in beauty."
A shy people, they hold that to maintain eye contact is rude and aggressive.
When their warriors return home they are in need of healing. The extended family
comes together and holds a "sing" for them. Growing up all members of the famil
y have previously participated in such events and each knows their part. Assiste
d by a medicine man the ritual is performed, often with a relevant supernatural
creature becoming involved, and the individual is healed.
Such a thing, a similar ritual needs to be adopted into our culture. Families ne
ed to look into their religion, their ethnic and cultural back ground for simila
r rituals they can update and use. It would have to be practiced so that all can
adequately be involved and most importantly, it has to be performed while the f
amily's children are young so that they will believe. Twenty years latter when a
n intervention may be needed for any purpose all will be ready and success obtai
ned.