February: Week 3
“History is really a record of every interruption of the even working of the force of love or of the soul.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
REMINDER: SIGN UP FOR OUR CLASS MEETING FOR FEBRUARY 22 FROM 8-11 AM PACIFIC.
“Haven’t we always been violent?”
This week we turn to our human origins to recover a story of ourselves that provides a better grounding for our capacities for peace and nonviolence. When someone says, “We’ve had war since the first humans…” or “We’ve been fighting since times immemorial…” or that only humans have certain capacities for cooperation, empathy, reciprocity, we know these are not accurate depictions.
{The late] Frans de Waal began researching chimps and was the first researcher to look at reconciliation behaviors within primate species. This research threw open a door that has helped definitely shift a scientific paradigm that human beings—and other forms of life— are violent by nature. This short talk with him with the Templeton Foundation is a good way into learning about who he is and the significance of his life’s work. Then, watch his Tedx on some of his research in action.
Anthropologist Doug Fry has spent the majority of his career studying peace societies, and helping to create research to disprove theories that war has always existed or that we need war at all. Later in the week we will share our episode of Nonviolence Radio with Fry (still editing it), but to get started, have a look at these short pieces by Fry:
Peaceful societies are not utopian fantasy. They exist.
and
How Humanity Can Realistically Prevent New Wars: an Interview With Anthropologist Douglas P. Fry
Some years back, one of Fry’s students made this video to share with us at Metta as part of our work in New Story. Worth the watch!