Issue 4
Peace is a need
by Jude Lombardi
How will I know when peace is a need?
When our conflicts are celebrations that generate conversations so that something new might emerge.
Angela Davis How can we be together in a community that respects and celebrates the differences among us? How can we be together in a unity that is not simplistic, that is not oppressive, BUT rather complex and emancipatory? Our unity must be complex and emancipatory.
Audre Lorde Differences must not be merely tolerated BUT seen as a fund of polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.
When peace is a need, conflict is a necessity and conversation an invitation to turn together and dialectically dance with our tensions, conflicts and differences so that something new might emerge.
NEEDS: Cyclical (recursive) conditions that have to be met so that they can happen again and again. Or I be dead. For example,
Thirst has to be met by drink. Hunger has to be met by food. Fatigue has to be met by sleep.
Peace has to be met by conflict. Drink, food, sleep, conflict are all necessities in relations with our needs.
When peace is a need our conflicts are a necessity that must be met unconditionally and continuously so that peace can happen again and again and again.
WANTS Even though I want it I will survive without it, although I prefer not to live without it.
DESIRES Awareness of what I want and need. Generating desires is an element for designing "social" transformations.
My Desire: Peace is a need and all humans' needs are met unconditionally and continuously.
So, how will I know we have peace as a need? When conflict is a celebration that generates conversations so that something new might emerge.
Do you me us want and desire peace as a need? If so, what might it look like, feel like, sound like? How would one recognize it as such? How might it emerge in our languaging spaces? jlombardi@jlombardi.net
6/1/14
by Jude Lombardi
How will I know when peace is a need?
When our conflicts are celebrations that generate conversations so that something new might emerge.
Angela Davis How can we be together in a community that respects and celebrates the differences among us? How can we be together in a unity that is not simplistic, that is not oppressive, BUT rather complex and emancipatory? Our unity must be complex and emancipatory.
Audre Lorde Differences must not be merely tolerated BUT seen as a fund of polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.
When peace is a need, conflict is a necessity and conversation an invitation to turn together and dialectically dance with our tensions, conflicts and differences so that something new might emerge.
NEEDS: Cyclical (recursive) conditions that have to be met so that they can happen again and again. Or I be dead. For example,
Thirst has to be met by drink. Hunger has to be met by food. Fatigue has to be met by sleep.
Peace has to be met by conflict. Drink, food, sleep, conflict are all necessities in relations with our needs.
When peace is a need our conflicts are a necessity that must be met unconditionally and continuously so that peace can happen again and again and again.
WANTS Even though I want it I will survive without it, although I prefer not to live without it.
DESIRES Awareness of what I want and need. Generating desires is an element for designing "social" transformations.
My Desire: Peace is a need and all humans' needs are met unconditionally and continuously.
So, how will I know we have peace as a need? When conflict is a celebration that generates conversations so that something new might emerge.
Do you me us want and desire peace as a need? If so, what might it look like, feel like, sound like? How would one recognize it as such? How might it emerge in our languaging spaces? jlombardi@jlombardi.net
6/1/14
