A WAVE OF PEACEMAKING
Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com
September 17, 2012
I just
heard a wave of peacemaking sweep over National Public Radio. On one news talk show after another , hosts
and guests seriously addressed the question of what the current wave of Muslim
anti-US protest is about. Yesterday they
had begun asking about the video and whether its publication might justify the
demonstrations. Today, the dialogue was
split between arguing that the demonstrations represent an insignificant number
of Muslims so let’s not make a big deal of it on one hand, to acknowledging the
long historically reinforced perception that people in predominantly Muslim
nations were backward and needed to learn to understand and appreciate superior
Euro-American values. From locally an
Ohio State political science professor to the Executive Director of the Council
on Foreign Relations, commentators stressed the reality of the widespread anti-Americanism
across the Muslim-majority world for a history of Euro-American disrespect,
denigration, colonization, exploitation, and today, pretending that the US has
a God-given destiny to bring its enlightenment and democracy while supporting
despotic rulers who massively torture them and restrict their civil rights. That all presidents from Eisenhower on had a
history of perpetuating this policy. And
that it was time for us all in the US to wake up to our own role in further
inflaming anti-US fear and anger, especially after US-driven invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq.
How
refreshing it was to hear these voices of empathy from out of the US. I call it an act of peacemaking. It is the crescendo of a little wave of
reflection from the US in response to the small but widespread anti-US murders
followed by marches on US diplomatic posts.
Short as the US media attention span generally is, I expect we will now
drift back toward beefing up US military security and trying to identify and
track down the number one villains who murdered a beloved US ambassador. In the best of circumstances, peacemaking is
an incremental process. The increments
are particularly slow when it comes to the intergenerational process of
transforming a national political culture.
Small as the wave of peacemaking I celebrate here may be, it is an
infinitely significant peacemaking event.
It is significant because it is such a rare US news media event. It shows that peacemaking can come unexpected
from anywhere. It draws a wave of
surprisingly sympathetic call-ins. It
will be heard and noticed by many people in the US. It may marginally and momentarily pleasantly
surprise those who hold anti-US sentiments—that not all “Americans” hold the
sentiments they normally hear us express.
A
commitment to peacemaking entails limited expectations, what social
psychologist Karl Weick some forty years ago call a strategy aimed at “small
wins,” which are the only changes that ultimately transform a group’s
consciousness. And so today, I celebrate
the little wave that rolls through NPR, and thank the spirit of love and
compassion that binds us for this blessing.
L&p hal
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