Once you've walked a mile in another
person's shoes then you're a mile away and you have their shoes! Or
so goes the witticism I heard on the radio a year or so ago. The key
point here is that violent conflict – or indeed the structural
violence of economic injustice – are at least in part made possible
if those responsible have either a physical or emotional distance
from the victims of violence. It becomes easier to kill or to
prepare to kill another person if they are seen as 'the other'.
During the cold war the iron curtain,
whilst not existing as a physical entity, was very real in creating a
barrier to communications and the most basic of contact between the
peoples of east and west. Growing up during that period, the gradual
opening up of channels – such as through Quaker East-West exchanges
and visits – sometimes felt like a real revelation; what the
ordinary person in Britain knew about the lives of ordinary people in
the Soviet Union (and vice-versa) was so limited.
Much of the armed conflict during the
first world war saw armies facing each other for months on end with
only a small physical distance between them. The famous Christmas
Truce in which British and German soldiers played football and
exchanged gifts in no-man's land is a powerful story in that it shows
so simply the irrelevance of the battle-lines when it comes to simple
bonds of common humanity.
It has always been in the interests of
some of those in power to promote the idea of one group or nation as
'the enemy', sometimes in order to support the case for going to war
and at other times, as we have seen more recently in the UK, to
justify uncaring economic and social policies. Our Advices and
Queries, however, point to a different way:
“Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs? Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society's conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear. Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?”
and
“In what ways are you involved in the
work of reconciliation between individuals, groups and nations?”
In many respects, it is now easier to break
down the barriers of understanding between different communities,
people and nations, with communications technology providing a means
of information-sharing that is mostly a lot more democratic. It is
harder for government's to persuade us that nation / group 'A' is the
enemy. Or is it? The situation between Ukraine and Russia shows how
difficult, but also how important, it is to get a proper
understanding of the needs and fears of the different populations. It
is very clear that the media are being influenced and manipulated by
politicians from east and west to support their particular approach.
And non-governmental groups of all persuasions can and do use web
tools to promote misunderstanding and fear of the other for all sorts
of reasons; a real challenge.
From the individual to the
multi-national levels, empathy is a key factor in developing better
mutual understanding. A particular difficulty is that it is easier
to empathise when you don't feel threatened yourself. Empathy is one
of the building blocks of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)
and in one of their resources (http://thetransformer.us/08-3.pdf) we read:
“In order to break through the walls
of our self-made prison—revealing who we really are and our natural
ability to empathize—we need to feel a high level of safety. With
this level of safety, we can now risk being vulnerable enough to lay
down our assumed identity. When you lay down your identity, you are
left with your humanity; and from this place of common humanity, you
can experience true connection with others. This is when
transformation occurs. AVP creates this level of safety through the
development of community.”
It's all easier said than done; our
different life experiences as individuals and as communities mean
that each of us will respond in our own way and have our own outlook.
Those used to leading privileged and comfortable lives (myself
included) will always find it hard to really know what it means to
feel the reality of constant hardship or discrimination. The basis
of Quakerism is to seek that of God in others, to encourage listening
and a search for truth together; this surely is a precious foundation
on which to build activities that create bridges across divisions of
understanding.
