If More Conflict isn’t the Way out of Conflict, then What is? To Think it is to Create it. Free Zoom Webinar Tuesday, 13 October (7 – 8.30pm)

Did you know that in the entirety of known human history that there has never been a whole continuous year when there hasn’t been war?

What an extraordinary statistic that is and what a sad indictment of the human condition.

It gives credence to the line from John Steinbeck that:

“War is evidence of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”

And war is the tip of the iceberg where conflict is concerned, because that is group conflict carried out by nationalities, cultures, creeds, genders and even and often between religions and factions within them.

Beneath that lies a myriad of other conflicts small and large between families, neighbours, schools, communities, in the workplace and more.

Even before Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection and “Survival of the Fittest” was first postulated in the mid-19^th century, the predominant go to response for dealing with conflict has mostly been to out conflict the other party and seek victory in the war / dispute by various means from physical confrontation to litigation and everything in between.

But given that the world hasn’t had a single year of world peace since recorded history began this suggests that more conflict to get rid of conflict isn’t a recipe for success in the short, medium and long term.

Nor does it build sustainable relationships and futures for all when staggeringly vast amounts of the world economy are spent on creating more and more weapons to damage these real or imaginary “others” and enemies.

And that is just the conflicts between human beings down through the ages.

The “war” on Nature has been going on every bit as long in human history. This pathological belief that we need to “conquer and subdue” Nature in order to build sustainable futures.

But if you chop down all the trees to make way for houses and dump toxic waste everywhere then eventually there is no oxygen left to breathe and nowhere safe to live.

Nor is this helped by world leaders (mostly men in case you hadn’t noticed!) and their rhetoric and exampleship about being strong and powerful in the face of perceived threats.

We therefore need to find ways to work with Nature and each other.

Fear is the greatest weapon of all in the causes and escalation of conflict and also in controlling the hearts and minds of others and causing them to do things they wouldn’t normally do if they thought it through for themselves in real terms.

So, if thinking gets us into conflict, then surely thinking can help us find a way through and out of it.

For if as Steinbeck says, war is evidence of man’s failure as a thinking animal then surely thinking can be evidence of men and women’s success as a thinking animal too.

In this free Webinar we shall be looking at seven key ways in which changing how we think about relationships and conflict can change their energy and help turn problems into opportunities and shape shift the future from repeating the mistakes of the past to becoming a kinder, fairer and more sustainable future for all.

A pipe dream?

Maybe.

But then perhaps all we have to do is follow John Lennon’s counsel and – Give Peace a Chance.  😊

All are welcome and hopefully it will be an interesting and enjoyable process together with some light bulb moments along the way.

Facilitator: Tony Kearney

Tony grew up in New Zealand where he trained as a solicitor. He then worked as a solicitor in London for over 20 years before moving to Ireland in 2006 to further his work around building sustainable relationships into the future. This includes planting a forest on the farm where he now lives and acting as a Mediator in workplace, community, schools, family, and commercial disputes. He also runs training and other events and is the author of five books.

To register for this Webinar or find out more email Tony at: [email protected]