UNHIDE ASSIGNMENT! (Former Week #4 follows) [PSY 020] Personal Forgiveness and Impersonal Brutality ~ THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS – WEEK #4 Dear colleagues in forgiveness, In this, the next to last week of our course, we consider the questions raised by institutionalized grievances, which tend to be the foundation of almost everyone’s politics. What we call “politics,” in other words, is the institutionalized process of dealing with conflicting grievances. There will again be two chat sessions this week. PLEASE NOTE that the chat times listed are Pacific Daylight Time. To assist you in checking their corresponding times in your time zone, see http://www.timeanddate.com . Thursday, October 14, 7 a.m. PDT Monday, October 18, 4:30 p.m. PDT And now for our overview of week #4: WEEK #4: Personal Forgiveness and Impersonal Brutality OVERVIEW: The human responses to hurt, violence, and atrocity range from vengeance to forgiveness. Large groups of people and individuals grapple with determining what, if anything, is the appropriate response to large-scale cruelty. The Sunflower examines possible responses to such violence from a host of perspectives. Every day our news programs are filled with examples of cruelty on a large scale. Every day there are deaths in the parts of the world where simmering resentments and hatreds dominate relationship. September 11th brought premeditated, politically motivated violence to our doorstep. Between forgiveness and vengeance, what is the appropriate and best response? The Stanford Northern Ireland HOPE Project attempted two small-scale forgiveness research projects that addressed these kinds of situations. We wanted to see if helping people from Northern Ireland forgive could help the dialogue and reconciliation process in a strife-torn nation. We brought mothers who had lost sons and families who had lost members, from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds, to Stanford for a week of forgiveness training. Is this kind of project useful? Will it do any good? What will help people who have suffered atrocity heal? Are there other projects that might help? To Read This Week: . Forgive for Good, 103–53 . Seminar Packet: Hamilton, J. “Peace Work.” Stanford Magazine 29:3 (2001): 74–81 . The Sunflower – read the “Symposium” responses (pp. 99-271) of those whose names are most familiar to you, and those of others as you have time. Discussion Points: 1. Why is violence so prevalent in us and in our societies? 2. Do social forces contribute to individual violence or are they merely the sum total of individuals’ violence? 3. Is there an appropriate societal response to cruelty? 4. How do we best understand and deal with evil? 5. Would it be helpful for more forgiveness to be brought to bear politically? 6. On the societal level, what is the relationship between forgiveness and justice? As always, the discussion points will be addressed in your responses to a set of topics posted for Week #4. These topics address the political implications of forgiveness from several different yet overlapping perspectives. Please contemplate all of the following topics' descriptions on the Discussion Board before choosing the one(s) that you feel most moved to address. *The question of evil. *The politics of grievance: Is forgiveness relevant to political conflct? *Is "society" the mere sum of, or more than, its parts? *Dr. Luskin's perspective Another thought-full week . . . Stay in the grace! Noel McInnis noelmcinnis@forgivenessfirst.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TO LOG ON TO YOUR COURSE SITE: Go to: http://www.alllearn.org/ NEED HELP? Phone 1-866-524-1502 toll-free in the U.S. and Canada or send an email to help@AllLearn.org. If you're outside the US and Canada and wish to speak to someone, please email your phone number to help@AllLearn.org so that an AllLearn staff member may contact you. Dear Power of Forgiveness participants, In this, the next to last week of our course, we consider the questions raised by institutionalized grievances, which tend to be the foundation of almost everyone’s politics. What we call “politics,” in other words, is the organized process of dealing with conflicting grievances. Also this week, you are asked once again to complete the “Self-Efficacy Scale” that was presented to you during the first week of the course, without referring back to the first one until this week’s scaling is completed. This “before and [almost] after” course exercise allows each of us to see what difference the class is making to him or her. One of last week’s chats was unattended by anyone other than myself, thereby becoming a meditation sessions. This week, therefore, I am scaling back to three chat sessions, at as many different times and days, in order to accommodate the wide diversity of time zones. You are expected (not required) to attend only one of the sessions . . . and may attend more if that is your inclination. I am at last scheduling chat sessions, three in all, at different times and days in order to accommodate the wide diversity of time zones in which course participants live. You are expected (not required) to attend only one of the sessions . . . and may attend more if that is your inclination. PLEASE NOTE that the chat times listed are Pacific Daylight Savings Time. To assist you in checking their corresponding times in your time zone, see http://www.timeanddate.com . Thursday Apr. 8, 7 a.m. (PDT) Friday, Apr. 9, Noon (PDT) Monday, Apr. 12, 4 p.m. (PDT) Instructions for accessing and participating in the “chat room” are in your Student Orientation materials. And now for our overview of week #4: WEEK #4: Personal Forgiveness and Impersonal Brutality OVERVIEW: The human responses to hurt, violence, and atrocity range from vengeance to forgiveness. Large groups of people and individuals grapple with determining what, if anything, is the appropriate response to large-scale cruelty. The Sunflower examines possible responses to such violence from a host of perspectives. Every day our news programs are filled with examples of cruelty on a large scale. Every day there are deaths in the parts of the world where simmering resentments and hatreds dominate relationship. September 11th brought premeditated, politically motivated violence to our doorstep. Between forgiveness and vengeance, what is the appropriate and best response? The Stanford Northern Ireland HOPE Project attempted two small-scale forgiveness research projects that addressed these kinds of situations. We wanted to see if helping people from Northern Ireland forgive could help the dialogue and reconciliation process in a strife-torn nation. We brought mothers who had lost sons and families who had lost members, from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds, to Stanford for a week of forgiveness training. Is this kind of project useful? Will it do any good? What will help people who have suffered atrocity heal? Are there other projects that might help? To Read This Week: . Forgive for Good, 103–53 . Seminar Packet: Hamilton, J. “Peace Work.” Stanford Magazine 29:3 (2001): 74–81 . The Sunflower – read the “Symposium” responses (pp. 99-271) of those whose names are most familiar to you, and those of others as you have time. Discussion Points: 1. Why is violence so prevalent in us and in our societies? 2. Do social forces contribute to individual violence or are they merely the sum of total of individuals’ violence ? 3. Is there an appropriate societal response to cruelty? 4. How do we best understand and deal with evil? 5. Would it be helpful for more forgiveness to be brought to bear politically? 6. On the societal level, what is the relationship between forgiveness and justice? As usual, the discussion points will be addressed in your responses to a set of discussion topics Week #4.”This week's topics address the political implications of forgiveness from several different yet overlapping perspectives. Please contemplate all of the following socio-political topics before choosing the one(s) that you feel most moved to address. The topics, each with its own thread, are entitled as follows: ASSESSING SELF-EFFICACY How does your outcome of this week’s Self-Efficacy Scale (in this week’s “Outline”) differ from that of the one you completed during Week #1 of the course? How do you account for the difference? THE QUESTION OF EVIL Concerning those who are widely considered to be “evil” (as are terrorists by the Bush administration and as is the Bush administration by terrorists): Is what we call "evil" a state of being or a state of mind? In other words, is it genetically endowed in so-called "evil" persons, or is it a learned way of being? Is evil forgivable? Are people better off hating evil than forgiving it? Is it possible to be unforgiving of evil without ill effects to one's own well-being? How effective are personal and political violence against “evil” behavior? Is violence against evil a virtue? Always so, sometimes so, or never so? And if so, when so and how so? THE POLITICS OF GRIEVANCE: IS FORGIVENESS RELEVANT TO POLITICAL CONFLICT? Political processes, whether totalitarian, democratic, or somewhere in between, tend to nurture and sustain - if not inflame - their constituencies’ grievances more than they tend to resolve them. According to one prevalent political perspective, conflict drives politics, justice resolves the ill consequences of political conflict, and forgiveness aborts the cause of justice. According to another widely held perspective, no one (including a government) can forgive on behalf of another (such as a government's constituency), which makes forgiveness politically irrelevant. Is the release of grievances (i.e., forgiveness) possible in political practice, or is it politically irrelevant? IS "SOCIETY" THE MERE SUM OF, OR MORE THAN, ITS PARTS? Some people argue that there is no such thing as collective (i.e. "social") behavior, only the sum total of aggregated individual behaviors. According to this argument, there is no such thing as "society" and social obligations do not exist, therefore governments have no social function, only obligations to individuals. Forgiveness is therefore a purely personal function, and is never publicly (and therefore politically) actionable. Yet the leadership of South Africa, by politicizing forgiveness via its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has considerably healed much of the collective grievance generated in that country by the former regime's apartheid atrocities. (For background on the Truth and Reconciliation process and similarly intended political approaches elsewhere, see http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article.jsp?id=3&debateId=76&articleId=818 ) What are your thoughts on politicizing forgiveness? DR. LUSKIN'S PERSPECTIVE In an article on forgiveness at http://alumni.binghamton.edu/AJ/2002/fall/perspective.htm, Dr. Luskin suggests (as he does throughout his book) that forgiveness allows us to deal more clearly with challenges that are ongoing. Would you rather deal with your ongoing challenges with the clarity of a forgiving mind, or with the turmoil of an unforgiving mind? Does Dr. Luskin's suggestion have any relevance to the three preceeding threads of this week's discussion? Another thought-full week . . . Stay in the grace! Noel McInnis noelmcinnis@forgivenessfirst.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TO LOG ON TO YOUR COURSE SITE: Go to: http://www.alllearn.org/ NEED HELP? Phone 1-866-524-1502 toll-free in the U.S. and Canada or send an email to help@AllLearn.org. If you're outside the US and Canada and wish to speak to someone, please email your phone number to help@AllLearn.org so that an AllLearn staff member may contact you.