AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

positions in a deficient structure. If the parties can agree that
the structure was/is deficient and that their behavior was an
enactment of structural positions rather than anything more
personal, then turning together against the common problem, the
structural violence, should be possible.
A culture-oriented perspective also converts the relation
from interpersonal, or inter-state/nation, to a relation spurred
by a deficient culture. If the parties can agree that the culture
was/is deficient and that their behavior was an enactment of that
culture rather than anything more personal, then turning together
against that common problem, the cultural violence, should be
possible.
The key word in the last two is "agree". "Outer conditions
made you a perpetrator and me a victim. That is no good reason
for us to hate each other, nor for you to feel excessive guilt,
nor for me to develop the victim psychology. Not only can we
close that vicious circle, heal our psychological wounds by
forgetting them. We can even reconcile with each other, put the
past behind us. We can join forces and fight those conditions
that pitted us against each other in horrible acts of violence."
Even if this is not the full truth, it can be more than half
the truth. Moreover, it can be self-fulfilling.
Outsiders, like peace workers, may suggest that perspective
to them as a way of thinking about their own situation. This may
be best done to one party at the time than the parties together,
lest the victim gets upset by seeing the perpetrator grabbing the
opportunity, or lest the perpetrator wants to cash in more on his
professed guilt. Let them first arrive at an exculpatory
66