22.03.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

democracy is an answer. If the contradiction is very sharp--<br />

meaning that the vested interests in the status quo are<br />

considerable for some, and so is the suffering in terms of the<br />

basic needs of survival, well-being, freedom and identity for the<br />

majority or the minority (in the latter case majoritarian<br />

democracy may legitimize the status quo)--then the politics of<br />

nonviolence, following the lead of Gandhi, may be the answer./4/<br />

A major problem is that (parliamentary) democracy and (extra-<br />

parliamentary) nonviolence are parts of the political culture in<br />

only some parts of the world, and democracy (which may be violent<br />

in its consequences) more so than nonviolence. But both are<br />

spreading rapidly, and do not exclude each other.<br />

In this complex of vicious cycles we can now identify three<br />

problems that can only be solved by turning the vicious cycles<br />

into virtuous cycles (notice the "re": again, again, and again):<br />

[1] The problem of reconstruction after the direct violence:<br />

[2] The problem of reconciliation of the conflict parties<br />

[3] The problem of resolution of the underlying, root conflict;<br />

If you do only one of these three without the other two you<br />

will not even get that one. Hegel was arguing reconciliation<br />

between Herr and Knecht without resolution; Marx resolution<br />

without any reconciliation. Reconstruction without removing the<br />

causes of violence will lead to its reproduction. Badly needed is<br />

theory and practice combining all three.<br />

But what does "combined" mean? Assuming violence has already<br />

happened, it means synchronic rather than diachronic, linear, one-<br />

after-the-other. That opens for two models: three separate tracks<br />

for each task; one track for all three tasks.<br />

7

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!