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

the video and say: "This is the turning point. This is where it
went wrong. Let us now try to enact an alternative follow-up,
what should, and what could, have been done".
Obviously, making and enacting conflict-related plays is an
indispensable part of the training of conflict workers, and for
reconstruction and resolution, not only for reconciliation./78/
[9] The joint sorrow/healing approach. We saw, like in a
mirror, the immaturity of Western culture in connection with the
VE and VJ 50th anniversary celebrations 8 May and 2 September
1995. The basic content was the victory over evil forces and
homage paid to those who "gave" their lives. Both contribute to
the culture of war by seeing war as a legitimate instrument in
struggles between good and evil, and by justifying the loss of
life, and the bereavement. Consider this alternative:
Joint sorrow is announced for all participating countries
(and others who might like to join). The myth that some people
"gave" their lives is revealed for what it is: those people had
their lives taken away from them by incompetent politicians,
incapable of transforming conflicts, themselves incurring little
or no risk but willing to send others into (almost) certain death,
spreading that death to others in the process.
Without opening a new front against the political and
military class as common enemy, war as such is deeply deplored.
People dress in black, sit down in groups of 10-20 with people
from former enemy countries, and turn to the basics: how could the
war have been avoided? How to avoid wars in the future? Are
there somewhere acts of peace to highlight and celebrate?
To discuss how a war could have been avoided is nothing new;
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