Segment 1: Football and Peacemaking - the Connection
The relationship between the NFL, brain injury and peacemaking is closer than you think. Our guest on this edition of the Doug Noll show will help us tie together the culturally significant pastime of football and the subject of peacemaking. She is Lorraine Esposito, author of The Peacemaker Parent, Solving Problems for Today, Teaching Independence for a Lifetime. Lorraine’s website is www.peacemakerparent.com.
The NFL is beginning to examine youth football because they have beloved sports figures in dire straights from injuries (specifically brain trauma). It’s good business to take care of the people who play the sports, as the kids of today will soon be eligible to play for franchises and the NFL needs to ensure the longevity of the sport. To combat the injury trend, Lorraine feels that the message about WINNING needs to be shifted and tailored to the developmental level of the kids. Admittedly this is difficult when one’s performance evaluation is based on the win/loss column at the end of the year.
Segment 2: The Distinction Between Greatest and Greatness
Lorraine does believe winning is important. We need to give it our all, but the difference is how you define the prize. It’s not always the score on the scoreboard. Although we have a football industry that’s based on media consumption and huge local, regional and national identity, winning shouldn’t be our sole source of identity. From the top down, we need to redefine what winning means.
Winning needs to be balanced against other factors. There is a distinction between “being the greatest” and “greatness.” “Greatest” is fleeting and vulnerable and takes you away from the group.
Section 3: The Narrow Identity
It starts in elementary school. Kids wear jerseys of pro players and if they have insecurities, the jersey overcompensates. Their identity becomes their playing record and they have nothing else on which to fall back. Coincidentally, this is a core reason for war: when people only identify with a single ideology (their tribe, their religion, their regime) and do not have a broad identity structure, any attack on that identity will lead to a primal, violent response. They don’t have the capacity to see themselves beyond that narrow identity.
Segment 4: Moral Courage and the NFL
Lorraine tells us the link with football/competition/winning and peacemaking is simple: we need to stop and think about the promises we make to the people we care about. We need to take care of our people and make good on our promises, which will enable us to build integrity. Our actions will be consistent with our words. It’s not going to happen overnight. This is something that will evolve. There will be a tipping point and it will start with individual promises.
We don’t need to stand in judgment of the NFL. We recognize that this is a movement and a big change. All we can do is commit to making a change, remain open to updating what we thought was true, and hold our promises in mind. We need moral courage. The NFL should take a stand against the prevailing beliefs in favor of doing the right thing. After all, that’s what we try to teach our kids: it’s more important to have moral courage and stand up for your convictions than it is to cave to pressure and lose your moral compass.
To listen to the complete interview, click below:
What makes some societies properous, thriving and stable, while others are barely able to hold it together? That question is posed to Dr. Daniel Cloud, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University and and author of The Lily: Evolution, Play and the Power of a Free Society.
On the Doug Noll Show, Doug first asks Dr. Cloud (Daniel) about his personal journey and what interested him in the subject of social evolution. Daniel answers that his first job was teaching English in Beijing in 1984. He found China was a very poor country and there was much hardship. He was routinely asked by his Chinese friends, "What's the secret of the United States? What makes your society so special?" He had trouble answering but found that evolution, specifically technological evolution, was a thread that kept running through his conversations.
Evolution is the survival of the fittest, or more specifically, who is most successful reproductively. Daniel realized the West is not a culture, it’s a "set of technology" that has worked with a lot of different cultures. The West puts a lot of effort into throwing two ideas into an arena and fighting it out (electoral, financial, etc.). This creates our evolutionary processes.
Doug points out that when we have an evolutionary process there is room for origin, room for genesis, but also room for failure. We need to accept failure as well as success. This is an important point, because if we don’t allow failure to happen, we can’t eventually have our greatest success.
Daniel found that what we call "free society" only works well at particular points in history and at particular places. Free Society in modern form only started to be successful in 16th and 17th centuries. Democracy wouldn't have worked in earlier times. There is a link to technological change. Capitalism is a social adaptation for facilitating rapid technological change. A system can’t function without a thriving capitalistic economy.
Because the rules are constantly changing, members of our society are forced to try out their ideas themselves. “What can be done with a telephone? A compass? An airplane?” A few will succeed and become prevalent, which, in turn, moves society forward. The consequences of technological change are far-reaching.
Doug asks Daniel why he thinks other societies shun Democracy. Daniel believes it's because it's very counter-intuitive. It seems crazy to leaders of an authoritarian society to let folks try out new ideas and again and again, and fail many times, but keep trying.
Regarding the Middle East, Iraq looks chaotic from a distance, but Daniel says the Iraqi Democracy is "kind of working." The U.S. news coverage of Iraq's issues is very negative. The Iraqi economy is actually enjoying incredible growth. They are now the 2nd biggest oil producer, so they have some prosperity. Daniel reminds us that things always look bad during a revolution – like a complete mess. It takes a long time to get the right institutional structure in place. He has found that what most folks want is just a nice, quiet life and to see their kids grow up, but yet people tolerate societies that suppress them.
Doug remarks that it took the U.S. as a new government about 20 years to get its act together. And it took even more time for the Supreme Court to settle into a government that really worked. European leaders thought it would never work. What made them wrong was our technology: the telegraph, the railroad, etc. The Internet is a shock if you’re not from a free society. It's hard to believe how the Internet Internet is so full of free speech. Technology is freeing people from the shackles of suppressive society.
Doug then talks about what’s going on in the U.S. currently: people who embrace technology are generally more liberal. Our own society has a strong thread of deep conservatism, so how can we, as a society, cope with rapid technological change?
Daniel speaks to our current economic recovery and says manufacturing is recovering fine, but not the service sector because they are being automated out of existence by the Internet. We need to figure out how to transition from a service economy to an information economy. However, it’s not easy to put a price on information. Information is free. This process takes time and we haven’t figured it out yet. Further, government can't fix this. It has to be fixed by the private sector.
Tonight on the Doug Noll Radio Show 7-8pm PT I interview Daniel Cloud.
Daniel Cloud teaches in Princeton University’s Department of Philosophy, specializing in the philosophy of biology and the social sciences. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. Before he came to Princeton he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics at the University of Alberta in Calgary, where he helped model the dynamics of gene-regulatory networks in cancer cells.
He also has extensive economic and financial experience as a founding partner of the Firebird Fund, one of the first successful Russia funds, and as an equity analyst for W.I. Carr in Hong Kong.
We will be talking about evolutionary biology, cooperation, and society. Tune in and participate in this Compelling Show.
The lines are open for your questions and comments at 888-327-0061, or Internationally, 01 858-623-0126.
Doug is the author of the award winning book Elusive Peace: How Modern Diplomatic Strategies Could Better Resolve World Conflicts and is an Award Winning Peacemaker http://www.elusivepeace.com
Los Angeles, Ca (PRWEB) August 09, 2012 Award winning peacemaker and award winning author Doug Noll has teamed up with his wife, Aleya Dao, world renowned energy healer to teach couples the secret communication skills that lead to emotional intimacy, and how to provide the stability and security that couples seek through their new Right Relationship Webinar Series. “When I wrote the book Elusive Peace, the focus was conflict resolution in international affairs. At the time that seemed the most pressing issue and least understood concept. I now realize that learning and applying the same principles to a marriage or partnership offers the same successful results in keeping conflict from escalating, helping families to remain intact, and shifts emotional orientations that will create stronger communities with less internal emotional damage,” Noll explains, adding that “peace begins within, and starts at home.”
Noll teamed up with his wife after sharing their professional experiences. “We discovered that sessions with our clients, Doug’s mediation clients, and my coaching clients—were similar in regards to what we were teaching and what their deepest desires are. My clients want to be heard and intimately understood. Doug’s clients reduced their conflict when he taught them how to listen and develop empathy,” Dao says.
Noll and Dao realized that the communication principles they both teach could be applied to relationships, so they made a You Tube video that reaped so many visits, that they knew they were onto something ( ).
Right Relationship Webinar Series starts August 12, 2012. Registration is available at the couple’s website page http://www.aleyadao.com/pages/102/Relationships.html
I wrote Elusive Peace for the purpose of teaching conflict resolution skills and strategies, using international areas of conflct as a backdrop. Today I am teaching peace, connecting, communicating, developing empathy and emotional intimacy--peace within and with a loved one--with my wife Aleya Dao through our Right Relationship Webinar Series. This is a labor of love. We share openly and honestly about our path towards intimacy and bliss!
Please join us August 12 at 7pm PT for our next webinar. Register at http://www.aleyadao.com.
We look forward to your attendance!
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In a past blog, I predicted the failure of Kofi Anan's mediation efforts. This was no magical feat on my part. Anyone with an once of experience in mediation could see that Mr. Anan was the wrong person at the wrong time with the wrong skills for the job. While he is a famous international diplomat, he is not and never has been a trained, professional mediator. That became apparent as he violated mediation principle after principle during his tenure. His resignation, accompanied by a public statement excoriating the international community, was more of a reflection of how he misread and misunderstood the conflict than about the political will of the UN Security Council.
What now? Clearly, a negotiated peace between the Assad regime and the opposition forces is unlikely. Iran and Russia have publicly supported the Assad regime and cannot gracefully retreat without significant loss of international prestige. For the Iranians, in particular, that is unacceptable. Thus, the conflict will have to play out to the end with Bashar al Assad being deposed or running for asylum. His mindset is unfortunately locked into a belief structure that will not allow him to see reality. Hence, he is as likely to be killed in office as to retire from it.
If anyone is thinking in the international community, they should be planning on how to prevent all out chaos and anarchy in Syria post-Assad. With the removal of the Alawites from power, there will a vacuum crying to be filled. A host of interests are eager to rush in, including Shiite fundamentalists, Sunni fundamentalists, al Queda-affiliated forces, and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Syrian people are not experienced in the tug and pull of democracy, do not have a strong civil society, and do not have foundational institutions to allow for a free society. These all have to be built from scratch. At the same time, the bureaucracy has to remain functional to provide basic services. Hopefully, the world learned that lesson from Iraq and Libya.
If mediators can assist at all, they will work on the inevitable conflicts arising in the opposition forces and help the various factions form political coalitions that approach independent self-determination. This is messy, difficult work. Once the common enemy, Bashar al Assad, is gone, the glue holding together the opposition will melt away. Finding common purpose in a peaceful, nonviolent transition to an appropriate form of government will be very challenging. It will take courageous, visionary Syrian leadership to guide the people.
In addition, the internal factions will face the prospect of dealing with outside spoilers. Those spoilers could include Russia and Iran, looking to maintain and perhaps strengthen their influence in the new Syria. The US and European powers could also be spoilers if they see disadvantage to a truly independent, self-determinative Syria. The Kurds are also a wild card, and may negate Turkey's potentially positive influence on the Syrian outcome. The only way the outside power players can be thwarted is if the Syrian factions unite against outside interference. This poses a classic Prisoner's Dilemma situation for the Syrian factions as the decision to defect from cooperation with other factions may appear more attractive than agreeing to cooperate and facing the possibility of exploitation. Again, mediators might be able to facilitate the decision making process towards cooperation and away from self-interested choices that will ultimately defeat a peaceful Syria.
The experiences in the Middle East over the past 10 years should inform us all that classic international power politics is more likely to generate war than peace. The international powers certainly are not oriented to stability. Instead, they continue to joust for influence by thwarting each other's ambitions and interests. Thus, if the Syrian people want peace and self-determination they will need the discipline to turn away from the power inducements of the west or of Russia and Iran. They will have to turn inward and solve their own problems in their own way. They can do this with the help of skilled mediators. Time will tell if that is the path they choose.