A sophomore-level course at the Nye Peace Academy
Course title: The Quest for Peace on Planet Earth
Textbook: Guides to Peace and Justice by Sanderson Beck
Instructors: The Topaz Wizard and the Garnet Wizard
Pre-requisites: History 106 & 107, History of Earth I & II
Introduction to the Reading List, by Alan Eddy
Ambrose Bierce, in his Devil’s Dictionary, says that war is "a by-product of the arts of peace.” Well, Chipsa and I think we can change that.
Chipsa and I share a conviction that literature can be a great motivator to doing the hard work of peace. Consider the following speech by Queen Sarah in "The Tale of Baron Kannol," page 210 in Part Four: Polara's Peace: "The High Magic has given me a glimpse of understanding. I will die a few months later in the wilderness, but I will have opportunity to serve White Magic and the High Magic in the interim. That is sufficient for me.. All my life I have been tuned to good magic and I have been able to follow my path step by step. I am deathly afraid, but only fools have no fear. I can follow where the magic leads me."
Hold that thought in your mind as you look through this Reading List.
From the textbook by Dr. Beck, speaking of his own career and his quest for world peace on Earth: “Then I diagnosed the many causes of war such as population pressures, eating of meat, tribal hunting, territoriality, male dominance, military organization, warrior elites, honor, religious conflicts, weapons technology, the nuclear arms race, superpower rivalry, a military economy, psychological factors, masculine aggression, ambition for power, belief in deterrence, competition, apathy, despair, and various other current problems.”
Out of those twenty items, let’s see how many apply also to the Land of Nye: “territoriality, honor, psychological factors, ambition for power, competition, and apathy.” Down from twenty to six!
In the Preface to Dr. Beck’s book, Howard Richards of Earlham College makes the following observation. He is writing in the year 2003 CE, at the beginning of the 21st century on Earth:
“In spite of the enormous resources mainstream social science and the national security establishment have devoted to the problem, peace has come no closer.”
Peace Science 251 and the following Reading List are divided into two parts:
Stage One: personal sacrifice and commitment, and
Stage Two: peace science and conflict resolution.
Stage One: personal sacrifice and commitment
- Lifestyle choices
Stuffed and Starved: markets, power, and the hidden battle for the world's food system by Raj Patel (2007).
Deep Economy by Bill McKibben - Civil rights and race relations
Two documentaries: I Am Not Your Negro and The House I Live In
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi - The Six Nations of the Iroquois (the Haudenosaunee Confederacy)
Iroquois Culture & Commentary by Doug George-Kanentiio
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer - The Muslim World
Destiny Disrupted: A history of the world through Islamic eyes by Tamim Ansary
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai - The global village
The Permaculture Promise by Jono Neiger - Films about sustainability (available on DVD)
Inhabit: A permaculture perspective InhabitFilm.com
Sustainable Hourglass Films
Other topics you may wish to look into on your own: - Population growth and population limits, empowerment of women worldwide
- Ecology and solutions to global environmental problems, biodiversity
- Food sovereignty, water rights, economic self-determination
- Personal stories of global-friendly lifestyles Live simply that others may simply live
- Wealth & poverty, Northern Hemisphere vs. Southern Hemisphere
- Economic development on a small scale, appropriate technology, microfinance
- Integration of humans and nature, science and nature education
- Growing up black or Latino in America
Stage Two: Peace science and conflict resolution
- This is a huge topic with literature written by sociologists and anthropologists around the world. Here are two books about conflict resolution that are readily available in the USA:
The Third Side: Why we fight and how we can stop by William L. Ury 2000 (previously published as Getting to Peace, 1999)
Putting Peace First: Seven commitments to change the world by Eric David Dawson, 2018 (YA literature, website = peacefirst.org)
Other topics in sociology and psychology that you may wish to research: - Implicit bias and xenophobia as they relate to peace science
- Civil Disobedience and Non-violent Resistance
- Racial and ethnic relations, farm labor, migrants, refugees
- International law, multi-lateral diplomacy, and the United Nations
- The role of Non-Governmental Organizations in conflict prevention and resolution
- The individual activist and peace movements worldwide