Alternatives to violence.

• Author: Hattersley, Martin

I come back from the Pe Sakastew centre at Hobbema tired but refreshed. In 48 hours, a nervous and suspicious group of inmates, most of them doing time for crimes involving drugs, alcohol and violence, has turned into a collection of friends, open, sharing, and above all, filled with self confidence and good humour.

How has it all come about?

It's a process that started some twenty years ago, when inmates in a New York prison asked a group of Quakers how they could deal with the impulses to violence that until then had ruined their lives. The answer to that question was a three day, hands on course, which explored the roots of violence, and by a series of talks, exercises and role plays, gave participants the practical ability to resolve conflict in an effective and nonviolent manner. The course proved so successful that it has spread across the United States and into Canada, and is found also now in New Zealand, Cuba, Uganda, and many countries of Europe, not always only in prisons, but in also in communities and schools.

A miracle?

Hardly. It only seems so because most of us have such a misconception in our minds as to what criminality is all about. The popular idea is that some persons much different from ourselves (those in jail) are criminals, who deserve to have their lives made unpleasant for them in order to make them straighten up, and the rest of us (those not in jail) are not. Too few of us have had the thought that "there, but for the grace of God, go I."

Go back to the most primitive level of the mind -- which humans share with many other living creatures. If we meet others on the basis of trust, as we do within our families, we will act in one of three ways. We will give nurture to others, as parents do to children. We will seek nurture from others, as children do from parents and teachers. We will cooperate constructively with others, as parents do, and as should be the case in any harmonious society. No criminality in any of the above!

On the other hand, if we have reason to face another person in fear, we make three different choices. We may fight. We may run away -- sometimes through the psychological tools of drink and drugs. We may unwillingly submit -- in which case, a secret part of us will always seek to escape and get revenge. Such is the story behind many outwardly respectable people who are suddenly found out to be criminals, let alone the background to recent school shootings. All of these can quickly get us into...