The Significance of Lex Innocentium, 21st Century
Lex Innocentium, 21st Century is clear and unambiguous in its identification of the war system, and the cultures of violence it perpetuates, as one of the existential challenges of modernity. In fact, the war system has become a central plank in the demented ideologies that have contributed to the global environmental catastrophes of our time. The war system is a fundamental part of the structures and systems of social and economic exploitation.
Moving from a Culture of War and Violence
To a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence (First Steps)
Step One: Identify the nature, complexity, extent and, in fact, normalization of the war system.
Step Two: Confront the culture of the war system; in particular how it is rationalized, legalized, normalized and even romanticized.
Step Three: Create and rebuild the beliefs, mores, institutions, systems and mechanisms that will sustain the culture of peace and non-violence at every level of society.
If war in all its manifestations is a crime – then the challenge is to stop the war system from perpetuating itself from generation to generation and from culture to culture. This is a mighty challenge because the war system has become deeply embedded in almost all areas of human culture from the histories we tell ourselves to the structures of our philosophical, political and economic ideologies.
At the same time, the war system, with all its tragedy and destruction, has been challenged in almost every generation, and in every culture. In this context, Lex Innocentium, 21st Century does not need to reinvent the wheel. All the knowledge, information and wisdom that we need to move from a war system to a peace system is already available to us.
Seán English
