A wonderful week in February 2000 with Russian graduate and postgraduate students.
I had never been to Russia before. Norway has been so close to its big neighbor - but at the same time so far away. From my schooldays in the fifties I remember a Russia that was loved and feared. The people were talked about with much respect. But we feared the system, the leaders.
We heard and read about peasants and poor people that had struggled for centuries against the rulers, the czars, and now the communist leaders. We read Tolstoy, Dostojevskij and others. I imagined a people with much capacity for love and excitement for life. But often unable to cope with oppression, injustice and violence of different kinds.
Victimization - hopelessness. These two words kept ringing in me after I got me invitation to go to Russia. We all need the encouragement of brother men and sister women.. This, I suppose is, because I myself has been such a terrible victim to circumstances. There had been so much pain - that I did not want live any longer. I have had to fight the horrible forces of destruction in my own life. And I have come to experience and understand that we have within us and between us the power to break those chains and bondages. It's about experiencing inner autonomy as a condition for a full and creative life. . It's about developing an autonomy-supportive lifestyle in family, with friends, and to the ends of the world. From that inner freedom healthy relationships and friendship grows. Peace.
So peace may begin with an experience of inner autonomy, authenticity. It's an experience of not being controlled by others and by a commitment of not controlling others, acknowledging the total value of the independence and freedom of the Other. It's so much about giving respect. Letting the Other feel valued. That is what releases the forces of creativity. It makes us gods, creators, initiators to new beginnings. We in ourselves become causes and not effects. In the understanding of this I'm much indebted to one of the great psychologists and researchers of our time: Edward L Deci and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza who lived a few centeruries ago. I'm also inspired by Tolstoy, Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King and others, especially E. Stanley Jones. But may be even more by the "smaller" people that set Tolstoy in motion, who again moved Mandela and Martin Luther King - and millions of others to a peaceful and autonomous-authentic lifestyle. During our week in Russia we discussed the implications of this teaching in lectures, questions, discussion, around meals and group works and role plays.
One of the students, Valentina, expressed her experience of the week beautifully like this:
We were there to give inspiration, theoretically and experimentally, to a processes of inner freedom, that in the end would bring a harvest a peaceful and creative deep culture And I ended the 12 lectures by encouraging the students to experiment with the ideas we had shared during the week. Professor Vidar Vambheim also shared, I felt, along the same lines on the pedagogy of Paulo Freire. As I see it, it's the same from another angle: The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It's all about empowerment and becoming actors and not being helpless pawns of oppressive forces.
We worked very well together. But this little report is from my point of view – what I had in mind. Kai Frithjof Brandt-Jacobsen was with us only the first day, and was laying a good foundation for the week.
The first thing I did, I left my manuscript and manual on which I had worked for two months, and told my own life-story how I had to fight the forces of destruction in my own life. The purpose was to create an atmosphere of identification. First I regretted that I did it. But reading the reports and talking with our students, I do think it accomplished what I hoped. It made us realize that we are in "the same boat". We all have our liberation struggles to fight, and we all might become terrible victims.
I then went back to my manual.
In my understanding this emphasis blends perfectly with professor Johan Galtungs teaching on "Peace by Peaceful Means". It's the smaller and more invisible building stones of the TRANSCEND approach. I do think that Deci's research proves and explain why the TRANSCEND method boosts creativity and a sustainable peace development. World peace can be deducted to the relationship between you and me. It begins with me.
We should never give up that peace is possible and attainable. And we should not be set back by disappointments and imperfections. We should never stop making friends and trying to be good friends. It should be emphasized and cultivated in the home, in school, in business and in nations. These seeds of good relationships should be sown always and everywhere. It's our duty as human beings.
The reports indicated very strongly "task accomplished". Hopes for better relationships were strong and vibrant. Which also includes peace in the Baltic region. Peaceful creativity is at work.
I do believe it can create miracles. We worked refreshingly with professor Olga Vorkunova – very well organized. Thanks a lot to all who made this week possible. I do hope it will repeated. I hope to have an opportunity to come back. I’ve bought a Russian course – which might help me to understand and speak a few words Russian next time. To be able to say: "I love you!" at least.
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