This is http://www.essayz.com/a8903041.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %THREAT PEACE TRANQUILITY INTEGRITY FEAR REJECT 890304 Each threat to peace and tranquility contributes to the overall disintegration of a community which does not respond to such threats in integrative ways. The major threats to peace and tranquility come from within each community. The major threats are threats to the peace and tranquility of the members of the community; they are threats which put people ill-at-ease and lead to various forms of dis-ease. The major threats to peace and tranquility are threats against personal and communal integrity. Such threats engender fears of disintegration. If the responses to the threats are not integrative responses, then the natural consequence is disintegration; even if those issuing the threats do not make good on carrying out their threats. Thus, merely issuing threats against personal and communal integrity can have disintegrative consequences--- if the response to the threats is not itself integrative. Threats against personal and communal integrity are threats to do violence to some form of integrity; to use violence in being coercive, trying to exercise control, or in destroying something which is presently whole and well integrated in a coherent way. The most essential aspect of a community which has integrity is the pattern of open and honest communication which holds the community together. That pattern of communication is the key to the integrity of the community and its members. Any threat made against that pattern of open and honest communication is a threat made against the integrity of the community and against the personal integrity of the members of the community. Good people often threaten the integrity of their community and its members by threatening to cut off communication if some one person or some group of persons does not conform to the good people's conception of proper behavior. Such threats to destroy communication channels constitute serious threats to the integrity of the community, and against the integrity of the members of the community. They threaten the peace and tranquility of the community as a whole. When the peace and tranquility of a community are threatened the members of the community become defensive and are tempted to look around for objects towards which to be defensive. It is easier to be defensive towards objects and people which are outside the community, than it is to be defensive towards objects and people inside the community. Internal threats to the peace and tranquility of a community thus often lead to defensive posturing towards those who are not members of the immediate community. When members of one community take defensive postures towards members of another community they threaten the peace and tranquility of the members of the other community and the relationship between the communities. Such threats elicit similar threats from the other community, and the global community disintegrates. There is no personal threat to the global community from outside the global community which merits a defensive posture. The global community is not seriously threatened by persons outside the global community. All major personal threats to the integrity of the global community originate within the global community. The pattern of finding a personal target for defensive posturing outside the threatened community has come to an end. We must now recognize that the major threats to the integrity of our community are threats which originate within our community. If we do not recognize this modern fact of life, we will disintegrate our global community. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================