This is http://www.essayz.com/a9606061.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.} ========================================================== %COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BASIS INTEGRITY HOPE+960606 %BUILD PEACEMAKING CONFLICT RESOLUTION SIN 960606 Communities differ according to the foundations upon which the members of the community seek to build and maintain their communities. One of the key questions which is central in each community is the question of who are the legitimate members of the community who have the right to participate in the community, enjoy its benefits and lead in its activities. Associated with this key question is the key question regarding the excommunication of members who do not continue to meet the requirements for membership in each community. What are the requirements for continued membership? How are they to be enforced? By whom? Each community also decides in one way or another to accept new members into the community. In order to maintain the purity and integrity of the community there must be clarity in regards to the acceptance of new members into the community. Upon what basis are distinctions to be made regarding who is and who is not qualified to be accepted into membership within the community. If there is no clear basis for making such distinctions, how can there be a clear sense of who are the legitimate members of the community who have the right to participate in the community, enjoy its benefits and lead in its activities? Each community is thus faced with questions pertaining to acceptance into community of new members, acceptance within community of continuing members, and exclusion from the community of rejected members. Such questions are answered within the context of some set of beliefs regarding what is the essential nature of the community which it is essential for the community to maintain. Different communities define themselves differently in terms of factors such as: 1. Geographic territory. 2. Ancestry, race, ethnic origins, clans, tribes. 3. Skills, knowledge, accomplishments. 4. Beliefs, convictions, commitments, promises. 5. Behavior patterns, life styles, appearances. 6. Visions, dreams, hopes, aspirations. 7. Stories, memories, myths, shared histories. The integrity of a community and of its members depends upon how well its way of defining the community lays the foundations for promoting both personal and communal integrity; e.g., through conflict resolution and peace-making. Communities which are founded upon prejudice, dishonest assumptions, pretense, and arrogant patterns of thought---will inevitably lack integrity. No level of sophistication nor resource consumption can compensate for the lack of integrity in the foundations upon which such a community tries to build. There are no tech-know-logies by which such a community can achieve and enjoy personal and communal integrity. Whenever a community lacks a clear and firm commitment to providing all members of the community with secure contexts within which to be openly true to themselves and each other---dishonesty is likely to become a common tool which is used by a growing number of the members of the community. Dishonesty naturally grows in order to conceal itself; and so dishonesty naturally grows in proportion to the degree which it is already present; unless within the community there is a clear and firm commitment to provide all members of the community with secure contexts within which to be openly true to themselves and each other. Humans are not fully human in the absence of a true community. Humans who pretend that they can fulfill themselves in the absence of a true community are playing collusive games of mutual self deception with themselves and others. Theirs is a "community" of mutual self deception; it is not a true community---it is an un-true "community". Dishonesty is its central characteristic. Just as entropy increases within each isolated physical system; so also communities disintegrate in isolation of realities which transcend the communities. The Second Law of Thermodynamics objectively describes disintegration within the objective realm of reality; measuring chaos in terms of entropy defined as the level of "confusion" due to lack of specificity in the state of the objects within an isolated system of objects. In the reflexive human realm communities need to deal openly and honestly with confusion regarding who is "in", who is "out" and who is "newly accepted into" the community. Dishonesty generates increased confusion. Being dishonest about the presence of confusion does not help anybody to transcend the confusion; or to get rid of the confusion. The only way to transcend confusion or get rid of confusion is to provide all confused members of the community with secure contexts within which they can be true to themselves and each other about their various ways of being confused. Dishonesty is the major threat to personal and communal integrity. When people do not know how to resolve their conflicts in WIN-WIN ways they try to win conflicts in WIN-LOSE ways which entail pretense, prejudice, arrogance, coercion, manipulations, and violence. Such behavior inevitably intensifies conflicts and dishonesty about conflicts. Peace-making is the process of honestly resolving conflicts in WIN-WIN ways which are not pretentious, prejudicial, arrogant, coercive, manipulative or violent. Peace-makers are always seeking ways of GETTING TO YES, GETTING TOGETHER, and GETTING PAST NO---openly, honestly and with INTEGRITY. They take the ROAD LESS TRAVELED and march to a DIFFERENT DRUM. They read and heed books which cast light upon the nature of conflict and the nature of communities which create and enjoy both personal and communal integrity by openly and honestly dealing with their states of confusion and entropy. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================