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Summary
Contrasts two approaches to conflicts and their resolution: the aggressive, confrontative elements of the adversary paradigm represented by the fictional figure Rambo, and the compassionate non-violence of the mutuality paradigm advocated by the Dalai Lama.
This may be one of the most important books to come out in this transition to the twenty-first century. It opens up a way of thinking that can lead to social design and behavior changes at every level from the family to the international system, moving away from current trends of increasing violence. Fellman's skillful analytic blend of social psychology and sociology in explaining the interrelationship of social institutions and human behavior offers a new way out of classic sociological impasses.
"Rambo and the Dalai Lama is highly readable, and made more so by the disarming way Fellman draws on his own personal experiences to illustrate the conceptual points he is making, without for a moment sacrificing the quality of his intellectual argument." -- Elise Boulding, Dartmouth College
This book suggests that the assumption that human life is based on conflicts of interest, wars, and the opposition of people to each other and to nature exists as a paradigm that supplies meaning and orientation to the world. An alternative paradigm sees cooperation, caring, nurturing, and loving as equally viable ways of organizing relationships of humans to each other and to nature. Fellman sees this shifting emphasis from adversarialism to mutuality as essential to the survival of our species and nature itself.
Gordon Fellman teaches Sociology and Chairs the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, Brandeis University.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Part I. Background, Method, Problem
1. On Cruelty and Social Change
2. To Overcome or Not to Overcome: That is the Question
Part II. Paradigm Shift
3. "Oh to be Torn 'twist Love and Duty"
4. Two Paradigms
5. Two Compulsions
6. The Terrifier
Part III. Adversary Rituals of Coercison
7. Rituals of Killing and Revenge
8. Rituals of Undermining
9. Rituals of Supposed Superiority
10. Rituals of Faulting
Part IV. Mutuality under Way
11. The Other As Complement Rather Than Threat
12. The Emergence of Empathy
13. Reapproapriating the Self
14. Seeds of Mutuality I: Old Seeds in Old Institutions
15. Seeds of Mutuality II: New Seeds in Old Institutions
16. Seeds of Mutuality III: New Seeds in New Institutions
