We’ve grown accustomed to the idea that war is natural and inevitable; that force is necessary for maintaining order and – amazingly – for cultivating peace.

In the best of times the threat of war curls around us like toxic smoke, yet we can’t imagine a world without it.

War, we’re told, goes back to the dawn of humanity and further still to our ancestors newly descended from the trees. It’s in our DNA, and we can’t escape it any more than we can escape language or walking upright.

Seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes reckoned that man in his natural state was murderous and selfish, living in “a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”

Were it not for imposed civilization as Hobbes knew it, human life would be “solitary, nasty, brutish, and short”.

Sadly, this stunted vision of humanity has become the heart and soul of how we think about war and peace. No matter how many wars we wage, lasting peace eludes us. The tragedy is that it offers no hope, and what’s worse, for all its popular appeal, is dangerously wrong… a deadly myth.

There is another picture of humanity, one based in science. Archeological evidence from the time before agriculture and cities points to a completely different kind of human.

Rather than being blood-thirsty savages whose males killed their rivals for their meat and their women and thus secured the survival of their genes, homo sapiens was a species whose actual winning strategy was cooperation, peacefulness, generosity and equality of the sexes. For our ancestors violence was the last resort.

Super-myths are cultural conventions so overarching that they define a people.

The myth of war has come to define us, and the cost is catastrophic. According to a Cornell University study the 20th century was the bloodiest century in history with over 150 million deaths due to war.

The first step in creating sustainable peace is to recognize the myth of wear and realize that chronic war is a choice not an inevitability. At the same time, as the United Nations urges, we need to realize and accept the critical role that women play in fostering and maintaining sustainable peace.

The importance of exposing the myths of war and bringing women back into the peace process is a major part of Pax Veritas’ message.

What we’ll explore together:

• Social shifts called “super myths”, that developed, established and institutionalized aggression, domination, and war and the thinking that perpetuates them.
• Ways to transform thinking to promote understanding, communication, and reciprocity among groups.
• How to reestablish feminine values alongside male values to foster sustainable peace.