Tikkun

Editor’s Note: Andrew Lichterman’s analysis (below and online at http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/donald-trump-destroyer-of-worlds. You can share to social media from this link and there are buttons at the end of the piece that allow you to share the piece that way) is an important review of why Trump's threats of nuclear war are illegal, and why the underlying nationalism to which he appeals is destructive. Lichterman's work is important to understand and circulate to others.

Yet there is a missing element here, namely that we need to understand the legitimate fear Americans have about terrorism after 9/11 and about other irresponsible leaders (including Trump) having access to nuclear weapons.We’ve argued that the key to reducing the risk of nuclear war is not to deny the possibility of threats from other nations (the young leader of North Korea at times seems as much a delusional narcissist as Trump) but to understand that we have to focus on the core beliefs about what will bring real security. We have been arguing for the past thirty years that for both the US and  Israel the best path to achieve homeland security is to abandon the failed strategy of domination over others as the best path to homeland security and to replace that with the strtegy of generosity as manifested in Tikkun’s proposed Global Marshall Plan (Tikkun ally Congressman Keith Ellison of Minneapoli  introduced House Resolution 87 to Congress in February--supporting our reasoning for a Global Marshall Plan. Read our proposal at: www.tikkun.org/gmp).

No matter how wise various appeals to law and rights and U.N. Resolutions can be, It is  Americans are unlikely to reject atomic weapons until they fully understand that we will be less vulnerable when we reject the strategy of "security through power over others" and replace it with the “strategy of generosity.” Instead of trying to coerce other countries to not develop the nuclear weapons that we already have and are held by many other countries as well, Americans will be far safer when the U.S. is perceived to be the most generous country in the world by virtue of its genuine caring about the well being of everyone on the planet and not just the country with the most destructive military capacity.  And that strategy of generosity would work for Israel too, for China, Russia, and most other countries of the world as well. 

The progressive world needs both the kind of thinking provided by Andrew Lichterman below and the kind of thinking Tikkun provides as an important supplement to the more narrowly focused specific projects of liberal and progressive organizations and movements are providing. This is why Tikkun and our interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives deserves your financial support  with a tax-deductible donate at www.tikkun.org/donate –because liberals and progressives will never stop the growth of right-wing extremists until we have a more persuasive alternative that recognizes rather than dismisses the fears and needs that drive people to the Right. Those fears and needs have to be answered by the kind of psycho-spiritual strategies that we’ve developed. And if you’d like to join us in this, besides donating you could join our Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) at www.spiritualprogressives.organd sign up for the online training (you can take it anywhere in the world) which focuses on being an effective activist in the Trump years. The next round starts this Tuesday, Nov. 28th. Info at www.spiritualprogressives.org/training.