The plan locates source of collective suffering key to avoiding psychological exploitation of capitalism

Here it is important to note the role of the global economy. While our outwardly prosperous era has great potential, any deeper examination reveals that it is not placid by any measure. Many countries have been struggling with rising food costs, growing income and wealth inequality, and the global financial crisis and recession that generated widespread unemployment and impoverishment, all of which the recent global pandemic has worsened.101 The spread of democracy had an enormous effect in generating peace,102 but only because it came with the reduction of structural violence and of the behavioral violence it generates.103 As global capitalism and a system of privileges shortly followed, it became capable of offsetting the gains of democracy.104 As the exploitation, intimidation, and greed inherent in structural violence corrode the general health of society, we need to be mindful of an economic structure that reproduces oligarchies or authoritarian regimes even as it squanders the democratic principles it claims to espouse. Nurturing awareness of structural violence is critical for avoiding being caught in psychological exploitation. Capitalism markets to people the lure of becoming rich as it leaves large populations poorer and more defenseless. In an advanced economy such as the United States, the “consent” of the majority itself is manufactured105 with increasing psychological sophistication and social manipulation. And while material oppression is severe, none is more oppressive than the hijacking of the mind. When human development and actualization are stunted to the point where citizens become willing pawns for those in power, then ever-greater structural violence is possible. Maintaining this system may sometimes require mentally unsound leaders capable of tapping into the maladaptive defenses of the population, including White supremacy—one form of defense against feelings of inferiority. And the greater the need of the population to distract itself from reality, the more attractive it will find a leader with delusions about himself as omnipotent savior or with paranoid tendencies that offer easy scapegoats for one’s miseries.106 Enduring peace, therefore, is unachievable through the mere pacification of those who are suffering. American political scientist Quincy Wright rejected a simplistic, negative definition of peace as the mere absence of war in favor of a more positive definition that views peace as international justice and a spirit of cooperation.107 Galtung expanded this idea of a positive peace to include the social integration of human community through a more just distribution of power and resources.108 We can equate this notion of peace with concepts of nonviolence, whereby nonviolence is a state that is more than just the absence of violence.109 In structural violence, perpetuation of the status quo itself becomes a perpetration, but at the same time we are all capable of instituting change for the better, and the suffering can arouse the power of the people. There are hopeful signs in the midst of rising structural violence. While vulnerable groups are often the first to succumb to the kinds of behavioral violence that prevent personal, local, and national development, with critical consciousness, these weaknesses can be transformed into knowledge and power.110 Greater awareness of the need to defend vulnerable populations led to the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, which animated the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ultimately influenced the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has become possible to envision: a world of . . . equal opportunity permitting the full realization of human potential and contributing to shared prosperity. . . . One in which democracy, good governance and the rule of law as well as an enabling environment at national and international levels, are essential for sustainable development.111 Indeed, this vision has become mandatory if humanity is to survive beyond the immediate future. Structural violence is human-made, and the positive aspect of this is that it can be human-corrected. As daunting as the deeper structures of human violence may seem, a more profound understanding is possible and, with it, more enduring solutions. The common roots of our problems reveal how early, preventive measures can lead to widespread results that allow for global human thriving. Hence, recognizing the abyss and fully understanding it gives us a greater capacity for solutions. Awareness helps us to decide on policies that reduce all forms of violence at the structural level, with vast reductions of suffering at a very small cost. What we gain psychologically should not be underestimated: Social solidarity, or a feeling of participation, connection, and belonging would resolve many problems, including the divisions we create over cohesion and meaning. As American Reformed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr noted, and as American philosopher Cornell West echoed, justice is how love takes expression in public.112 When we can locate the source of our collective suffering in ourselves and learn to recognize and refuse the violence before it takes root everywhere in all forms, we can then begin to transform our world.