Excerpts
Below is the Excerpts page from the (original) No More Enemies website, as Ursula K. Le Guin enjoyed it in 2012:
You are welcome to preview content from the book No More Enemies. Read some quotes from the stories and essays, and browse the list of subheadings in each section, showcasing the book’s reader-friendly mix of micro-chapters. We’ve recently added a sampling of references from the book – take a look.
Please click below to browse under each option:
Assorted references
- Pray the Devil Back to Hell, the multiple-award-winning film about the Liberian women’s interfaith peace movement; directed by Gini Reticker and produced by Abigail E. Disney.
- William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (New York: North Point Press, 2002).
- Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World As Self (Berkeley, California: Parallax Press, 1991).
- Lynn Margulis, Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution (New York: Basic Books, 1998).
- Physicist Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and morphic fields; see his web site at: http://www.sheldrake.org/
- “About Palestinians” under “The Palestinian Community” on the Dalia Society web site (a Palestinian community foundation), at: http://www.dalia.ps/node/13
- A Treasury of Jewish Folklore, ed. Nathan Ausubel (New York: Crown, 1963).
- Edward de Bono, Six Thinking Hats (New York: Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, 1999 [revised and updated]).
- Dava Sobel, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (London: Fourth Estate Limited, 1998).
- David Grossman, “Books That Have Read Me,” in his Writing in the Dark: Essays on Literature and Politics (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008, pp.25-26).
- Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture (New York: Doubleday, 1976).
- Dacher Keltner, Born To Be Good: The science of a meaningful life (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2009).
- “Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s” by Gina Kolata, The New York Times-International Herald Tribune, August 12, 2010; retrieved at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html
- “Liz Coleman’s call to reinvent liberal arts education,” TED 2009, filmed Feb. 2009, posted June 2009, at: http://www.ted.com/talks/liz_coleman_s_call_to_reinvent_liberal_arts_education.html
—————
Note: No More Enemies draws on ideas from the
work of the above-listed authors, educators, scientists, and filmmakers,
and many more – but no endorsement whatever of the book by any of these
people is implied, suggested, or assumed.
hide references
Quotes from the stories
- A Day in Tel Aviv: I drove past the security guard’s little post without even noticing him. Reem and the others hollered to get my attention. I leaned closer at Reem’s urgent gesture and she whispered that Rawan had forgotten her ID card at home…
- Breastfeeding without borders:
We returned from abroad and I took my baby son to visit in Wadi Ara.
All the neighborhood women sat around exchanging stories, and when Amos
started fussing, they all wanted to watch while I nursed him. It felt
weird: like, let’s see how the Jewish woman does it. I hesitated. Then I
thought–well, why not!
- Kitchen thoughts in Wadi Ara, 1981: Time
after time I watch respectfully as a housewife reduces an onion or a
tomato to neat, almost surgically diced cubes—working over a bowl with
only her two hands and a good, sharp knife: in the air, without benefit
of cutting board or chopping block. I never tire of witnessing this
culinary sleight-of-hand. The perfect tiny squares of diced tomato
cascade gracefully into a clean plastic bowl sitting on the spotless
tiled floor between the artist’s knees, as I silently revise some of the
patronizing preconceptions I hadn’t been aware of harboring.
- What mattresses say: I
remember looking at the stack of a dozen or so mattresses and thinking
that a culture like this, in which assuring a place to sleep for every
visiting relative is a leading priority in the purchase of home
furnishings, is a culture I could respect and admire. The close family
connection, the unbreakable family solidarity, and the generous
hospitality: all were evident in the emblematic stack of mattresses
piled on a platform in a corner, ready for the long-awaited,
long-dreamed-of family reunions.
- Seeing Ramzia happy makes me happy: The
(Islamic) Umm al Fahm municipality opened a high school for gifted
students in time for Ramzia’s children to attend it. Her middle daughter
Nura is smart, strong, assertive and determined, like her mom. “I’m a
feminist,” she will tell you, grinning, and she seems to feel that
nothing further is required to explain herself.
- A day in Tel Aviv: The
Jewish salesman, Ofir, looked us up and down skeptically: one in
trousers and a short haircut, the other in a long dress and a Muslim
headscarf. He said, But are you really sisters? We answered
simultaneously, both laughing: Reem said Yes and I said No — a
quintessential East-West moment. (What is “real”? A birth certificate,
which after all is just a piece of paper? Or what you have in your
heart?)
hide quotes
Quotes from the essays
- We are all supposedly the enemies of someone. It’s not that we are bad people. It’s the paradigm. And we can redesign it. No More Enemies.
- Many people around the planet are ready to move beyond the enemies paradigm. You who are ready—speak up now. This is your hour.
- When we get the No More Enemies paradigm shift happening, we’ll get a little regime change on the side. Maybe more than a little.
- To revive your capacity for hope, start flexing your capacity to experience yourself as co-creating better and more sustainable solutions in this world—with partners you rescue from oblivion, by recycling enemies into comrades.
- Sanity could break out here any day now.
hide quotes
Chapter subheadings
Introduction
I) No More EnemiesIf you are afraid of “them” – read this book
Better than winning
The next big thing in human rights
See the pattern
Beyond accusation to inclusion
The emergent paradigm: partnership as the new “enemies”
Some big problems don’t get fixed; we just evolve beyond them
Inspired synthesizers, unite!
No enemies: no exceptions!
Conquest and context
Ideas we think with
On labeling people “racist”
On sustainability
Death
Things can be both simple and complicated
NME and terrorism
On testosterone
NME and the status of women
NME and aboriginal cultures
NME and the energy crisis
Sound bites and patterns
The enemy is us
A strange immunity
Shortcuts and identities
Frame-shifting
No More Enemies: The Rant
Icing on the cake
Alien viewpoint (not)
Team Earth!
Where’s my oxygen?!
The evolving human condition
Quantitative reasoning
Bridging the disconnect
Possibilities
This may be a long process
You don’t need a Pocahontas-and-John experience
Pot-luck supper
Think bigger; think transformational
Courage
Mate, predator, prey – or partner!
SET (Serial Endosymbiotic Theory) and NME
We can choose
It’s the paradigm, and the paradigm golems – not the people
Despair, perspective, hope
Patterning, un-patterning, re-patterning
Leaving Ur
Salvation, when it comes
A little humor can’t hurt either
Then, there is no more enemy
hide headingsII) In Israel and Palestine
The thrill of it all
What’s really going on here?
Hostages to the old paradigm
Comfort from inside the cage
Gotta have a vision beyond sanctions
Same idea, different timetable
Calendars and diversity
Things I have done a thousand-and-one times with Arab Muslims
The enemy within
On faith and coercion
So long, thugs!
If I were Herzl, I’d be smarter than Herzl
What, the Greeks too?
Kill a Turk and rest / Another Jew dead
Cousins
Time’s up!
Towards intelligent redesign
Parallel sovereignty: why not?
Yet another child with a gun
Standard terminology department
Demonizing people may feel good, but it’s dumb
Toward a polychromatic future
The fantasy of finality
Reframing sumud
A translator’s moment
The Einstein-Goldstein fallacy
Only pluralism can run a country today
Reading Thich Nhat Hanh in Jerusalem
I don’t believe in sides anymore
When a dream crumbles
Don’t chop up the baby
The obstacle is the opportunity
Murder/suicide
Change is urgent
Flowing with change (or not)
Partnership is the new affinity group
Peaceful resistance: scary!
Regime change
Flashback: another conference on equality
Symmetries and asymmetries
From Isaiah to Thich Nhat Hanh
Deep listening
hide headingsIII) Stories of living behind the lines
A note about Part III
All are welcome
Haunted
The four-ton hummus
The doctors were wrong
Shishbarak
Wadi Ara: the skirt
Yaara goes to first grade
What mattresses say
Tibah was a special baby
Seeing Ramzia happy makes me happy
Reem’s road accident
Parenting lessons
Breastfeeding without borders
Tibah is gone
A good-looking suit
The universe gives a boost
Reem and Ra’ed have more children
Being Reem’s Shabbos Goy
Fear of “them”
Ali goes to an experimental preschool
I wonder
Kitchen thoughts in Wadi Ara, 1981
More about Ra’ed
Alqaryah, a quiet backwater
Rawan knows what she wants
A Day in Tel Aviv
Andie has her baby
Yaara turns seven
Our little multicultural enclave
More on our neighborhood
Your money or your car
Central Bus Station, Jerusalem
Life in Alqaryah: snap, crackle and sizzle
Rawan’s betrothal
hide headingsIV) Reader’s toolbox
Dear reader: Accept this invitation!
Find a little red wagon
Recast your designated enemies
Refuse to be anyone’s enemy yourself
Reach for the wisdom of displacement
Be a conscientious objector to the enemies paradigm
Audit your dream
Use your cradle-to-cradle awareness
Look out for two common traps
Try contextualizing the context
Rehabilitate a death industry magnate
Find a good slogan
Watch out for the unintended consequences
Take seven steps toward the new orientation
Be a NME early adopter
See through the corporate mask to the people
Become a keyboard alchemist for NME
Make a Hooray-Hooray stick
Look in the mirror
Beware the dark attractions
Memorize the twelve words
Help a clergyperson today
Decommission just one enemies relationship today
Give something back
Remind yourself: They are not obstacles
After you follow the money, lead the money!
Consult your body: honor your opposite
Be like trees
Remember it’s all for the children
Don’t forget Hooray-Hooray
Let’s stop kicking ourselves
Reach out across the great interdisciplinary void
Find your angle on NME
Forgive someone
Retire the label
Reality check: use reversal
The basic reset: check it out
Trust the process
Partner with all fellow stakeholders
Consider the patriot paradox
Work smarter, when you can
Find your bridge (I): Madaa Silwan
Find your bridge (II): Artsbridge
Find your bridge (III): Compassionate Listening
Find your bridge (IV): Identities in Dialogue
Find your bridge (V): Community-based dialogue
Find your bridge (VI): Groups that build and protest together
Be a NME futurist
Join God’s little repertory company
You can help: Toward a unified theory of NME
Reinvent your myths
Ponder this question
When dreams collide, think bigger
Forget spiritual
Ask me why I chose this title
To shift reality, shift your focus
Find the third (or fourth or fifth) way
Work from a NME main menu
How big is your paradigm shift?
Look for pioneering partnership combos
Create your template for a No More Enemies workshop
View NME as a game of reversal
Practice zooming out
Re-envision patriotism in a NME mode
Don’t tell me we can’t do without ¬ëem
Try a metaphor upgrade
Take the leap
Tell them you won’t wear that hat
End the day with one less enemy today
There are no enemies, Dave
hide headingsAfterword: On being the fulcrum
hide headings