Ideas to promote peace or help bring balance to violence, hostility, fighting, bombings and shootings

ImageJay Leave a comment

A good action movie or video game is fun, exciting and easily marketable, where as peace is not so exciting, maybe even dull and boring, and not marketable.  I, like anyone else, like a good action movie and even a good video game where the object is to destroy my opponent.  And that’s OK for the average person; because, the average human being, typically has a healthy balance of peace vs violence in their world, that they don’t even think about whether, or not they can afford to be a part of the bi-product pollutant in their entertainment world.  Just like we don’t even think about the carbon we put in our physical world when we drive a car. Etc.

 

Yet, we all deserve to understand that if we don’t keep a healthy balance of peace in our own world, we risk becoming out of balance with peace, much similar to the way carbon is out of balance in our physical environment. 

Therefore, just as we are trying to restore our physical environment to a healthy balance of carbon, we deserve to recognize that our entertainment environment deserves a similar approach.

 

Perhaps we deserve to approach violence, hostility, war, fighting, etc with some kind of accounting approach.  So, violence, aggression, fighting and war would be expenses and peace, compassion, respect for others and self respect, etc would be assets.  If someone does not have enough assets in their emotional account, they may not be able to afford violence, hostility aggression, fighting and war, etc.  And/or even help them determine if it would be healthy for them to own a gun. This is similar to someone knowing their financial credit score to help them determine if they can afford to buy a house.  Therefore, the terms that fit this description could be called: Peace Credit Score, Peace Credit Rating or even Peace Credit Report.

 

Also, we deserve to pressure video game and movie producers, as well as gun manufacturers into recognizing the need to dedicate some funds for the purpose of helping people who lack a healthy balance of peace in their world.  This would be similar to companies recognizing the importance of dedicating wetlands and forests for carbon credits.  This would simply be termed “Peace Credits” or “Compassion Credits” similar to “Carbon Credits”

Also, perhaps we could create some kind of formal recognition for someone to give to a friend, relative, neighbor, associate or even perhaps a former enemy for being peaceful.  We could call this a Neighbor Peace Prize.  It could be a lapel pin or a framed certificate.

Lastly, I believe we deserve to create a peace pledge which people can learn and repeat when they say the pledge of allegiance to our US flag; however, this peace pledge could be universal which could be repeated in schools around the world.

I have been working on a peace pledge and would like suggestions and ideas for improving it.  The following is my work-in progress of a peace pledge:

 

Peace begins with me.

I will cultivate, develop, nurture, encourage, support, and respect peace, even when peace seems dull, boring, not exciting or fun.  I pledge to make peace a part of my life; perhaps even get excited about peace in our world. I will create peace where ever and whenever I can.  I will create and show admiration for peace.  Peace deserves to be an asset in my life to share with others.

I Pledge harmony with all people; not necessarily perfect harmony.

Assets allow us to afford fun, exciting liabilities.

ImageJay Leave a comment

For a few years I have been starting a think-tank called Arm-Chair Institute dedicated to new, different and better ways to counter aggression, hostility, violence, war and fighting.

Our mission is to have people look at whether they can afford violence in their life. The key word, “afford,” leads to using an accounting approach, with assets and liabilities.

Assets include appreciation, community engagement, forgiveness, gratitude, harmony, neighborliness, peace, tranquility, self respect and respect for others.

Liabilities include aggression, battle, fighting, hostility, violence and war.

Actually the liabilities are what seem to draw peoples attention to most stories, movies,video games, sporting events and even, often, sermons.. 

Its our humanness that calls the liabilities fun, exciting thus bring the marketability to many things we do.


The average individual has a healthy amount of assets in their livelihood and their world. Most people have created ways to replenish those assets on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis through music, worship, reading, sharing stories and even enjoying and sharing myths. The average healthy person also respects other people’s stories and myths.  Having a healthy balance of assets enables people to enjoy some liabilities without creating unhealthy, embarrassing or dangerous situations they may later regret.

Some people do not have enough healthy assets and cannot afford to engage in forms of entertainment that involve aggression, hostility and violence without the risk of confusing their real world with their virtual world. This is happening today, when people have not maintained or never had a balance.

When they encounter a conflict in their real world, the only thing they know is to destroy their opponent, because that’s what they’ve learned in their virtual world of video games, movies and even in the name of religion.

Those who make monetary gains from the excitement and marketability of liabilities need to recognize the necessity to give back and help maintain the emotional health of people and communities, who make up their customer base.

We invite producers of violent movies, video games, guns and even sports leagues to take responsibility. We encourage religions, if they use words like battle, fighting and war in reference to evil, Satan or anything in the name of their god, to take responsibility, too.

 

Peace Credit Rate Helps Budget Violence in Entertainment

Jay Leave a comment

I want to speak on radio and TV shows, at civic clubs, churches and businesses about the need to try different approaches to the violence in our local communities. For over two years, since the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut shootings, I have given a lot of thought to how we might think outside the box concerning gun control and violence in our communities.

We deserve to understand that violence in our communities is affected by the violence we enjoy in our entertainment environment. I suggest that the amount of violence we partake of in entertainment, needs to be budgeted with how much peace we have in our lives. We can all admit that a good action movie or video game (with some violence) is fun, exciting and marketable. It’s my experience that peace is not exciting , and marketable; it’s dull and boring. That being said, the average person typically has a healthy balance of peace vs violence in their environment and can handle some violence. Yet, some people lack a healthy balance of peace in their life, and when they are exposed to violence, they highly jeopardize their ability to make healthy choices when they encounter conflict situations in their real world.

I have created a peace credit system to help us budget how much violence debt we can afford in our entertainment, just like financial credit scores that helps us budget how much financial debt we can afford.

Just as carbon is an out-of-balance bi-product pollutant in our physical environment, we can make the argument that violence is an out-of-balance bi-product pollutant of our entertainment environment.

I am not suggesting or judging that violence in entertainment is bad, neither am I suggesting or judging that the manufacturing, driving cars or anything else we do that contributes to carbon in our environment is bad; it just is what it is. Nonetheless, we need to keep both violence in our entertainment environment and carbon in our physical environment, in better balance.

I suggest that we invite producers of violent movies and video games to participate in helping to fund a peace credits fund that would help maintain a balance of peace in peoples’ entertainment environment, much like companies are designating wetlands and forests as carbon credits to help reverse the imbalance of carbon in our physical environment. I invite gun manufacturers and even sports organizations to join in these efforts. Gun producers could set up peace credits funds. Sports organization would put some of the fines that are issued to the players and teams into this “Peace Credit Fund”

Then people who recognize someone as not having a healthy balance of peace in their lives could be nominated to receive some of this money to pay help finance whatever is determined by a committee to help these people create peace in their personal lives.

In summary, my peace credit project has two parts:

Part one involves a peace credit score just like a financial credit score to help people budget their own peace/violence budget.

Part two involves setting up peace credits funds to help reverse the imbalance of violence that is the bi-product pollutant in our entertainment environment.

I am also seeking philathropic benefactors to help start the funding.

Please invite me to speak about these ideas.      My contact information is:

webpage:    ArmChairInstitute.com

email:         newthoughtJ@yahoo.com

phone:        509-276-0415

Thank you, sincerely, Jay Larsen

Copyright Dec. 2014: The terms “Peace Credit” “Peace Credit Rate, Score and Report” are intellectual property of Jay Larsen; nevertheless, using those terms is encouraged as long as ArmChairInstitute.com is also mentioned.

Help me promote my “Peace Credits Rating and Reporting” ideas.

Jay Leave a comment

Hello, my name is Jay Larsen,

I am seeking to partner with anyone to help me promote some concepts I have been evolving since the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut shootings, I have researched and given a lot of thought to how we might think outside the box concerning gun control and violence vs peace in our environment. We need to try something different, rather than doing the same things we’ve been trying, while still thinking we’ll get a different result.

A good action movie or video game is fun, exciting and easily marketable, whereas peace is not so exciting, maybe even dull and boring, and not as marketable. Many people enjoy a good action movie and even a good video game where the object is to destroy the opponent. That’s OK for the average person; because, the average person typically has a healthy balance of peace vs violence in their world and can handle the imbalance. Yet, if someone is exposed to too much violence, they possibly jeopardize that healthy, peace vs violence balance.

I have what I call Peace Credits Rate, which are much similar to a financial credit score that helps people determine how much debt they can afford. So, a peace credit rate helps people determine how much violence they can afford in their entertainment environment of movies and games.

Also, speaking of entertainment environment, I am also promoting the idea that just as carbon is an out-of-balance bi-product pollutant of our physical environment world, violence is an out-of-balance bi-product pollutant of our entertainment environment, because of how I described it in the second paragraph of this message. So, I’m trying to invite producers of violent movies and video games to participate in helping to fund a peace credits fund that would help reverse any imbalance of violence in peoples’ entertainment environment. This is much like companies are doing with wetlands and forests to help reverse the imbalance of carbon in our physical environment. I also invite gun manufacturers and sports organizations to join in this effort. Gun manufactures could participate by setting up a peace credits fund and sports organizations could create a fund so that when a fight breaks out at a sporting event, some of the money from fines issued to the players and teams could go to this “Peace Credits Fund” Then this money would be used for people who recognize someone as not having a healthy balance of peace in their lives could be helped to bring peace back into their world, before they go and shoot someone. If you like these ideas, I would love to partner with you in getting this message out to people.

My contact information is:

webpage: ArmChairInstitute.com

email: newthoughtJ@yahoo.com

phone: 509-276-0415

Thank you, sincerely, Jay Larsen

Copyright Dec. 2014: The term “Peace Credit Rate” “Peace Credit Score and Peace Credit Report” are intellectual property of Jay Larsen and are encouraged to be used as long as ArmChairInstitute.com is also mentioned.

PS: Just a quick world about how I came up with Arm Chair Institute; I have always been a thinker and years ago, I realized I was like the guy sitting on the couch watching football, referred to as the armchair quarterback, Well, I saw myself as an armchair philosopher. So, there you have it. Thank again.

The Brawl at the Miami Beach Bowl game needs a Peace Credits Fine

Jay Leave a comment

So both teams who play in the Miami Beach bowl Game need to be fined and some of that fine money needs to go a “Peace Credits” fund set up by the Arm-Chair Institute. This money will be used to promote a more balanced peaceful world. We will do this by educating people that violence has become a bi-product pollutant of our entertainment culture just as carbon has become a bi-product pollutant of our physical world. So, just as carbon is out of balance in our physical environment, violence is out of balance in our entertainment environment. The inverse of that is to say that peace out of balance in our entertainment environment, which causes those who do not have a healthy balance of peace to be able to properly handle conflict in their life.

Therefore, let’s get BYU and Memphis to be the first schools to contribute to this “Peace Credits” fund and start to reverse this peace imbalance in our worlds. Thank you, sincerely, Jay Larsen, Chairman of the Arm-Chair Institute.

Promote a balance of peace in your own world

Jay Leave a comment

I heard on NPR this morning that the truce, one hundred years ago, as soon as the leaders on both sides found out about the truce, they halted it and made everyone get back in the trenches and resume killing each other.  Sometimes, I think the world would be better off if we did not have narcissistic, egoistic leaders.  Most people just want to live and get along together.    Promote a balance of peace in your own world by taking the questionnaire offered on ArmChairInstitute.com  Visit armchairinstitute.com and support us.  Thank you and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Ways To Get Involved in the efforts to celebrate the Christmas Truce

I love the TV series called Moms

Jay Leave a comment

The TV series, Moms,  the show depicts three women as mother daughter, grand daughter, struggling to get their lives together after struggling with alcohol and being in some abusive relationships.  I really see these women as being very genuine and honest in a fun light-hearted way.  To me, this show represents what true peace is all about.  I love it; thank you very much.

I just finished listening to Alternative Radio

Jay Leave a comment

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Vandana Shiva on Alternative Radio talk about Radical Compassion.  I invite people to visit alternativeradio.org  I’m not sure if I completely understood her message about intellectual property and in trying to protect  what I have thought about, I am probably violating what she is saying; but I have to do something.  So here I am sharing my message hoping people will get excited about it.  Please support my effort of trying to get people to take a different look at how we are contributing to the imbalance of peace in our worlds.