Guest post by Timothy L. Fort, PhD, JD, Eveleigh Professor of Business Ethics, and Professor of Business Law & Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
While it is true that governments negotiate peace treaties and maintain balances of power that relate to issues of war and peace, peacebuilding may also result from the cultural foundations that provide the opportunity to draw people together. Indeed, some peace scholars have argued that long-standing peace comes not from dramatic political moments, but from incremental changes of everyday practices that lead to more peaceable interchanges among people of different nationalities, races, ethnic groups, genders, religions, and other characterizations that otherwise might divide people from one another.
In his book The Better Angels of our Nature, Steven Pinker argues that (1) human society is actually more peaceful now than at any time in history and (2) that the ways to foster peace include governmental peace-making and multinational governance structures, yes, but also more subtle factors, such as “gentle commerce” and the arts, especially satire.
His first proposition has generated controversy. Some argue that it certainly seems that the world is quite violent and full of warfare, though that may be the result of the ease of communication informing of us of what was impossible to convey centuries ago. Methodological arguments challenge the extent to which statistics about “war” and “violence” are conflated, or at least not differentiated. Indeed, others have argued that the current structure of political economies make war more, rather than less, likely.
In my 2015 Stanford University Press book The Diplomat in the Corner Office: Corporate Foreign Policy, I analyzed this debate and drew the conclusion that while there was disagreement of what promoted or detracted from peace historically, there was common ground along the lines of recognizing the power of many different institutions and factors to contribute to peace in the future. Among those are a kind of business that treats employees and other stakeholders fairly, follows the law, and is environmentally and socially respectful. As a professor of business ethics, I would make the assertion that these attributes demonstrate that not only might corporate responsibility be a good practice, it might also lessen violence, turning Pinker’s general notion of “gentle commerce” into a specific practice of business. Also among the practices that might foster peace are the artistic ways in which we find common ground, relate to each other, and find each other a sense of humanity – including humility (which satire aims at) – in the work each of us do. In other words, peace is too important to be left to government leaders; it can also be the work of each of us.
This series presents three films that demonstrate how some of these practices, factors, and institutions, which make up our daily lives, might provide insight as to how we can be peacebuilders. Music, sports, business, religion, law, and film itself can provide foundations for peace, thereby making governments’ work to find peaceful solutions to issues more possible and creating a foundation for constructive relationships.
Music may well be the universal language, not because we can come to an agreement that Beethoven is more peaceful than Eminem, but because we all experience music. We may even find some common attributes, such as rhythm, tempo, and dynamics, that we commonly share. Music can unite people as a common group (think of the fight song of a college), though such unifying songs often unify against a “them” in order to create an “us.”
More deeply, we also may find certain styles and tempos might trigger hormonal releases that are similar to the kinds of hormones released when we observe a gentle, peaceful scene or experience a violent occurrence.
In short, music may well have the ability to bring people together and to find their common humanity and interests. And, if there is one challenger to music as being a universal language, it would seem that that would be sports, which is also universally shared.
Sports can also share an “us vs them” model. To be sure, there are times when fans can take a game so seriously so as to demonize the opponent. That phenomena is worth dwelling on for a moment because all of the factors identified in this film series have an ambivalence to them. Music can be used for ill or for good. The same is true of business, film, law, and religion. This suggests that these institutions and cultural artifacts do require a normative aim in order to orient them toward peace. We do have – and studies of peace itself supplies – criteria of how sports (and music, business, etc.) can contribute towards peace as opposed to violence. That would include criticizing fan (or player and coach) conduct that demonizes or dehumanizes an opponent.
Having recognized this ambivalence, sports can also serve as the opportunity for common ground. Ideally, that is what the Olympics are about as well as a multitude of other competitions. Moreover, there is within sports itself a behavior that stresses this recognition of the common humanity of even a bitter opponent: sportsmanship. An NFL player who took one of my classes years ago wept when he read the story of a women’s college softball player. The player hit the ball over the fence, but in rounding first base, she fell and broke her ankle. Under the rules of the game, her teammates could not carry her around the bases, but then the opposing side offered to carry her. The umpire had to admit that there was no rule against an opponent carrying a player from the other side around the bases to complete the home run. This is sportsmanship at its finest and my NFL student, an All-Pro athlete, wrote a paper of how it demonstrated the epitome of sports.
This notion of finding practices and institutions that foster peace can be extended. Film, as well as literature, can change the way people think through a well-told story at a particular time and place. Nobel Prize-winning economists, such as F.A. Hayek, saw that trade based on virtues could lead to an expanding circle of trustworthy relationships that could foster peace itself. Many studies demonstrate that countries following rule of law principles tend to be less violent than those that do not. Scott Appleby, former Executive Director of the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, wrote an award-winning book, The Ambivalence of the Sacred, which showed that religion can be a force for division and violence, but it can also be a force for peace and humanitarianism.
Thus, the aim of this film series is to explore how these cultural factors may contribute to peace. This three-film series also connects to other activities within Indiana University, such as the May 2018 Music, Business, and Peace summit, the Wells Library’s showing of a fourth film, Joyeux Noël, and the ongoing activities of the Kelley School’s International Institute of Business. Academic papers arising out of these activities will be published by the Indiana Law Journal at the Mauer School of Law.
The first film, Richard Attenborough’s iconic movie Gandhi, narrates the history of Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance to British rule of India, leading to independence and thereafter wrestling with animosity between India and Pakistan. The film recognizes many of the items mentioned above: religion, law, trade, and film itself. It sets a foundation for the kinds of forces that can contribute to peace.
The second film, As One, is particularly timely with the attention given to North Korea over the past few years as well as being screened just before the start of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Overcoming decades of hostility and war, North and South Korea unite to form a unified women’s table tennis team to compete in an Asian tournament. Though the players initially find it impossible to work together as a team, they overcome their differences in spite of multiple obstacles to achieve their goal.
The third film, Sweet Dreams, is a documentary. In post-genocide Rwanda, women from the rival Hutu and Tutsi tribes form a drumming troupe as a way to overcome their differences and find ways to work together. Their positive experience further inspires them to form the country’s first ice cream business. Gender equity has been shown to also be a key factor in peace-building and will be central to this film as well as business and music.
A fourth film, Joyeux Noël, will be shown at the Wells Library and serves as a summary of the film series. This feature film captures the World War I “Christmas Truce” where soldiers from Scotland, Germany, and France came out of their trenches to play soccer, sing, trade, and religiously celebrate Christmas. Interestingly, the soldiers also broke their governments’ “law” by emphasizing their bonds and humanity over their duty to kill, bringing an interesting aspect to the discussion of rule of law.
The themes of this series are, of course, common to all of us. One could – and should – think about these themes and ideas anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world. It is of particular interest, I believe, here at Indiana University because IU is so strong in issues of music, business, film, sports, law and other cultural supports of peace. My hope is that this series, along with an emerging interdisciplinary program on music, business, and peace, provides an interesting point of conversation here at IU.
The Cultural Foundations for Peace series begins on January 28 with Gandhi. As One will be shown on February 4 and Sweet Dreams will be shown on February 18.
The screening for Joyeux Noël will take place on March 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the IU Moving Image Archive Screening Room in the Herman B Wells Library. The screening is free, but reservations are required and can be made here.
This series is sponsored by the Department of Business Law and Ethics, the Institute for Korean Studies, and the IU Cinema.
Timothy L. Fort holds the Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics and is Professor of Business Law & Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He received his BA and MA from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD and JD from Northwestern University. Fort has written nearly eighty articles and eleven books, two of which have won the Best Book Award from the Academy of Management for Social Issues, including his Stanford-published The Diplomat in the Corner Office (2016). Stanford will publish his newest book, The Sincerity Edge, in Fall 2017, which he co-authored with Countess Alexandra of Fredriksborg (Denmark). He has won twelve research awards from three different academic associations, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Society for Business Ethics, and the Academy of Management, and has served on the editorial boards of the flagship journals of each of these associations.