Vision

Just 400 years ago, scholars were persecuted for discovering new knowledge and sharing it with their fellow men. The established power structure felt particularly threatened by findings in the fields of natural medicine and astronomy. Established for this purpose, the Inquisition concentrated on these people, tortured and burnt many of them at the stake  - an expression of the primitiveness inherent in violence.

Persecuted by the Inquisition, Galileo Galilei, for example, had to publicly retract his acquired knowledge (“Eppur si muove” - “and still it moves”); Giordano Bruno’s scientific findings cost him his life and he was burnt at the stake just like the many women accused of witchcraft.

The topics in question were only concerned with using herbs for healing purposes or the infinity of the cosmos, and with the sun not the earth being at the centre of our solar system. Today, this is all common knowledge and can be found in schoolbooks. The dissemination of knowledge and understanding could not be stopped.

In our times, people are fortunately no longer burnt at the stake for the discovery of knowledge. At least in Europe we have advanced from this manner of dealing with knowledge and practising violence in the form of burnings at the stake. Despite this, important findings are still difficult to communicate, not only to the general public but also to those who see their advantage in the existing conditions and in the use of violence.

This gives rise to the question as to whether we will have to wait another 400 years before it is clear to everyone that “violence” harms both body and soul, and that we could manage very well without it

in the upbringing of children, in our dealings with one another and also at a political level.

We are a community of people. Nobody can survive totally alone but is dependent on a mutually fair exchange of services and assistance, and more even

on love, mutual respect and a certain form of tolerance between people.

When will everybody use their minds and their creativity

to solve conflicts peaceably …